The SCUM of Daddy's Girls

Monstrous Cuteness as Gender Resistance in Bunny

Abstract

This paper explores monstrous cuteness as a form of gender resistance for women in the novel Bunny by Mona Awad. Awad introduces a girl clique of “Bunnies” performing behaviors and rituals that are simultaneously innocent and perverse. Their monstrous cuteness, in its ambiguity and intimacy, creates a space for genderqueering and women-identification. Crucially, it is circumscribed within their feminine circle, making possible a heterotopia for igniting creative liberation. Men are not only rendered disposable but vehicles for women’s imagination. Nonetheless, Bunny questions whether monstrous cuteness’ exclusivity will be its downfall, being only accessible to a privileged class of women who can weaponize their perceived loveliness.