My Global Cultures MA research: Gothic subversion, social haunting and radical possibility in popular media

Few fictional characters wield the cultural staying power of Morticia Addams – ethereal, devoted and effortlessly subversive, she has captivated audiences for nearly a century. From Charles Addams’ 1938 cartoons to Netflix’s 2022 series Wednesday, Morticia has remained a deeply transgressive figure who unravels social fictions through paradox: the loving mother and the unapologetically erotic spouse, the domestic goddess and the social deviant. She has endured through various media incarnations and has bewitched audiences for generations, which invites us to ask: why does Morticia Addams continue to resonate so profoundly, and what does her existence reveal about the power of Gothic popular media to confront and dismantle our cultural anxieties?

To unravel these questions, the Gothic critique must first be distinguished from the gothic aesthetic. Whereas the aesthetic can be understood as the visual and thematic style (e.g., darkness and monsters), the critique is an approach that challenges dominant ideologies and reveals the tensions underlying social norms. This critique employs metaphorical darkness to invert conventional understandings of morality, power and normalcy and expose the ways in which oppressive structures persist. Though no individual is credited with coining the term ‘Gothic critique,’ multiple scholars have developed and shaped the concept, such as Fred Botting (Gothic, 1996), Jerrold E. Hogle (The Cambridge Companion to Gothic Fiction, 2002) and Catherine Spooner (Contemporary Gothic, 2006).

This gothic/Gothic distinction means an aesthetically gothic matriarch may look like a witch, but a Gothic matriarch shows the world that the witch is good, and, moreover, that the conventionally normal may actually be bad. Morticia’s seductive black dress, luminescent pallor and decaying mansion exude the gothic aesthetic, but her healthy family dynamic, compassion for those different from herself and resilience in the face of defeat scream Gothic critique. This lens reveals how Morticia inhabits traditional roles but subverts their expectations to present a paradox – she is elegant and refined yet refuses to be self-sacrificing and delights in the darkness. This paradox undermines conventional stereotypes, compelling audiences to question what is truly ‘monstrous’ – Morticia and her family, or the rigid social structures they defy?

Above: Morticia and Gomez grow increasingly erotic in the 1991 film The Addams Family as they outbid each other at a charity auction for their children’s school, oblivious to the discomfort this causes the ‘normal’ people in attendance.

Central to Gothic critique is the concept of social haunting, coined by Avery Gordon to explain how the ‘ghosts’ of past cultural traumas and systemic injustices linger in contemporary society, affecting individual and collective experiences even when they go unrecognised (Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination, 1997). This lens exposes Morticia as a haunting figure that reminds us of the oppressive family and gender norms that continue to dictate women’s lives: she unsettles the idealised version of the ‘perfect’ housewife and mother not out of mere defiance but to confront the contradictions and constraints embedded in society. Morticia resurfaces time and again because these social control mechanisms continue to stifle us, and she continues to resonate across generations because audiences still desire to be freed from their chains.

The Western Woman and Family

Morticia may appear to embody traditional motherhood: she is wealthy, heterosexually married and devoted to her family. Yet, she upends every expectation imposed upon the ‘ideal’ middle-class wife and mother. Where normative American family values have long positioned motherhood as an act of self-sacrifice, Morticia embraces both her domestic role and her personal desires without compromise. She is not burdened by motherhood but revels in it while maintaining an intense, deeply passionate relationship with her husband Gomez – a man who worships the ground she walks on and would sacrifice all to make her happy. Morticia’s subversion is quiet but radical – she does not reject traditional roles outright but inhabits them on her own terms, exposing their artificial constraints while embodying the Otherness conventional media demonises.

I explored Morticia for the MA Global Cultures module, Gender and Globalisation: Transhistorical and Transcultural Approaches, which examines how gender ideologies are historically unstable and co-constructed with broader economic and social systems across time and place. Unpacking her paradoxical persona through Judith Butler’s theory of performativity revealed how Morticia mirrors gendered performances but distorts them – she is both a ‘proper’ wife and mother, but a glaring disruption of what those roles are meant to signify. Morticia embodies femininity to an exaggerated degree while rejecting its subjugating expectations, inverting cultural stereotypes of female responsibility, agency and autonomy. For example, when Morticia feels her own identity slip away after giving birth to their third child, she and Gomez hire a nanny rather than accept this as an experience common to many mothers (Addams Family Values, 1993). This resolution challenges stereotypical stories in which the woman tends to lose herself in caring for her family and her unsympathetic husband, breaking open normative expectations and showing the audience alternative possibilities beyond dominant cultural narratives.

