WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: The Werewolf, Part 5 - The She-Wolf

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>As we continue our look at the werewolf in myth,

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<v Speaker 2>legend and media, we now turn to the female werewolf,

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<v Speaker 2>a gendered take on the monster that might, at first glance,

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<v Speaker 2>seem to be mere titillation, but the roots of the

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<v Speaker 2>concept weave their way through a variety of contemplations about

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<v Speaker 2>femininity and the wild in all their forms. I want

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<v Speaker 2>to return to twenty seventeen's A She Wolf, A Cultural

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<v Speaker 2>History of Female Werewolves, which features multiple chapters by different

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<v Speaker 2>authors that examine female werewolves in myth, legend, and media,

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<v Speaker 2>everything from century old legends to modern cartoons. As previously mentioned,

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<v Speaker 2>the book's editor, Hannah Priest argues that European werewolf narratives

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<v Speaker 2>revolve around the threat posed by wolves to domesticated animals,

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<v Speaker 2>ultimately a threat to male owned agriculture and property. When

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<v Speaker 2>the werewolf is male, the threat comes from outside the

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<v Speaker 2>male landowner's domain, the outlaw wolf wanderer, who might seek

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<v Speaker 2>to tear through the defenses and kill livestock or family members. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 2>female werewolves tend to emerge from within the male landowner's domain,

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<v Speaker 2>often endangering children and serving as an overall threat to domesticity.

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<v Speaker 2>Of note, the first Mexican werewolf movie, Le Loba or

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<v Speaker 2>The She Wolf, from nineteen sixty five, features both a

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<v Speaker 2>female and a male werewolf, and they correspond to this

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<v Speaker 2>form quite perfectly. The female werewolf the daughter of a

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<v Speaker 2>well to do Mexican landowner and scientists, and the male

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<v Speaker 2>werewolf pursuit her from afar. This gothic slice of Golden

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<v Speaker 2>Age Mexican cinema, the werewolf seems to represent the wild

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<v Speaker 2>and uncontrollable elements of someone within the family unit and

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<v Speaker 2>someone from beyond it. For more on La Loba, see

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<v Speaker 2>our recent episode of Weird House Cinema on the film.

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<v Speaker 2>It's interesting that both the first Mexican werewolf movie and

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<v Speaker 2>the first werewolf motion picture period a now lost nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>thirteen short titled The Werewolf, feature female licanthropes, but the

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<v Speaker 2>vast majority of werewolf tales lean heavily toward male, often

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<v Speaker 2>hyper masculine visions of wolf human hybridity Likewise, while the

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<v Speaker 2>wolf man is often presented as a lone wolf, the

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<v Speaker 2>female wolf woman is often connected to a social group

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<v Speaker 2>or part of a mated pair. This is interesting in

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<v Speaker 2>how it connects to previous discussions of what our ancestors

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<v Speaker 2>saw of themselves in wolves and vice versa. As highly

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<v Speaker 2>social animals, wild wolves reflect aspects of human family and society,

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<v Speaker 2>and it's only rational for these elements to influence our

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<v Speaker 2>conceptions of human wolf hybridity as well. In fact, as

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<v Speaker 2>author J. Kate mentions later on in the She Wolf

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<v Speaker 2>book quote, aside from a brief fashion for presenting female

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<v Speaker 2>werewolves as lonely night stalkers in Victorian literature, the dominant

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<v Speaker 2>presentation of female wear wolves from the Middle Ages onwards

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<v Speaker 2>has been as part of a social unit comprising other

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<v Speaker 2>were wolves or other humans. I won't attempt to summarize

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<v Speaker 2>everything explored in the book. Definitely pick a copy up

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<v Speaker 2>for yourself if you're interested in this topic as i am.

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<v Speaker 2>There's an entire chapter concerning females in the RPG Werewolf

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<v Speaker 2>the Apocalypse game, for example, but it explores the various

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<v Speaker 2>ways in which female werewolf treatments explore societal ideas concerning

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<v Speaker 2>female connectedness to nature and societal norms related to body, hair, menstruation, sexuality, aging,

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<v Speaker 2>and other topics, and in some cases, certainly, the female

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<v Speaker 2>werewolf can be yet another example of the monstrous feminine,

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<v Speaker 2>in which some aspect of female bodies or female experience

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<v Speaker 2>is othered from the standpoint of patriarchal anxiety. Overall, however,

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<v Speaker 2>a good monster tale can reveal and convey much more.

