1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,200 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:07,920 Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the 3 00:00:07,960 --> 00:00:10,879 Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow 4 00:00:10,920 --> 00:00:15,800 Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time. 5 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:28,400 Speaker 2: As we continue our look at the werewolf in myth, 6 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 2: legend and media, we now turn to the female werewolf, 7 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 2: a gendered take on the monster that might, at first glance, 8 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 2: seem to be mere titillation, but the roots of the 9 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 2: concept weave their way through a variety of contemplations about 10 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:47,879 Speaker 2: femininity and the wild in all their forms. I want 11 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 2: to return to twenty seventeen's A She Wolf, A Cultural 12 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 2: History of Female Werewolves, which features multiple chapters by different 13 00:00:54,720 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 2: authors that examine female werewolves in myth, legend, and media, 14 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:04,240 Speaker 2: everything from century old legends to modern cartoons. As previously mentioned, 15 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:08,560 Speaker 2: the book's editor, Hannah Priest argues that European werewolf narratives 16 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,959 Speaker 2: revolve around the threat posed by wolves to domesticated animals, 17 00:01:13,640 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 2: ultimately a threat to male owned agriculture and property. When 18 00:01:17,360 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 2: the werewolf is male, the threat comes from outside the 19 00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:24,320 Speaker 2: male landowner's domain, the outlaw wolf wanderer, who might seek 20 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:29,119 Speaker 2: to tear through the defenses and kill livestock or family members. Meanwhile, 21 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:33,400 Speaker 2: female werewolves tend to emerge from within the male landowner's domain, 22 00:01:33,959 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 2: often endangering children and serving as an overall threat to domesticity. 23 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:44,039 Speaker 2: Of note, the first Mexican werewolf movie, Le Loba or 24 00:01:44,200 --> 00:01:47,039 Speaker 2: The She Wolf, from nineteen sixty five, features both a 25 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 2: female and a male werewolf, and they correspond to this 26 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 2: form quite perfectly. The female werewolf the daughter of a 27 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 2: well to do Mexican landowner and scientists, and the male 28 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:01,880 Speaker 2: werewolf pursuit her from afar. This gothic slice of Golden 29 00:02:01,880 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 2: Age Mexican cinema, the werewolf seems to represent the wild 30 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 2: and uncontrollable elements of someone within the family unit and 31 00:02:09,520 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 2: someone from beyond it. For more on La Loba, see 32 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 2: our recent episode of Weird House Cinema on the film. 33 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:20,240 Speaker 2: It's interesting that both the first Mexican werewolf movie and 34 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,560 Speaker 2: the first werewolf motion picture period a now lost nineteen 35 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 2: thirteen short titled The Werewolf, feature female licanthropes, but the 36 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 2: vast majority of werewolf tales lean heavily toward male, often 37 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:38,120 Speaker 2: hyper masculine visions of wolf human hybridity Likewise, while the 38 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 2: wolf man is often presented as a lone wolf, the 39 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,799 Speaker 2: female wolf woman is often connected to a social group 40 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,800 Speaker 2: or part of a mated pair. This is interesting in 41 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:51,840 Speaker 2: how it connects to previous discussions of what our ancestors 42 00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:56,239 Speaker 2: saw of themselves in wolves and vice versa. As highly 43 00:02:56,360 --> 00:03:01,320 Speaker 2: social animals, wild wolves reflect aspects of human family and society, 44 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:04,919 Speaker 2: and it's only rational for these elements to influence our 45 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:09,399 Speaker 2: conceptions of human wolf hybridity as well. In fact, as 46 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,720 Speaker 2: author J. Kate mentions later on in the She Wolf 47 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 2: book quote, aside from a brief fashion for presenting female 48 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 2: werewolves as lonely night stalkers in Victorian literature, the dominant 49 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:24,480 Speaker 2: presentation of female wear wolves from the Middle Ages onwards 50 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:28,280 Speaker 2: has been as part of a social unit comprising other 51 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,880 Speaker 2: were wolves or other humans. I won't attempt to summarize 52 00:03:31,919 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 2: everything explored in the book. Definitely pick a copy up 53 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,920 Speaker 2: for yourself if you're interested in this topic as i am. 54 00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:42,240 Speaker 2: There's an entire chapter concerning females in the RPG Werewolf 55 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,760 Speaker 2: the Apocalypse game, for example, but it explores the various 56 00:03:46,840 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 2: ways in which female werewolf treatments explore societal ideas concerning 57 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 2: female connectedness to nature and societal norms related to body, hair, menstruation, sexuality, aging, 58 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 2: and other topics, and in some cases, certainly, the female 59 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:06,920 Speaker 2: werewolf can be yet another example of the monstrous feminine, 60 00:04:07,040 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 2: in which some aspect of female bodies or female experience 61 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 2: is othered from the standpoint of patriarchal anxiety. Overall, however, 62 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,120 Speaker 2: a good monster tale can reveal and convey much more. 63 00:04:18,520 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 2: The werewolf stands as a nexus between the wild and 64 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:26,760 Speaker 2: the civilized, between freedom and taboo, between liberty and control, 65 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:30,520 Speaker 2: and takes on so many additional meanings when applied specifically 66 00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 2: to women. In Daniel Ogden's excellent twenty twenty one book 67 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 2: The Werewolf in the Ancient World, he of course highlights 68 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:41,080 Speaker 2: the difficulty in deciding what exactly constitutes a werewolf versus 69 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 2: other modes of hybrid monsters in various cultures that had 70 00:04:44,960 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 2: no precise