Women and werewolves
Feb. 19th, 2010 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfWebzine Jezebel (http://jezebel.com/5461712/the-tyranny-of-sexy-female-werewolves-in-pop-culture) takes on the question of why most werewolves are male, at least in film and TV land. Reasons seem to hinge on the perception of werewolves as inherently masculine and just plain not sexy. They're big and strong and violent, not to mention hairy. Vampires can be elegant and sexy, but that's harder to do with were.
Sure there have been some successes with female werewolves like the Gingersnap movies and a few others, but they are in the minority. On the other hand, editor Pam Keesey brings some excellent points about the early historical associations between women particularly witches, and wolves (http://www.myspace.com/pamkeesey, equating sex and power.
As a writer working on a novel about middle-aged women who are also werewolves, I'm pretty invested in whether or not anyone will actually read the book. What do you think? Are werewolves any more "male" than any other kind of monster?
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Being Human
Date: 2010-02-19 04:50 pm (UTC)Re: Being Human
Date: 2010-02-20 06:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-19 04:51 pm (UTC)Of course this did lead me to accost her on the elevator at a WorldCon to gush, "Oh, Suzy, I love your 'Boobs'!", but luckily for me she could hear the quotation marks.
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:37 pm (UTC)Terrific anecdote, BTW. I was once on (but not moderating) a particularly hellish panel at WisCon in which axes were being ground and there were some impressive hystrionics. Suzy came in toward the end and sat directly in front of me, looked around, then looked at my expression and said, "Yes, it's bad as you think it is, but it's almost over." :-)
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:47 pm (UTC)Re: menopausal werewolves. I'm finding that when I'm doing readings from the novel in progress, women of a "certain age" do a lot of nodding and mm-hming. Evidently I'm onto something.
Thanks for the encouragement! I woke up with a migraine from hell today so it all helps. :-)
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Date: 2010-02-19 05:20 pm (UTC)Would I read a novel about middle-aged women who are also werewolves? Yes. Of course. But what I'd be looking for is a book about werewolves, not a book about women in which the werewolf aspect is a metaphor for something else, as it was in Ginger Snaps. So I'd buy it, and read it, and hope that the werewolf was done well.
I have a thing about werewolves, as you might have gathered.
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:46 pm (UTC)Thanks for your thoughts!
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Date: 2010-02-19 05:32 pm (UTC)Female weres have been done on occasion, and done well. I'm thinking of Lee Killough's _Wilding Nights_, and Charlaine Harris' treatment of female weres in the Sookie Stackhouse books. Those worked for me, primarily because they cast their were characters in their own defined societies.
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:48 pm (UTC)Thanks!
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Date: 2010-02-19 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-20 06:53 pm (UTC)Thanks for your thoughts!
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Date: 2010-02-19 06:33 pm (UTC)I had a female werewolf in my novel, but had to cut that whole character out. I am hoping to put her in the sequel.
Edited to correct typo that kind of ruined the reference.
P.
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Date: 2010-02-20 06:57 pm (UTC)And yes, I completely agree with you. I just thought it was interesting and rather timely when I got the link from Pam's blog.
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Date: 2010-02-19 08:23 pm (UTC)If you're looking at shapeshifting rather than wolves per se, consider the Cat People movies--original and 1982 remake with Nastassja Kinski turning into a panther. There is a long folklore tradition of female shapeshifters, but they usually turn into something feline rather than wolves (or bears, another common male shapeshifter in folklore). That doesn't mean they're any less powerful or lethal. A number of vampire movies have featured female vamps who shapeshifted into scary, monsterific things, just not the typical "wolf man" or werewolf.
But no, I don't think a female werewolf is pushing the envelope, not at all. And as for whether people will read your book: that depends on the characters, plot and writing, not the gimmick! I think it sounds interesting, FWIW. :-)
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:12 pm (UTC)I've been pretty focused on the werewolves myself, but yes, you're right, there is a bunch of interesting shapeshifter stuff out there. And thanks for the thoughts on the WIP. :-)
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:32 pm (UTC)Thanks! Someday it will actually be done enough so you and the other folks who've asked can read it. I'm over the self-appointed halfway mark so in theory, it'll pick up speed.
(And sorry I was out of it last night - woke with a migraine from Hell very early this morning, so apparently I was wandering down that particular slope. Bleah!).
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:46 pm (UTC)yay for over the 1/2way mark!
I didn't notice you were out of it; you just seemed quiet, but we were trying no to disturb Roy's reading. I'm so sorry you had a migraine!
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Date: 2010-02-20 07:55 pm (UTC)On another note, looking forward to the unveiling of your book too, I might add. :-)
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Date: 2010-02-20 10:39 pm (UTC)Well, I'm so pleased that I'm going to be able to furnish you with the joy of anticipation for a nice, long time. sigh
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