Above: The children bicker as Morticia and Gomez’s share an intimate moment and reflect on her role as a ‘modern woman.’

From Comics to Monster-Coms, the Transgressive ‘Other’

The American Great Depression of 1929-1941 was a time of economic devastation, growing religious diversity and escalating anti-immigrant sentiments. Against this backdrop, Charles Addams published a single panel comic in The New Yorker in 1938 featuring yet-unnamed Morticia and her butler Lurch. Over the next fifty years, Addams expanded this family with children Wednesday and Pugsley, Uncle Fester and Grandma – before finally introducing Gomez. These social tensions were flaring up again by the 1960s with anti-war and civil rights activism, providing a rich scene of cultural negotiation in which the Addamses made their television debut.

Television ‘monster-coms’ like The Munsters (1964-1965) and The Addams Family (1964-1966) offered audiences a playful but pointed critique of American conformity. However, while these shows suggested that difference was not inherently dangerous, they typically reinforced conventional norms beneath their gothic aesthetics. The Addams Family did something different though, as Carolyn Jones’ Morticia quietly subverted the housewife trope while presenting an alternative family that was just as loving, stable and functional as its traditional counterparts. She was elegant, affectionate and domestic, yet her interests – gardening with dead plants, feeding carnivorous flowers and delighting in the macabre – suggested an alternative vision of womanhood that showed society’s rigid norms were the true monster.

Above: Included in the 2007 box set release of the 1960’s television show, this mini documentary explored the groundbreaking social transgressions of The Addams Family with particular attention to Morticia.

This Morticia incarnation is not intrinsically distinct from her other portrayals, but her sitcom parallel with Lily Munster offers an interesting window into normative gothic versus subversive Gothic performances. This Morticia refuses to be meek or subservient as she engages in a life of deep mutual respect and erotic playfulness – at odds with the restrained gender roles of the era as performed by Lily, matriarch of The Munsters. Though both women are nurturing, spooky housewives, Lily bows to her husband’s authority and prioritises domestic stability and social integration, projecting the standard, self-sacrificing motherly persona and ensuring her family doesn’t stray too far from ‘normal.’ Meanwhile, Morticia embraces pleasure, autonomy and intellectual pursuits rather than establish herself as the moral shepherd of her children or domestic caretaker of her husband. Her marriage is strikingly equal and erotic – opposing the sexless, duty-bound marriages of 1960s sitcoms – and she promotes independence and curiosity in her children rather than obedience.

Lily’s behaviours neutralise her Gothic potential into mere gothic appearance, applying a superficial veneer of Otherness while she otherwise adheres to ‘conventional’ family values. Conversely, Morticia’s behaviours embrace and amplify her Otherness and turn defiance into a source of power rather than shame. Though visually similar, these two performances have vastly different implications: weakly co-opted gothic aesthetics constrain Lily as an outsider desperate for acceptance by a society that deems her monstrous, whereas Morticia’s Gothic ideology empowers her to dismantle normative conventions, liberate individual autonomy and foster collective solidarity.

Erotic Power, Family Values and Social Liberation

Audre Lorde defines the erotic as a deeply feminine force that has been historically repressed in order to maintain patriarchal control (Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power, 2000), a force that Morticia embodies exquisitely. She wields her eroticism unapologetically, not as a tool for male pleasure but as a means of self-fulfilment and empowerment. Her passion for Gomez is not a performance for the male gaze – but a mutual exchange of power, a rejection of the idea that long-term relationships must be passionless, and a rebuke of the Puritanical roots of conservatism that continue to dominate Western culture today.

The early 1990s were a time of cultural backlash against third-wave feminism as conservative ‘family values’ rhetoric sought to reassert ‘traditional’ gender roles, but Anjelica Huston’s Morticia in the films The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993) mocks this regressive ideal. Morticia refuses to adhere to patriarchal notions of domesticity and feminine weakness and instead projects both sexuality and ambition – embodying Lorde’s reclamation of the erotic as a crucial act of resistance against oppression. For example, when a trusted friend steals the Addams’ family’s home and wealth, Morticia does not wait for rescue as Gomez spirals into an existential depression – she confronts the aggressors herself and destabilises their power through sexually charged reactions to their torture.

Above: Morticia’s eroticism destabilises her oppressors, motivates Gomez and inspires Uncle Fester, illustrating the power of the erotic to oppose injustices and influence others.

