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Werewolf

2007-02-07T15:28:41Z

141.155.119.174: /* Disease */ link to AIDS in SF

'''Werewolf''': a human who transforms into a wolf. Also called a '''lycanthrope'''. The werewolf is a myth, a type of fictional character, a popular [[fantasy]] and/or [[horror]] monster. There are werewolf legends, and countless werewolf stories.

A typical example of the werewolf myth is the human who is bitten by a wolf or a werewolf, and who transforms into a wolf on the full [[moon]], then back again into a human. Sometimes the transformation happens at will, or in connection with powerful emotions. Werewolves are often protagonists, who must struggle against their nature as such, or monsters and villains, typically killed by silver bullets, but the werewolf myth is so popular that it has no fixed rules. Movies and literature offer hundreds of examples.

The werewolf is nearly as popular as the [[vampire]], and both myths share certain similarities: the biting, the transmission of the werewolf or vampire condition via bodily fluids, the use of stereotypical charms of protection (silver), and the transformation of humans into monsters. In [[cinema]] and [[television]], the vampire's greater popularity might be explained by the cheaper makeup and/or special effects required to create the monster.

== Werewolves and Gender, Werewolves and Sex ==

Most werewolf stories are about [[men]], and the transformation of man into beast, or emergence of the beast within men. One would guess that the assimilation of [[women]] to [[animals]] and to [[nature]] renders the idea of a female werewolf redundant within [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] [[ideology]].

Etymologically, the first part of "werewolf" likely derives from the Old English ''wer'' (or ''were''), a word which refers to male humans. The corresponding word for a female human, ''wif'' or ''wife'', is not generally used for female lycanthropes (which is a word of greek origin: ''lycan'' for wolf, and ''-thrope'' from the root for the human race, rather than only the male human). This can perhaps partly be attributed the the disharmonious fricative alliteration of "wifwolf" or "wifewolf", although the disuse of "[[wife]]" as a general term for a human female in the [[English]] language and its specialisation as a term for a woman married to a man, a female spouse, would also contraindicate the feminisation of the word "werewolf" into "wifewolf".

Instead, the prefix "were-" has been extended to apply to any human who transforms into an animal. This is an example of the [[sexist]] practice of using male-specific word forms interchangeably with generic word forms for humans, and with specific uses for females. (See [[WereWomen]].)

Stories about women and wolves often tend to fall under the "[[Little Red Riding Hood]]" format, instead, in which the victims are females, who are attacked and rescued by male predators and male heroes.

Nevertheless, there are stories about female werewolves, and feminist explorations of the werewolf theme. The ''[[Ginger Snaps Trilogy|Ginger Snaps]]'' movie trilogy, for instance.

=== Biology and Ideology ===

In real life, conditions such as rabies, hypertrichosis and porphyria have been linked to the werewolf myth. The hypothesis is that the characteristics of such conditions are at the root of the myth's imagery, such as the neurological symptoms of rabies or porphyria for wild behaviour, the full-body pilosity of hypertrichosis for hairiness.

But the assimilation of a human being to a ''wolf'', rather than to a monkey, an ape, or another animal, derives no doubt from the importance, especially in [[Europe]], of wolf myths and imagery, and thence too, through cultural exportation and imperialism, its spread to other regions of the world.

While some werewolf stories attribute the transformation of a human into a wolf to a curse brought on to the werewolf by its actions as a human, or in a metaphorical way, many stories use lycanthropy in a transmissible form, as supernatural contamination, sometimes even as a fantastic type of infectious condition. Hybridisation of humans and animals can also be the cause for such sub-types of werewolves as those that take on an intermediate form, of the human halfway transformed into an animal. This avenue and the infectious model lend the werewolf myth to science-fictional exploration.

The werewolf's lunar transformation cycle can be linked to the [[menstruation|menstrual cycle]] (''menses'', the latin plural for "month", comes from the same root as "moon"). This parallel to female biology and the attending vocabulary can easily justify an exploration of women as lycanthropes, and/or, as in [[Ginger Snaps]], a thematic assimilation of lycanthropy and female puberty.