word for werewolf, and this applies to both 71 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:52,640 Speaker 2: masculine werewolves and feminine werewolves. Of course, he does mention 72 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 2: an accountant that priest singles out as the entry point 73 00:04:56,760 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 2: of the female werewolf into literature, that is World of 74 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:06,640 Speaker 2: Wales's twelfth century CE Topographia Hibernia. Gerald recounts a priest's 75 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:11,359 Speaker 2: travels in post Norman invasion Ireland, and specifically his encounter 76 00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:15,320 Speaker 2: with natives of Ossary, who spoke of how a man 77 00:05:15,440 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 2: and a woman of their people were picked to undergo 78 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 2: a seven year transformation into wolf. The locals end up 79 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 2: bringing the priest to visit the dying she wolf and 80 00:05:24,360 --> 00:05:28,160 Speaker 2: give her last rites. In this moment, the male counterpart 81 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:31,880 Speaker 2: peels away the wolf's hide from her body, revealing the 82 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,919 Speaker 2: form of an old woman within. It's a perplexing story, 83 00:05:36,200 --> 00:05:39,360 Speaker 2: as priest points out, it's a tale told by an invader. 84 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 2: Gerald of Wales was half Norman and half Welsh and 85 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:45,599 Speaker 2: certainly not Irish, and the story concerns the traditions and 86 00:05:45,640 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 2: customs of a conquered people. Furthermore, as Ogden points out, 87 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:52,320 Speaker 2: the story is all the weirder when you consider that 88 00:05:52,400 --> 00:05:55,120 Speaker 2: the people of Ossary have to contend with all of 89 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 2: this leacanthropy because they were cursed by a priest and 90 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:02,760 Speaker 2: in later tellings of the same story by Saint Patrick himself, 91 00:06:03,279 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 2: all for the crime of being disruptive when he tried 92 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 2: to convert them to Christianity. So driving out snakes is 93 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:13,080 Speaker 2: one thing, but cursing locals to become werewolves surely quite another. 94 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:20,200 Speaker 2: In she Wolf, historian Merely Metsi explores Estonian werewolves, specifically 95 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 2: accounts from the Isle of Sarema, where tales of female 96 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 2: werewolves are more common than tales of male werewolves. Apparently, 97 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 2: Estonia is rich in werewolf traditions, which survive in the 98 00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:36,000 Speaker 2: form of various fairy tales, legends, and also some historic 99 00:06:36,040 --> 00:06:41,000 Speaker 2: accounts of witch trials. Metsiti explores the topic from a 100 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:44,039 Speaker 2: number of different angles, but the overall argument that I 101 00:06:44,040 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 2: found most remarkable was that the predominance of female werewolf 102 00:06:47,920 --> 00:06:51,839 Speaker 2: tales and Estonian traditions may connect to greater levels of 103 00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 2: ginger equality in pre Christian Estonia and a definite loss 104 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:02,720 Speaker 2: of those rights as Christian influences permeate Estonian society. Furthermore, 105 00:07:02,920 --> 00:07:06,240 Speaker 2: we may refer back to older connections between the wolf 106 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:10,960 Speaker 2: and fertility magic, traditional observations of lupine motherhood, and the 107 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,880 Speaker 2: link between maternity and sexuality that was subsequently eradicated under 108 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:19,360 Speaker 2: the influence of Christian culture. In other words, while laws 109 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 2: and top down societal norms might have subjugated women, their 110 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 2: traditional power in Estonia was not so easily erased, and 111 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:30,280 Speaker 2: we see it remain as protest as recognition and so 112 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 2: forth in the tales of Women with the Secret Mind 113 00:07:33,720 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 2: of wolves. One Estonian story shared in Mesave's chapter encapsulates 114 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 2: several of these ideas. The wife also has wolf pups. 115 00:07:43,960 --> 00:07:46,960 Speaker 2: There are different versions, but it essentially tells the story 116 00:07:46,960 --> 00:07:49,600 Speaker 2: of a woman who goes into the woods to hunt 117 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:52,640 Speaker 2: and secure meat for the family, while her husband seems 118 00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:54,840 Speaker 2: to stay at home at the cabin and seemingly just 119 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 2: complain about how chilly it is, citing the fact that 120 00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:01,200 Speaker 2: their child is too cold. The wife tells them that 121 00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:03,560 Speaker 2: their child is better off than those who sleep in 122 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:06,520 Speaker 2: the straw behind the house, and when the husband goes 123 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 2: out to investigate, he finds several wolf pups, which he 124 00:08:10,040 --> 00:08:13,760 Speaker 2: promptly kills. The next night, while the man lounges in 125 00:08:13,840 --> 00:08:17,000 Speaker 2: the sauna, a great wolf bursts in through the door 126 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,400 Speaker 2: and attacks him. He manages to defend himself. He burns the. 127 00:08:20,360 --> 00:08:23,640 Speaker 3: Wolf with a pair of tongs, scaring the creature off, 128 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:28,280 Speaker 3: and later via the old identifying wound trope, he learns 129 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 3: that the wolf was in fact his own wife, seeking 130 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,040 Speaker 3: vengeance for his killing of her. 131 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:35,559 Speaker 2: Wild wolf children. 132 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,760 Speaker 3: Female werewolf stories continue to entertain us while also retaining 133 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 3: their ability to intentionally or unintentionally reveal much about the 134 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:49,719 Speaker 3: times and places they emerge from, revealing both negative societal 135 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:54,040 Speaker 3: ideas about women as well as more celebratory and even 136 00:08:54,200 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 3: subversive ideas about feminine power. Tune in for additional episodes 137 00:08:59,160 --> 00:09:02,040 Speaker 3: of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalius to Pendium 138 00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 3: each week. As always, you can email us at contact 139 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:16,319 Speaker 3: at stuffdo Blow your Mind dot com. 140 00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 141 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:22,240 Speaker 1: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 142 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,160 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.