White Lightning Productions

http://dspace.wrlc.org/bitstream/1961/4 ... _emc58.pdf

I was directed to this little gem via a post on a yahoo group.

While long (+400 pages!), this piece is very accessible and offers many insights. The author contends - among other things - that the reason female werewolves are so underrepresented in media (especially when compared to, say, female vampires) is because it violates gender expectations by depicting female characters with hypermasculine features (i.e. muscles, hair, aggression, etc.) When female werewolves do appear, their masculine attributes are minimized or hidden or the female character is irredeemably evil or aberrant.

This quote from an MTV interview included in the article was really telling:

MTV: Why don’t we see Lycan [werewolf] women [in the
Underworld films]?
Kate Beckinsale: Because that could be really horrifying. Hairy,
thuggish women.
Len Wiseman: [. . .] I’ve seen furry women.
Beckinsale: [Laughing] Not here!

I strongly recommend all PitW fans to take the time to read this.

Ugh. Underworld is public enemy #1 when it comes to the obvious one-sidedness of how vampires are portrayed in the media vs. werewolves. In the first movie (because I couldn't stand to see the other two), vampires were given sexy nicknames like "Death Dealers", and generally appeared slick, attractive, dignified, and tactically superior to the werewolves, who were shown as being boorish, unwashed, and clumsy.

The big problem is that vampires are comparatively easy to do, because even the most grotesque-looking vampire still appears at least humanoid if not outright human with a couple modifications (fangs, pointed ears, pale skin, etc.) Werewolves, on the other hand, have a completely different form to account for, which not only requires elaborate costuming and hours upon hours of makeup, but also a transformation sequence to plot out, which demands the use of either prosthetics or CGI (and every CGI transformation I've seen thus far has been terrible). Thus, it's just easier to do a movie about vampires than it is about werewolves, and as a result the creative boundaries of how one characterizes vampires have been pushed much further (Bram Stoker's Dracula, Interview with the Vampire, Blade, Underworld, Twilight) than we've seen with werewolves (American Werewolf in London and Wolf are pretty much the only two movies I can think of that wasn't just a typical monster movie).

Underworld had a really unbalanced werewolf design to begin with, and whatever reasons they had for it won't be excused in my books. Blah blah blah, it's for lore consistency, blah blah, because we don't want to make them look like furries, and so on and so forth.

I'd honestly crack my head open from an epic headdesk if the latter was the actual reason...

...Anyone actually take a crack at reading the damn thing?

Also you have to consider that the censors who regulate movies and TV production crush anything that comes even remotely close to bestiality and in the rules set down by the fundy religious freaks that designed the censorship system, a furry naked woman=some form of bestiality. They almost never got to make that howling movie where the queen of the werewolf gets fuzzy and naked in her little orgie.

Also, consider what a werewolf represents: Releasing control and doing all the things you want, damn the consequences.

In most movies werewolves are above the law, killing and raping as they desire. This is not a role model that the people in charge want being put out there. They want our heroes to be good people, people who rebel in productive, helpful ways. One of the basic premise of the culture in America is that while we like having movies that help us feel like we might rise up against the system we are not suppose to feel we can do it as individuals.

Look at the popularity of the Joker in The Dark Knight. He broke the rules by being empowered and doing it by himself. Then he died when the impact to the greater consciousness of man was felt. Bruce Lee did the same thing. He spent his life teaching people to be self sufficient and to be empowered. He died. Marilyn Monroe was even worse. Women standing up for themselves couldn't be allowed! She died and was found in such a way that it destroyed her legacy.

Now, I'm not saying there is some evil agency out there killing off people to control the thought processes of the masses but there is a pattern. I don't know what the pattern represents but there is something there.

Representations of close to life werewolves and creatures like them are dangerous to the established order because they encourage people to act out the impulses we, as civilized people, should suppress.

So you will never, ever see were-creatures treated fairly by the media. It's just to scary for them to even consider. Consciously or not, most producers know better than to tempt fate.