But the power of the werewolf myth is also a source of prestige, and [[patriarchy|patriarchal]] storytelling must deprive women of prestige in order to justify women's oppression. Thus it is more easy to limit the condition of menstruating women to [[PMS]] and vague women's troubles, and to continue to situate women halfway between humans (''i.e.'', '''men''') and animals ''innately''.

In the [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series)]] episode "[[Phases (Buffy episode)|Phases]]", one character, reassuring her boyfriend who has become a werewolf, says:
:"Yeah, okay, werewolf, but that's not ''all'' the time. I mean, three days out of the month, ''I'm'' not much fun to be around either."

If the subjection of women to (by) our animalistic nature is a routine and unexceptional fact, then only the transformation of a '''man''' into a beast becomes exceptional and fantastic. Within a sexist framework, this difference serves to glorify men and trivialise women.

Men's weakness is sometimes portayed as feminine: falling prey to instinct, losing rationality, men lose the faculties they claim grant them dominion over women and over nature. But violence and physical power, when they come via the transformation of a man into an animal, are held as valid as men's violence and physical power normally are in establishing their domination over women and nature.

Conversely, the same sexist ideology routinely provides a slew of animalistic nicknames and attributes justify the subjection of women to men. Women are [[bitch]]es. A female werewolf is thus only a more dangerous bitch in the eyes of male power, a wilder creature to be tamed.

== Lycanthropy as Metaphor==

=== Disease ===

The [[Harry Potter]] books by [[J.K. Rowling]] contain a number of mythical creatures, including werewolves. The magical world of her [[witch]]es and [[wizard]]s holds a distinctly pejorative view of werewolves: the condition is transmitted via a scratch or a bite, it is very unpleasant, and werewolves are seen as dangerous. The main werewolf character is a kind and gentle man who must take a special potion every month to alleviate his symptoms. He at first tries to keep his condition a secret, and is later rejected by most of magical society when they find out he is a werewolf. The werewolf condition, in this character's case, can be seen as a [[AIDS in SF|metaphor for AIDS]]. Another werewolf who appears in a later book as a villain is said to deliberately infect his victims with his condition.

=== Addiction ===

In ''[[Ginger Snaps: Unleashed]]'', the main character must routinely inject herself with a decoction of a specific herb to halt her progressive transformation into a werewolf. Because of the needle marks on her arms, she is mistaken for an addict and confined to a rehab clinic.

=== Puberty and Other Life Changes ===

See [[Ginger Snaps]] for an example of lycanthropy paralleled with female puberty.

The 1994 movie ''Wolf'', staring Jack Nicholson, whose character's lycanthropy reflects his mid-life crisis. (And predates Viagra as a booster for declining virility.)

== Werewolf as Species ==

In some examples, lycanthropes form a distinct species or community. Cf. ''[[Blood Trail]]'' ([[1992]]), ''[[Underworld]]'' ([[2004]]), ''[[Blood and Chocolate]]'' ([[1997]]).

The werewolves in [[Tanya Huff]]'s ''[[Blood Trail]]'' ([[1992]]), for instance, have integrated wolf pack characteristics and human activities. They farm sheep.

== External Links ==
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werewolf Werewolf] entry at Wikipedia

[[Category:Body Themes]][[Category: Characterization]][[Category: Linguistics]][[Category: Names & Naming]][[Category: Werewolves]]

Private Vasquez

2007-02-06T00:29:48Z

141.155.119.174: adding vasquez

'''Private Vasquez''' was a Latina Marine in the movie ''[[Aliens]]'' (played by actor Jenette Goldstein).

Unlike many women in film at that point, Vasquez was noticeably muscular. She also had one of the best lines in the film:

: Hudson: Hey Vasquez, anyone ever mistake you for a man?
: Vasquez: No. Anyone ever mistake you for one?

