Able-bodied, Masculine, Monster?

 In The Shape of Water, several characters are depicted in a way that supports Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's description of the intersectionality of feminism and disability. For example, we are introduced to the villain of the film - Strickland - fairly early on, and we quickly realize that he is the true metaphorical "monster" of the story. His treatment of women, other races, and other nationalities can only be described as brutal; it's evident that he has an extraordinary superiority complex over those he feels deviate from his own characteristics, which he perceives to be the ideal. During one scene, Strickland speaks to ("to", as opposed to "with", as "speaking with" would be a generous description of the conversation) Elisa and Zelda: 

Strickland: You may think that thing looks human- Stands on two legs, but we’re created in the Lord’s image. And you don’t think that’s what the Lord looks like, do you?

Zelda: I wouldn't know, Sir. What the Lord looks like. 

Strickland: He looks like a human. Just like me... Or even you. A little more like me, I guess.

This directly supports Garland-Thomson's writing on "monsters" and representation in Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory: 

"Although the term has expanded to encompass all forms of social and corporeal aberration, monster originally described people with congenital impairments. As departures from the normatively human, monsters were seen as category violations or grotesque hybrids. [...] Women, people with disabilities or appearance impairments, ethnic others, gays and lesbians, and people of color are variously the objects of infanticide, selective abortion, eugenic programs, hate crimes, mercy killing, assisted suicide, lynching, bride burning, honor killings, forced conversion, coercive rehabilitation, domestic violence, genocide, normalizing surgical procedures, racial profiling, and neglect. All these discriminatory practices are legitimated by systems of representation, by collective cultural stories that shape the material world, underwrite exclusionary attitudes, inform human relations, and mold our senses of who we are."

Strickland believes himself to be the normative human, made in the identical image of the Lord - a supreme power, and thus an ideal. His justification for the amphibian man being a "monster" is that he looks different from himself; while he does stand on two legs, he diverges significantly from Strickland's appearance and thus must not be made in the image of the Lord. This quote also gives insight to what Strickland believes comprises a human: able-bodied, normative features such as two-leggedness. If one were to be born with a congenital impairment, Strickland might not even consider them human, associating disability with monstrosity. Similarly, Strickland believes he is closer to the image of the Lord than Zelda or Elisa, simply because they are female, Elisa is mute, and Zelda is black. This concept of "creation in the Lord's image" is one such example of a "collective cultural story that shapes the material world, underwrites exclusionary attitudes, informs human relations, and molds our senses of who we are." 

Garland-Thomson also writes:

"Western thought has long conflated femaleness and disability, understanding both as defective departures from a valued standard."

This is evident in a scene that occurs soon afterwards, where Strickland engages in intercourse with his wife. During this scene, Strickland forces his wife into silence, despite his bandaged hand bleeding upon her. The screenplay for this scene even describes this: 

"Strickland mounts ELAINE. Rhythmic. Mechanical. Like an athlete training for a competitive sport. His face shows no emotion."

Despite Strickland being the one that is arguably "disabled" in this scene, with an injured hand, he still treats his wife - a woman - as an object whose sole purpose is to silently serve his needs and attend to his pleasures. Elaine is depicted as almost the quintessential 1960s housewife, with little to no deviation from the expected behavior and appearance of the "ideal woman" of the time. Strickland, while typically considering himself to be the ideal man, full of masculinity and power, is the "defective departure from a valued standard" here in that his hand is injured. Despite this, he's still the one in power in this scene; his wife is female and effectively "disabled", being stripped of her voice and bodily autonomy. 

Throughout the movie, through scenes like these, we are further led to believe that Strickland is the true "monster" of the film. He heavily purchases into the intersection of feminism and disability, and he believes that both his masculinity and able body are reflections of divinity.

The Shape of Water Screenplay: the-shape-of-water-2017.pdf (scriptslug.com)