Of Scars and Scales: Exploring Gender, Power, and Violence in The Shape of Water

This paper aims to study the intersection of the systemic and layered nature of violence in Guillermo del Toro’s film The Shape of Water. Focusing on the violence endured female protagonists Eliza and Zelda, and the amphibian man whose non-binary identity facilitates an extended study beyond the binary, incorporating the targeting of bodies that defy heteronormative, patriarchal and racial boundaries. Grounded in a Beauvoiran understanding of the other, the paper unpacks how the aforementioned characters become the victims of patriarchal and state sanctioned violence respectively. The analysis of the violence is twofold, where the causal standpoint is analyzed using Patricia Hill Collins’ Matrix of Domination, and from the endured angle is understood utilizing Dorothy Smith’s Standpoint Theory in order to study the lived experiences of the characters.

Through the interdisciplinary lens, the study would shed light on the normalization of violence on those outside of the social binary construct revealing the gendered, racial and anthropocentric network of oppression. The movie calls to action the onlookers' empathy and a critical analysis of one's perception itself. Overall, the research intends to prompt critical engagement with gender-based violence and pervasive dynamics that help sustain it to analyze violence beyond the traditional boundaries thus bringing to light the latent evils of power, patriarchy and constructed knowledge.

Keywords: gender-based violence, patriarchy, non-binary identity, matrix of domination, standpoint theory, The Shape of Water, Speciesism