Morticia does not assume sole heroism though, as her Gothic is rooted in collective power, but by taking first charge she breaks Gomez out of his depths and inspires the complicit Uncle Fester to betray the oppressors and right their wrongs. This performance runs counter to stereotypical expectations of feminine hopelessness and fragility, narratives that reduce the erotic to pure sexual deviance and notions of individualistic resistance over collective solidarity. Furthermore, Morticia’s unyielding eroticism haunts the domineering conservative fear of women who refuse to be contained; her sexuality does not diminish her capacity to be a mother, a partner – or a radical defender. Illustrating the Gender and Globalisation module’s goal to understand how gendered identities materialise through historically and culturally specific practices, Morticia’s challenges to universal narratives are revealed as a powerful cultural uprising against hegemonic identities and women’s ongoing battle for self-definition. Far from silly and topical comics, shows or movies, Morticia emerges as a mirror of what we fear, what we want and who we want to become.

The Haunting Cultural Critique

Over the decades, Morticia has remained largely unchanged, a rare feat in popular culture. Her core attributes have persisted – unwavering love, disinterest in materialism, sensuality – while adapting to reflect contemporary anxieties. This is illustrated by Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Morticia in the Netflix series Wednesday (2022-ongoing), as she confronts themes of unresolved trauma and intergenerational struggle. Past violences continue to haunt her and Gomez’s present while her legacy now constrains their daughter Wednesday, who feels crushed by what is expected of her – or what she perceives to be expected – and what she truly wants. This series also shifts beyond social marginalisation to explore tensions within marginalised communities themselves, unravelling how the Other can be within our own communities and nonetheless crushed by them. The popularity of this show suggests audiences have a deepening capacity to interrogate the social world and its notions of belonging, a growing consciousness for invisible structures of oppression and a flourishing desire to understand those we find strange and those who share our strangeness.

Above: Morticia and Wednesday’s tense relationship is on display as the family delivers Wednesday to her new school, an institution in which Morticia’s memory still dominates.

Morticia’s Legacy: Radical Gothic Relationality

The Gender and Globalisation module enabled me to understand how the Gothic critique is deployed through popular media and how Morticia’s story intersects with broader histories of gender regulation, transhistorical discourse and ideological negotiation. Through this exploration, I realised that she challenges oppressive structures and conventions not because she is gothic but because she is Gothic, holding a mirror to society that reminds us that the so-called ‘monstrous’ are often just an absurd reflection of the ‘normal.’ Critically, this module gave me the framework to recognise that Morticia offers a blueprint for understanding, connecting and resisting – she challenges us to question the structures we take for granted and to embrace self-construction and social solidarity outside of imposed normative conventions. In a world where patriarchal expectations, capitalist pressures and cultural anxieties abound, Morticia stands as a reminder that alternative ways of living and loving are not only possible, but essential.

This project revealed how socially transformative Gothic popular media confronts injustices through hauntings – but unexpectedly uncovered how it mobilises renewal through hope and love. Though Morticia upends and dismantles norms through Gothic critique, she forges new pathways of self-identity and collective belonging through this love – love for her family, her neighbours, her oppressors and herself. This love is radical and it underwrites everything Morticia does and everything she is, but it wasn’t until I wrote this article that I realised its gravity – and then I could not find a theory that contained it. Thus, through Gender and Globalisation I unravelled Morticia, and through Morticia I constructed a theoretical framework that could untangle how the Gothic haunts us, repairs us and enables us to create a better future. In true Morticia fashion, she enabled me to dismantle the boundaries of the Gothic and envision Radical Gothic Relationality – a tool of cultural critique founded on an ethos of ethical resistance, love and community. As the Gothic ghost that persists, Morticia continues to show us what we could have, and who we could become, if we just embrace the darkness and move forward with love.

About Éile Rasmussen

Éile Rasmussen is a philosopher of cultural power, affective relationality and ideological transformation. She is currently pursing the MA Global Cultures at King's College London from her home in the United States, where she shares a life of beautiful chaos with her husband, four children and two cats. She loves music that's loud enough to feel in your bones, getting lost through the portals of books, the endless addition of another tattoo, and playing games of power and loss with her family (think Monopoly, Uno and Muffin Time). Currently, Éile is happily consumed with developing her theory of Radical Gothic Relationality - a framework she believes can help unravel the world around us, drive collective solidarity and create a better tomorrow. She aspires to pursue her PhD next, and in the meantime faces the future radically in love with life and looking forward to what it holds.

About the Global Cultures MA

The online Master's in Global Cultures will build your interpersonal and cultural skills to help you engage effectively with colleagues, customers, clients, suppliers, and partners in today's interconnected world. Developing the key soft skills to bridge the gaps in the global industry workforce, this course sets you up for success in the modern workplace.