I feel a bit lame linking to my own essay, but it's quicker than regurgitating all the points in it: "Why Is Faerie Ruled by Queens?"
If it wouldn't have been terribly off-topic for the conference, I might have tried to go into the flip side, which is human women and supernatural men. It seems to me that pattern happens the most often when the supernatural is seen as predatory/bestial (as opposed to mystical/irrational, the faerie pattern, which is so often feminine). Those qualities can be hyper-masculinized, whereas "manly" and "fey" don't play as well together. And, of course, some of it has to do with the sources of these narratives: Dracula, the archetypal vampire, is male, and on the werewolf side you have the whole "alpha wolf" concept. (Which apparently isn't nearly as true as we think. But I digress.)
I really like all of your points, too, about reader identification and othering and the dating metaphor and even the practical, craft-related concern of exposition. I can think of some ways to flip those on their head and write from a supernatural female perspective -- some authors have done that already -- but it doesn't erase the pattern.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-07-18 05:11 pm (UTC)If it wouldn't have been terribly off-topic for the conference, I might have tried to go into the flip side, which is human women and supernatural men. It seems to me that pattern happens the most often when the supernatural is seen as predatory/bestial (as opposed to mystical/irrational, the faerie pattern, which is so often feminine). Those qualities can be hyper-masculinized, whereas "manly" and "fey" don't play as well together. And, of course, some of it has to do with the sources of these narratives: Dracula, the archetypal vampire, is male, and on the werewolf side you have the whole "alpha wolf" concept. (Which apparently isn't nearly as true as we think. But I digress.)
I really like all of your points, too, about reader identification and othering and the dating metaphor and even the practical, craft-related concern of exposition. I can think of some ways to flip those on their head and write from a supernatural female perspective -- some authors have done that already -- but it doesn't erase the pattern.