Quoted: Elizabeth M. Clark On Racial Politics and Werewolf Transformations
Patrick Gonder’s work on “the primitive” in 1950s horror films is useful here. Gonder discusses the ‘devolved’ monsters of 50s horror cinema, such as Mr. Hyde and the cavemen-primitives, in terms of race, class, and notions of civilization. He writes that the “hybrid nature of the [devolved monster] asserts white masculinity against and through the fantasy of a primal, animalistic black sexuality.” The beast within (excessive, uncontrollable masculinity run amok) that the werewolf represents for (white) men is always coded in terms of a non-white ethnicity and/or the working class. Cinematic werewolves are almost always associated with non-white ethnicities, from the gypsies in The Wolf Man (1944) to the Indian mystic/scholar in Wolf. [...]
A third text that breaks the pattern of ‘unintegrated heroine = less grotesque body’ is Dark Wolf (2003). However, this film’s portrayal of the grotesque hybrid body is perhaps the most racialized representation of the female werewolf. The film centers on Josie, a petite blonde played by Samaire Armstrong (Figures 11 and 12) who is being hunted by Dark Wolf, a kind of uber-werewolf; she must avoid mating with him in order to remain human. The film is a fairly straightforward straight-to- DVD release: monster hunts girl, kills many of her friends, cop protects girl, good triumphs over evil. However, in the last half-hour there is a jarring scene of Josie transforming halfway into werewolf form. In the film’s mythology, Josie is destined to change into a “limbo between human and werewolf form,” and unless she is brought into the light of the full moon when this happens, she will remain in this state permanently. The film’s heroic cop/protector watches in horror as Josie’s short blonde hair and naked, pale body darkens. Her face becomes grotesque and her hair changes first to a spiky fur-like consistency and then darkens to black and grows all down her back. When the transition is finished, Josie crouches and snuffles, with claws and a grotesque snout-like face, naked with dark, hairless skin and black, coarse hair down to her knees (Figures 13 and 14).
She has lost the power of speech, and growls, whines, and sniffs the cop as he tries to help her without hurting her. Eventually, he grabs her and carries her, still naked, kicking and growling, to the fire escape where she writhes under the bright white light of the full moon, which transforms her back to her petite, blonde self. The cop covers her with a sheet and carries her back inside. [...]
The contrast, the in-between hybridity of two oppositions, the becoming of the Other is what horrifies: the white male becomes more primitive and bestial, darker (for men of color, this contrast is not seen as such a huge difference). Woman of-color-as-werewolf is almost inconceivable: if the horror of the female werewolf is the shock of female moving from sexual object spectacle to grotesque/ambigendered spectacle, then the biggest contrast is a move from the most feminine woman (slender, blonde, white) to dark, hairy, muscular wolf. White women represent the feminine ideal in this culture, and this is what we see in Dark Wolf: it would be impossible for a woman of color to play Josie, since during her
transformation the contrast shown would be minimal.
— Elizabeth M. Clark, “Hairy Thuggish Women”: Female Werewolves, Gender, and the Hoped-for Monsters (PDF)
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Celeste wrote:
Creepy. Not a movie I’d want to see.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 11:23 am ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
of course. as a movie buff who loves old silent films of the 1920s, I can tell you of manyyy silent films that portrayed VAMPS (slutty, manipulative, deceiving women) with DARK HAIR and DARK EYES (and sometimes brown skin), while blondes were automatically pure, innocent and angelic.
sigh.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 1:05 pm ¶
HoneyPower wrote:
Of all genres of film and literature, monster movies are the most fun to pick apart.
Vampires (in the beginning at least) = lesbian, heathen, Lillith-like women.
Werewolves = uncivilized, carnal, unpredictable and black.
Mummies = mysterious, powerful but pathetic Oriental.
and of course all monsters seem to prey solely on white women, either corrupting or soiling them.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 2:02 pm ¶
lizzie(greeneyedfem) wrote:
Holy CRAP!! That’s me!!
I feel like I just won some kind of award, y’all. And I simultaneously wish I’d had time to do one more re-write of my thesis (it’s a little choppy in parts).
@Celeste: It’s not a movie anyone would want to see, really — even horror fans. It’s just really, really BAD. I watched a lot of bad movies for this paper, actually.
@DIMA: At the same time, the dark, sexual women are often much more powerful and interesting than the virginal blondes, at least until they’re destroyed/rejected (I know I always wanted to be Maleficent growing up, rather than Sleeping Beauty). I like horror because it allows for images of power and anger and violence in women — even if they’re labeled monstrous. But as I discuss in my paper, women of color are usually left out of the dark/light binary completely in horror — they were entirely invisible in the werewolf movies I watched.
@HoneyPower: The horror genre is my favorite genre to write about — it’s ALL about cultural fears, and the lines that shouldn’t be crossed and/or must be policed. And usually those have to do with gender, class, and race.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 3:19 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@lizzie
OMG that’s you?!!? I was writing something for Jezebel and I was like “Damn, this woman is amazing – I wonder if she’d want to write for Racialicious.”
Small, small internet.
To that end, you should also be featured on Jezebel sometime today or tomorrow.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 3:24 pm ¶
lizzie(greeneyedfem) wrote:
OMG, OMGWTFBBQ, Latoya thinks I’m amazing — I may faint right here in my cubicle!!
