deformity chauvinism

Another distressed reader, Ed Strydevog, writes in:

Dear Aunt Teddy, 

I am sorry to say that a recent quote from Guillermo del Toro has alarmed me. Here it is: 

The first thing you love is monsters. I don't like psycho killers with potato peelers; I'm a monster guy or a creature guy. I love the creature and the creation of that. I love universal monsters*, I love freaks, and I love everything that is deformed because that is beautiful for me. I cultivate my body shape through that principle. Perfection is impossible, imperfection we can aspire to achieve, and I think monsters do that beautifully... 

Phil Nugent finds this sentiment great, but to me it is troublesome. It's not the general principle of finding deformed things beautiful which riles me - that's great and possibly even necessary. It's not even with the idea of artistic expression through beautiful deformed monsters: that's great too. The problem I have is that there are many non-physical deformities, like smooth-bastardness or love-sickness, which can be interesting and beautiful but for one reason or another are hard to show convincingly in monsters, and which del Toro seems to belittle.  

My unhappy feeling is that Mr. del Toro is expressing deformity chauvinism, the awful view that physically unusual monsters are the only show in town when it comes to beautiful deformity. Physically deformed eye-handed droopy-skinned monsters good, mentally deformed psycho-killers with potato peelers bad. Needless to say, deformity chauvinism is a view that sits most ill alongside del Toro's further claim to 'love everything that is deformed', and one I cannot share. 

I write to you now proposing a more through-going way of admiring deformity. Henceforth, let us not privilege the physical. Let us instead embrace the sublter ways of seeming weird, such as dressing un-deformedly so as better to be able to display your mental disfigurement. Let monsters be monsters and psychos be psychos, each with their own contorted, unique and beautiful way of being imperfect. Let it never again be said that a potato peeler is no deformity! 

If you would only lend my cause the boon of internet promotion which you lately lent to vibes fm, the poor beautiful psychos might just stand a a chance. 

Yours in hope,
Ed Strydevog 

My reply

Ed, you have expressed your heartfelt view so cogently and passionately that I have little to add. Here, though, is a video:  

 

A Correction: some readers may have taken from my previous agony column, which included phrases like 'radio 4 in the afternoon is ... a pile of balls', the mistaken impression that radio 4 was not a good channel to listen to in the afternoon. I would like to take this opportunity to correct this misinterpretation: what I meant to say was that radio 4 in the afternoon is actually sometimes quite good because it has some interesting documentaries. Many thanks to reader Olive Grymes for pointing out this unfortunate ambiguity.