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<v Speaker 2>The werewolf stands as a nexus between the wild and

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<v Speaker 2>the civilized, between freedom and taboo, between liberty and control,

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<v Speaker 2>and takes on so many additional meanings when applied specifically

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<v Speaker 2>to women. In Daniel Ogden's excellent twenty twenty one book

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<v Speaker 2>The Werewolf in the Ancient World, he of course highlights

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<v Speaker 2>the difficulty in deciding what exactly constitutes a werewolf versus

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<v Speaker 2>other modes of hybrid monsters in various cultures that had

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<v Speaker 2>no precise word for werewolf, and this applies to both

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<v Speaker 2>masculine werewolves and feminine werewolves. Of course, he does mention

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<v Speaker 2>an accountant that priest singles out as the entry point

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<v Speaker 2>of the female werewolf into literature, that is World of

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<v Speaker 2>Wales's twelfth century CE Topographia Hibernia. Gerald recounts a priest's

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<v Speaker 2>travels in post Norman invasion Ireland, and specifically his encounter

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<v Speaker 2>with natives of Ossary, who spoke of how a man

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<v Speaker 2>and a woman of their people were picked to undergo

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<v Speaker 2>a seven year transformation into wolf. The locals end up

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<v Speaker 2>bringing the priest to visit the dying she wolf and

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<v Speaker 2>give her last rites. In this moment, the male counterpart

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<v Speaker 2>peels away the wolf's hide from her body, revealing the

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<v Speaker 2>form of an old woman within. It's a perplexing story,

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<v Speaker 2>as priest points out, it's a tale told by an invader.

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<v Speaker 2>Gerald of Wales was half Norman and half Welsh and

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<v Speaker 2>certainly not Irish, and the story concerns the traditions and

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<v Speaker 2>customs of a conquered people. Furthermore, as Ogden points out,

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<v Speaker 2>the story is all the weirder when you consider that

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<v Speaker 2>the people of Ossary have to contend with all of

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<v Speaker 2>this leacanthropy because they were cursed by a priest and

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<v Speaker 2>in later tellings of the same story by Saint Patrick himself,

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<v Speaker 2>all for the crime of being disruptive when he tried

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<v Speaker 2>to convert them to Christianity. So driving out snakes is

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<v Speaker 2>one thing, but cursing locals to become werewolves surely quite another.

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<v Speaker 2>In she Wolf, historian Merely Metsi explores Estonian werewolves, specifically

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<v Speaker 2>accounts from the Isle of Sarema, where tales of female

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<v Speaker 2>werewolves are more common than tales of male werewolves. Apparently,

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<v Speaker 2>Estonia is rich in werewolf traditions, which survive in the

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<v Speaker 2>form of various fairy tales, legends, and also some historic

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<v Speaker 2>accounts of witch trials. Metsiti explores the topic from a

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<v Speaker 2>number of different angles, but the overall argument that I

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<v Speaker 2>found most remarkable was that the predominance of female werewolf

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<v Speaker 2>tales and Estonian traditions may connect to greater levels of

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<v Speaker 2>ginger equality in pre Christian Estonia and a definite loss

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<v Speaker 2>of those rights as Christian influences permeate Estonian society. Furthermore,

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<v Speaker 2>we may refer back to older connections between the wolf

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<v Speaker 2>and fertility magic, traditional observations of lupine motherhood, and the

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<v Speaker 2>link between maternity and sexuality that was subsequently eradicated under

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<v Speaker 2>the influence of Christian culture. In other words, while laws

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<v Speaker 2>and top down societal norms might have subjugated women, their

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<v Speaker 2>traditional power in Estonia was not so easily erased, and

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<v Speaker 2>we see it remain as protest as recognition and so

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<v Speaker 2>forth in the tales of Women with the Secret Mind

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<v Speaker 2>of wolves. One Estonian story shared in Mesave's chapter encapsulates

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<v Speaker 2>several of these ideas. The wife also has wolf pups.

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<v Speaker 2>There are different versions, but it essentially tells the story

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<v Speaker 2>of a woman who goes into the woods to hunt

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<v Speaker 2>and secure meat for the family, while her husband seems

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<v Speaker 2>to stay at home at the cabin and seemingly just

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<v Speaker 2>complain about how chilly it is, citing the fact that

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<v Speaker 2>their child is too cold. The wife tells them that

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<v Speaker 2>their child is better off than those who sleep in

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<v Speaker 2>the straw behind the house, and when the husband goes

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<v Speaker 2>out to investigate, he finds several wolf pups, which he

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<v Speaker 2>promptly kills. The next night, while the man lounges in

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<v Speaker 2>the sauna, a great wolf bursts in through the door

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<v Speaker 2>and attacks him. He manages to defend himself. He burns the.

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<v Speaker 3>Wolf with a pair of tongs, scaring the creature off,

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<v Speaker 3>and later via the old identifying wound trope, he learns

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<v Speaker 3>that the wolf was in fact his own wife, seeking

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<v Speaker 3>vengeance for his killing of her.

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<v Speaker 2>Wild wolf children.

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<v Speaker 3>Female werewolf stories continue to entertain us while also retaining

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<v Speaker 3>their ability to intentionally or unintentionally reveal much about the

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<v Speaker 3>times and places they emerge from, revealing both negative societal

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<v Speaker 3>ideas about women as well as more celebratory and even

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<v Speaker 3>subversive ideas about feminine power. Tune in for additional episodes

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<v Speaker 3>of The Monster Fact, The Artifact, or Animalius to Pendium

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<v Speaker 3>each week. As always, you can email us at contact

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<v Speaker 3>at stuffdo Blow your Mind dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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