This has made my WEEK. *squeeee* *internal happy dance*
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 4:31 pm ¶
shah8 wrote:
Well, that pdf sure made my day. I love my werewolf stuff, and given that I’m a big fan of the first two Ginger Snaps movies, quite interested in this sort of commentary. Made me glad I visited the site today.
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 4:35 pm ¶
JenBen wrote:
Those who read Terry Pratchett would probably be well aware that he likes playing with all sorts of stereotypes and cliches, not the least of which are horror movie, sci-fi and fantasy conventions. One of his main characters is a werewolf – she’s a blond police officer who turns into a rather lovely looking Alsatian. She herself is a runaway from a family of very aristocratic werewolves in a country rather similar to Germany. Her siblings have names like Unity and Diana and her brother would have fit into the SS no worries.
It had never occurred to me how much of a subversion of the usual werewolf stereotype was, though.
(Also, yes, Latoya, get her writing for Jezebel!)
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 6:55 pm ¶
Anon wrote:
Damn, and I like werewolves, but I normally get to like them from a diverse standpoint, i.e., horror fiction writers of color. I’m still crossing my fingers for a good werewolf or vamp flick with PoC leads, and none of that forced tokenism.
btw, anyone seen Underworld? I think Underworld could definitely be broken down along these same lines. All the main actors are white, and I believe there was one black werewolf, who was even odd amongst the “normal” werewolves. Sad thing is that the guy who portrays the black werewolf( Kevin Grevioux) is co-writer of the story. SMDH
Posted 04 Feb 2010 at 8:11 pm ¶
lizzie(greeneyedfem) wrote:
@Anon: The sidekick werewolf from the first Underworld movie is the only non-white werewolf I can think of offhand in a mainstream movie. And if I remember correctly, he was kind of a hulking, silent, scary black man, right? I’d be interested to know how many lines he had, if any.
Do you have any recs for stories about werewolves of color from horror fiction writers?
Posted 05 Feb 2010 at 3:25 pm ¶
Luis wrote:
@lizzie
Of course he had lines. He wrote the story. In fact, that might be the only reason there was even a single person of color in those films.
As for high-profile werewolves of color… New Moon just came out. Yeah… talk about primitivist fetishes.
If you read the books it just gets worst. I’ve never heard the phrase “russet-colored” so many times. Actually, I’ve never heard that phrase in reference to anything but horses. Apparently this is the color of Quileute men, even though I sincerely doubt the author has ever met any of them.
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 12:16 am ¶
B. Durbin wrote:
Back in junior high, I heard something that made me think, and that was that Disney (at the time) always had blonde heroines (aside from Snow White), and the evil opponent always had dark hair (except when it had whitened from age.)
The latter part of that still holds true. You never see a blonde as the evil person. In fact, the general culture only has blondes as the evil side if you’re doing a story about Nazi Germany.
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 12:36 pm ¶
lizzie(greeneyedfem) wrote:
@Luis: re: Kevin Grevioux: The more you know! I should rewatch that. And I never saw the third movie, but I’d be interested to see his role in that, too.
And yes, I forgot about the Twilight werewolves — or blocked them out. There’s a graphic-heavy, four-part livejournal post that recaps the Twilight books, and touches on race, Mormonism, and Stephenie Meyer’s descriptions of the pure, glittering, perfect, white, super-pale vampires v. the dark-skinned werewolf tribe. The recaps are mostly focused on the WTFuckery of the male/female roles that Bella and Edward inhabit, but still — it’s really interesting to read the perspective of someone who is familiar with LDS church teachings, and can point out how LDS ideas about gender and race show up in the books.
First one here:
http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html?page=10
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 4:08 pm ¶
Anon wrote:
@lizzie(greeneyedfem) – Yep, I religiously read the Dark Dreams series, which is a compilation of horror(of all genres)by black authors, and I read LA Banks’ Vampire Huntress series, which has a huge amount of PoC chars of all backgrounds. There are more, particularly in the horror genre. I mean, I’ll read any book, as long as it’s good, but PoC characters rock. Check out White Wolf’s Forsaken, I don’t play the games, but I read the sample stories.
@Luis – Yea, I hear you, all the werewolves of color are automatically exoticsized. SkinWalkers is another piece of crap werewolf movie I had hoped would be good. I ended up being dissapointed though. The only WOC(werewolf of color
)was extremely bestial, and filthy compared to the, of course, white leads who looked like they had just stepped out of a Vidal Sassoon ad. It was just ridiculous.
Posted 06 Feb 2010 at 4:48 pm ¶
lizzie(greeneyedfem) wrote:
@Anon — Oh yeah, Skinwalkers. The two rival werewolf packs were so ridiculously cliched — they both had a girl and they both had a black man. The “bad” girl was dark-haired and seductive, and the “good” girl was blonde and sweet. The “bad” black werewolf was, as you said, dirty, mute, and animalistic (didn’t he have some kind of mind-meld with his pet hawk?). The “good” black man was clean-cut and uniformed (a postal worker?). And they were both killed at the same time. *roll eyes*
Thanks for the book recs — The Vampire Huntress series was already on my TBR list, and I’m definitely going to check the rest of them out, too.
Posted 07 Feb 2010 at 12:00 pm ¶