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Author
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Comment
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Laura
Registered User
(4/24/02 9:51:07 pm)
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Lycanthropy and feminism
In looking at the WisCon programming, I saw the following panel described:
First Blood: Werewolves And Menstrual Anxiety
The recent movie "Ginger Snaps" and the famous Suzy McKee Charnas short story "Boobs" both effectively play with "the monthly curse" aspect of lycanthropy to illustrate the emotional turmoil of early adolescence for young women. Let's discuss.
They're showing the film as well. I thought the topic rather interesting -- I had a passing interest in some of the historical issues at one point -- and while just now watching ST: Enterprise, I saw a promo for the new UPN show, Wolf Lake.
Now, a werewolf TV series just seems inherently funny to me, but I admit I haven't watched it. Has anyone else? Is the female character in the show related in any way to the issues the above panel brings up? I know I sure feel like a doofus for not having thought of this approach to the stories before -- I suppose because in my mind, werewolves are most often male. Thoughts or comments?
Laura S.
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tlchang37
Registered User
(4/25/02 8:14:39 am)
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Wolf Lake
"Wolf Lake" is new to UPN - it actually started in the fall on ...NBC or someplace and was cancelled after a couple of months. UPN is picking up the storyline where it left off.
There are several strong female characters of various ages - the youngest of which is a teenager. In the show's mythology, the 'change' (when they begin to 'flip' from human to wolf) begins at this age (post menstruation, but pre-adult)- and becoming sexually active helps to hurry that along. The transition from human to wolf is not always successful, and there are many dead teenagers in the graveyard who weren't able to make it.
There is no apparent monthly cycle tie-in, because the moon always seems to be full there, and after the first time of transitioning from human to wolf, they seem to be able to change (or not change) at will.
The most feminist plot point at the moment is that they recently 'elected' a woman to lead the 'pack' - an unprecedented move in their history.
It's not Buffy (though after this season, I wouldn't want it to be) - but I've always enjoyed werewolf mythology, and it has some fun characters. Plus, it's supposed to take place up here in the Pacific NW - where all paranormal shows seem to center. :-) Seattle - home of the bizarre! (I read Terry Brooks "Running with the Demon" trilogy - one of which took place entirely in Seattle, in places I knew fairly well - right before we attended the Folk Life Festival here (which is a surreal experience in and of itself). It made the whole day downtown very eerie.)
Tara
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Terri
Registered User
(4/27/02 6:43:05 am)
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Re: Wolf Lake
Nadya by Pat Murphy is a great feminist werewolf novel, set on the American frontier in the 19th century. Melanie Tem also wrote a good novel about women who turn into werewolves at puberty...but I can't recall the name of it.
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Helen
Registered User
(4/27/02 10:42:53 am)
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Moon changes ...
Tanya Huff has an interesting take on matriarchy and the involuntary nature of the "Change" and how it can involuntarily affect the lives of those involved in _The Last Wizard_. I also just recently came across a really fascinating short story in either the eleventh or the twelfth _Year's Best_. I can't remember the title off-hand, but it was told from the point of view of a man in a society not unlike our own ... where a goodly number of the women have become weres. The author provides a really interesting examination of how society would change if women were to suddenly become the stronger party. Would women be prone to acts of violence and abuse if the tables were turned? How would men deal with the fear of being attacked? I don't know if I'd think of it as a feminist piece per se, but it was quite thought-provoking.
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Terri
Registered User
(4/28/02 7:47:40 am)
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Re: Moon changes ...
Helen, the story you're thinking of is "Taking Loup" by Bruce Glassco, which was originally publishing in Sirens, an anthology of Fantasy and Dark Fantasy stories about love and eros I edited with Ellen Datlow -- and which is being re-published later this year by HarperCollins with a much better cover, thank heavens. The original publication, which HarperCollins insisted on marketing as Horror no matter what Ellen or I had to say about it, had a painting of drowned women on the cover, which I found rather baffling, since it had nothing whatsoever to do with the book....unless the artist was confused in his mythology and thought it was the sirens who died and not their sailor lovers....? Fortunately we have a new editor now, and the new cover is more sensual and appropriate.
Anyway, back on the subject: Bruce's story was reprinted in volume 12 of Year's Best. I agree that it's a very provocative piece. I consider it a feminist story, since the author's intent was to make you look at power issues between the genders in a new way. It doesn't present any feminist *solutions* to the problem of power inequalities, I grant you, but it highlights the problem by the old "what of the genders were switched" scenario, and does it an interesting manner. Which makes it a feminist story, in my opinion. Bruce is the same young writer who penned that very unusual version of "True Thomas" for Black Swan, White Raven, as well as some good stories for Realms of Fantasy.
Edited by: Terri at: 4/28/02 8:01:34 am
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lmallozzi
Registered User
(4/28/02 8:18:26 pm)
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Re: Lycanthropy and feminism
I was just wondering what anyone thought of Angela Carter's werewolf/beast tales. They chilled me to the bone - I actually had nightmares from reading them, but I couldn't put the book down, all the same.
Luciana
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Terri
Registered User
(4/29/02 7:06:43 am)
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Re: Lycanthropy and feminism
Do you mean the stories in The Bloody Chamber? I think they're among the best every written.
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lmallozzi
Registered User
(4/29/02 10:07:46 am)
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Re: Lycanthropy and feminism
Yes, the ones in the Bloody Chamber. Sorry I didn't mention that in my earlier post. I love that collection. They were intensely visual to me, the way some dreams seem so real, you think you're awake.
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(4/30/02 8:43:54 am)
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Re: Lycanthropy and feminism
Carter's wolf stories were my favourites in that collection... She's also written another wolf story called Peter and the Wolf although I'm not sure which book it was published in.
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Gregor9
Registered User
(4/30/02 12:32:01 pm)
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Lycanthropy and repression
To go back to Laura's original post regarding the WisCon panel topic--
I researched a show about werewolves for the Discovery Channel a few years ago. One segment of the show dealt with lycanthropy as a psychological diagnostic category. It's used in psychiatry as an umbrella term to describe any cases of transformation that someone believes they undergo--not just those of people who believe they turn into wolves. The category was tossed out of diagnostic books in the late '60s on the grounds that no one suffered from it anymore. One of the doctors I interviewed had co-authored a paper in the '70s showing that this was far from the case.
One of the more widely known cases involved a married middle-aged woman living outside Chicago, who had lived a very sexually repressed life. According to what was written about her case, her urges manifested in transformations. She described seeing herself change into a wolf as she sat before her mirror.
She attempted on numerous occasions to engage her husband in intercourse while she was a wolf. She appeared at a party in front of friends and family in this "transformed" posture, similarly on the prowl for a mate. Understandably, her identity was concealed and we made no attempts to contact her for the segment. Clearly there is something to the connection between transformation and sexuality, rooted very deeply in us.
Another interesting aspect of the lycanthropy diagnosis was that in spite of our having little contact with wolves, they were still the prevalent form into which people believed they changed, either as a result of "werewolves" being part of our cultural canvas, or because wolves are still seen as power creatures. Second after wolves were cats, large and small. But there were a few--males specifically--who transformed into hamsters and gerbils, which would suggest perhaps a very different need being filled for them by the transformative breakdown.
Greg
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