Vasquez was killed on the colony LV-426 in battle with the aliens.

[[Category:Notable Female Characters|Vasquez]]

El Laberinto del Fauno

2007-02-04T00:16:27Z

141.155.119.174: /* External links */ organizing links, adding links

'''''El Laberinto del Fauno''''' ("'''Pan's Labyrinth'''", in English), is a 2006 film by [[Guillermo del Toro]].

<div class="notice metadata" id="spoiler">'''[[Wikipedia:Spoiler warning|Spoiler warning]]: ''This page and any other dealing with the content of works may have plot and/or ending details revealed.'''''

</div>

==Plot & characters==
The film is simultaneously a fairy tale--gory and graphic like classic fairy tales--and an allegory for the horrors of war and fascism, and the death of democracy.

* The central character is a child, Ofelia; she is brave, loving, and humanly childlike in her occasional thoughtlessness.

* Ofelia is cared for by her ailing mother, Carmen; Carmen loves her daughter but is rarely an effective character; rather, she is a woman apparently trapped by circumstances, who appears to have made at least one serious miscalculation.

* Ofelia is also cared for by a secret revolutionary, Mercedes. Mercedes is an active agent in the "real world" of post-Civil War Spain (1944), occupying a dangerous position in the household of Captain Vidal, an officer in Franco's fascist army.

* Captain Vidal is the domestic evil, whose horror becomes increasingly apparent throughout the movie. A fascist in the fullest sense of the word, he adheres to fascist elitism, a foolish sexism, and a callous disregard for the life of others.

* A fairy (both in insect and more traditional "fairy woman" form and a faun connect Ofelia to the fantasy world; both are mysterious and potentially frightening characters, who may mean her good or ill; however, the fairy assumes a clearly positive and protective role over the course of the film. The faun remains more ambiguous and mysterious, but any danger or mystery it (he?) poses pales in comparison to the cold Captain Vidal.

===Gender issues===
The central characters are Ofelia, Mercedes, and Captain Vidal. The female characters live and are shown primarily in the fascist world dominated by Captain Vidal, a world of sexism, violence, and hierarchy. Both Ofelia and Mercedes are courageous, braving dangers both fantastic and real, to make the world a better place. None of the characterizations are hampered by stereotyped behaviors that suggest innate qualities of "femininity" or "masculinity"; rather, characters are people, better or less realized as individuals; and with flaws that reflect their individual personalities and choices in life.

Ofelia dies in the real world, after attempting to kill Vidal and rescue her infant brother -- her last tie to her beloved mother, and her hope to redeem herself to the Faun. Although Vidal kills her and takes the baby, his triumph is short-lived; Mercedes and the townspeople and remaining anarchists and Republicans find him, and take his baby. Mercedes articulates fully his loss, and cuts short Vidal's last attempt to control the world even after his death. He says, "Tell my son the time I died," hoping to pass along a patriarchal, war-glorying ethos; Mercedes refutes him. "No," she says. "He will not even know your name." His look of shock and dismay reveal that he believed he deserved to be treated as "honorable", above these peasants, and able to control events beyond his death; he had thought that, just as he himself feels he followed in his father's militaristic footsteps, that his son, too, would do so. Mercedes hits him where it really hurts: Being killed by peasants, he would find to be in the tradition of glorious war; but being denied the patriarchal remembrance and honor of his son is truly a triumph of the people over him and his ideology.

Simplistically, Ofelia's death could be seen as a female sacrifice for a male child -- a tiresomely common theme. However, in combination with Mercedes' triumph, and the active struggles of both Ofelia and Mercedes against Vidal and their circumstances, Ofelia's death is perhaps better seen as a part of their triumph over the forces of fascism and patriarchy. Not only did Ofelia refuse to unquestioningly obey an older male (both the Faun and Vidal), but her refusal led to her own redemption and reward in the fantastic world. In the real world, together, Ofelia and Mercedes conquered Vidal, ending his life and his tyranny over the countryside, as well as his prospective tyranny and ruination of Ofelia's brother's life. More importantly, through their actions, Mercedes and Ofelia transformed Vidal's "don't fuck with me; this is my son; my name; my honor" vision of patriarchal and militaristic power, into a redemption and liberation of a child from that continuing horror.

