Werewolf:
A werewolf is a human being who changes into a wolf. Accounts of such beings have circulated in Europe since classical antiquity, and the causes and characteristics of the phenomenon or condition some- times termed "lycanthropy" have long been debated in Western culture. Although genuine belief in werewolves persisted into the twentieth century, various scholarly explanations of belief in the phenomenon have also been advanced. Physicians, for example, have considered lycanthropy to be a disease of the mind and body since ancient times. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, at the height of the witch-hunts (when a number of alleged werewolves were sentenced to death), the focus of debate concerning the phenomenon shifted from a medical perspective to ecclesiastical questions about whether the Devil could empower an actual transformation or merely the illu- on of transformation. Throughout this period a number of medical scholars maintained that the condition was a form of madness or melancholy, but it was not until the late seventeenth century that this view regained widespread credence. The Enlightenment rejection of superstitious or occult beliefs in favour of Reason lent further weight to this interpretation, which remained the dominant explanation for lycanthropy nineteenth century. Nineteenth-century scholars' commitment to the principles of sci ntific inquiry led to other rational explanations of the phenomenon it was argued that belief in the werewolf is a superstition originating in such sources as the crimes of sociopaths, a atavistic craving for blood or human flesh, or new mythological patterns brought about by mistaken word associations (the disease of language studied by comparative mythologists). Western scholars working in the emergent science" of anthropology also revealed that belief in the transformation of humans into wolves has animated the traditions of Native Americans who have long coexisted with wolves. This led to speculation that the myth had evolved from the practice of donning animal skins to hunt fight or dance. With the resurgence of interest in the occult signalled by the popularity of spiritualism in the mid-to late nineteenth century. the werewolf was even explained as an actual manifestation resulting from an individual's mesmeric projection of an astral body.
Lycanthropy: Mythical transformation of man into Wolf
Women who run with the wolves
If variants on the struggle against the "beast within' have dramatized the experience of male lycanthropy, the pervasive cultural association of with nature, embodiment and biology has animated most inity accounts of female lycanthropy. In contrast to the male were re- sistance to his affliction, a range of narratives from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which featured hedonistic female werewolves revelling in their lycanthropic powers suggested that lycanthropy is more "natural" in women than in men. Even when female werewolves are afflicted by a curse or some other external force, their lycanthropy has still been represented as "their fault', the consequence of a feminine tendency towards the pleasures of the flesh. For example, Sara de Camp-d'Avesnes of Franklin Gregory's The upon every seventh eldest child in her family's lineage, while Aalo, the werewolf in Aino Kallas's The Wolf 's Bride (930), has red hair and a witch mole; but, despite these predestined susceptibilities to lycanthropy, the condition is still presented in both cases as a result of the woman's covert lusts. Aalo, for instance, although she resists the call of the Diabolus sylvarum the spirit of the forest and the wolves nevertheless ripened in the fire of desire, like grain in the sun, for the hour that was to come .2 Eventually, "of her own will she surren- dered her spirit, soul and body, to the demon, to be guided thereafter by him. In other twentieth-century stories, women with no special propensity for evil are still threatened by seduction into lycanthropy by an evil influence, and need to be rescued by such werewolf slaying heroes as Seabury Quinn's psychic detective Jules de Grandin. In all these cases of female lycanthropy, it is "the soul-destroying, fearful joy of Sensuality' inherent in women, who are "more approachable to (Satan's] wiles than men which leads them into trouble. Such ideas about the feminine affinity for the dubious sensuality of forests and wolves were perhaps most clearly articulated in the repeated pictorial exhibition in the pages of the pulp magazines of scantily clad women happily consorting with wolves (Figures no-19).
Coudray, C. B. du (2006) The Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within. LONDON: I. B.Tauris & Company.
Mythology: Shape shifting
By associating the existence of werewolves with religious ideas, such as the Devil, instaantly the perspective of the human hybrid becomes a danger and a threat wich must be destroyed.
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Helvetica Light is an easy to read font, with tall and narrow letters, that works well on almost every site.
This suggestion that lycanthropy is more likely in women, contradicts the work produced in the film industry. Beasts, wolves and mosters are all typically men int he film insutry, and the majority of women, even as monsters, still portray a sexuallised character, making them appealing no matter how monstrous they are supposed to be.
Smith, D. 1986
Feminist points are made throughout this text, appearing as though women are easily cursed because of their desire for 'pleasures of the flesh'. The idea that women can only be saved by a stronger being who can slay werewolves, is very sexist in itself, stereotyping weakness in women.
A common shape shifter, the Werewolf, has been recreated many times in film and TV. On the right, an images of a makeup featured in Dick Smiths Monster Makeup Handbook created in the early 80s. Through time you can see how materials and techniques have advanced, and how other techniques have stayed, such as laying on hair and the adhesives and colouring techniques used.
As werewolves have developed, they become believeable because of the combination of practical and CG effects. In films such as Twilight: New Moon the wolves are comepletely CGI with no practical effects applied to the actors/ actress'.