“There is a certain irony here, because many of the first werewolves to be outed in society from the 16th through the 18th centuries were actually women. Just as our American ancestors had their Salem Witch Trials, Europe had its Werewolf Trials, and a large number of the so-called “werewolves” tortured and burned at the stake were female. […]
In the 17th-century werewolf trials of Estonia, women were about 150 percent more likely to be accused of lycanthropy; however, they were about 100 percent less likely to be remembered for it.”
“Here’s also a pronounced lack of female werewolves in popular culture. Their near absence in literature and film is explained away by various fancies: they’re sterile, an aberration, or—most galling of all—they don’t even exist.Their omission from popular culture does one thing very effectively: It prevents us, and men especially, from being confronted by hairy, ugly, uncontrollable women. Shapeshifting women in fantasy stories tend to transform into animals that we consider feminine, such as cats or birds, which are pretty and dainty, and occasionally slick and wicked serpents. But because the werewolf represents traits that are accepted as masculine—strength, large size, violence, and hirsutism—we tend to think of the werewolf as being naturally male. The female werewolf is disturbing because she entirely breaks the rules of femininity.”
— Julia Oldham, Why Are There No Great Female Werewolves?
I always thought this was wild, because the idea of a person who goes through a change once a month, like the moon and its tides, with the spilling of blood, was such an obvious metaphor.
That all werewolves aren’t ‘AFAB’ feels like a man in history did what we always do and went ‘Hey you know what these cool stories could do without? Women.’ And no-one’s done a popular enough take on it ever since.
Fun fact! According to folklorists, all myths, fairy tales and nursery rhymes that are about some dude named Jack are talking about the same guy
What this means is, that ever single one of the following
- Jack Be Nimble (who jumped over burning candles for fun)
- Jack the Giant Killer (who sold his cows for magic beans then robbed and killed a giant)
- Stingy Jack (who tricked the devil so many times he was banned from both afterlives)
- Jack of Jack and Jill (who splattered his head open falling down a hill)
- Jack o’ Lantern (the headless horseman spirit of halloween)
- Jack Frost (the spirit who heralds the end of autumn and the start of winter)
Are literally the same jackass who made so many bad life choices he ended up an immortal ice dullahan with a pumpkin serving as both his head and flashlight
but what an incredible journey he had getting there
He’s Ye Olde Florida Man
DID YOU CALL HIM A JACKASS ON PURPOSE
my fave bit of black dog folklore is that in some folklore there is a belief that the first person buried in a cemetery stays there and doesn’t cross over and helps other spirits move on and protects them from evil spirits, now naturally people want to avoid this fate for their loved ones and themselves so they would sometimes bury a dog first and it would return in the shape of a big black dog and protect the newly dead from evil spirits and occasionally the living as well
this kind of spirit is called a church grim
You mean it’s called a good doggie.