==Official site, filmmaker, etc. ==
* [http://panslabyrinth.com/ PansLabyrinth.com], the official website; including an English-language screenplay
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7000935 NPR interview w/ Guillermo del Toro]

==Discussions elsewhere==
* Posts and discussions on FeministSF blog: [http://blogs.feministsf.net/?p=122 Pan's Labyrinth: Fantasy and Resistance] by Liz Henry - [http://blogs.feministsf.net/?p=118 El Laberinto del fauno] discussion led by Laura Quilter -
* [http://suzych.livejournal.com/49766.html Suzy McKee Charnas] blog & thread

[[Category:2006 Films]]

Blake's 7

2007-02-03T18:46:48Z

141.155.119.174: deleting cat television

'''''Blake's 7''''' (alternatively spelled ''Blakes 7'') is a [[British]] science-fiction television programme that ran for four seasons, from [[1978]] to [[1982]], and was created by [[Terry Nation]], who wrote a large number of its episodes.

The original conceit of the series followed a group of outlaws and rebels, led by Roj Blake, an idealistic man framed for crimes he did not commit in order to slander his reputation, in their struggle against the fascist, corrupt galactic [[Federation]]. It is a dystopic variant on the model of [[Star Trek]], in which the heroes often lose, suffer, or die. The series's worldview is bleak and cynical, but it shines for its cutting dialogue and sense of vision.

''Blake's 7'' was notable for the number of female characters in its ensemble cast at the time, and for having a woman as its recurring central villain.

In order of appearance, these regular characters were:
* [[Jenna Stannis]] (Sally Knyvette), a pirate and expert pilot (26 episodes, seasons 1-2)
* [[Cally]] (Jan Chappell), an Auron telepath and freedom fighter (37 episodes, seasons 1-3)
* [[Dayna Mellanby]] (Josette Simon), a weapons specialist (26 episodes, seasons 3-4)
* [[Soolin]] (Glynis Barber), a gunslinger (13 episodes, season 4)

and
* [[Servalan]] (Jacqueline Pearce), President of the Federation (29 episodes, seasons 1-4)

Author [[Tanith Lee]] was the only woman to write for the series: she scripted two episodes: "Sarcophagus" (season 3) and "Sand" (season 4). She was a fan of the series before she contributed to it: she took her inspiration for the two central figures of her novel ''[[Kill the Dead]]'' ([[1980]]), Parl Dro and Myal Lemyal, from the ''Blake's 7'' characters of Kerr Avon and Vila Restal, as played by Paul Darrow and Michael Keating.

Several episodes were directed by women. These directors were Mary Ridge (6 episodes, seasons 3-4), Fiona Cumming (2 episodes, season 3), and Vivienne Cozens (2 episodes, season 4).

While the series as a whole provided fairly good and sometimes outstanding writing for its female characters, one of the series's writers, Ben Steed, contributed two exceedingly misogynist episodes: "The Harvest of Kairos" (season 3), in which a loathsome Gary Stu orders the President of the Federation about and sexually harasses her, and "Power" (season 4), in which there is a war of the sexes and the women of the planet at war are misguided caricatural villains. His second season 3 episode, "Moloch", was slightly less repellent.

{{stub}}

== External Links ==
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076987/ IMDb listing for Blakes 7]
* [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blake's_7 Wikipedia entry for Blake's 7]
* [http://www.hermit.org/Blakes7/ Judith Proctor's Blake's 7 pages], the Largest Blake's 7 Site on the Web.

[[category: TV Series]]