#werewolf discourse

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

Just fake werewolf discourse posts 🐺

[werewolfcave]

You can't even argue with me, I'm an alpha and the most you'd be is an omega.

[lytefoot]

Hello, could you explain to me why Rowling making lycanthropy a metaphor for AIDs is harmful or not harmful?

Err... probably not very coherently, not with my current energy level.

Because the entire area of speculative fiction making metaphors for real life issues is remarkably complex.

On the whole, I lean toward this particular metaphor being somewhat tone deaf but well intentioned, but then, I grew up in the '80s and '90s, when practically everything in the media had some sort of metaphor or problem play about HIV/AIDS, and I'm rather jaded about them.

(For the most part, "tone deaf but well intentioned" describes most of the problematic things JKR has done and said.)

So... helpful or harmful. Let me tell you guys a story.

There are two things you need to know about me in order to make sense of this story. One is that I was raised new age pagan in a very culturally Christian part of the United States. (My public elementary school had a Christmas concert with readings from the Gospel of Luke. The kids at school thought I was Jewish because they knew I wasn't Christian and Jewish was the only other option they were aware of.) The other is that I learned to read very early, and commenced to read all my mom's books from her childhood.

So I was about six when I read my mom's copies of the Chronicles of Narnia. They were the first books I read over and over again until they fell completely apart. I knew them pretty much by heart by the time I was eight. Which was the first time I heard any coherent version of the Jesus story. (Up to that point I was rather under the impression that Jesus was one of those Christmas characters, like Santa and Frosty. The Easter bit of the story was less all-pervasive for some reason. Maybe just not suitable for little ears.) And my immediate response was, of course, "Oh, like Aslan."

This made me real popular.

Here's the thing about metaphors in speculative fiction. There are three effects they actually have. They might plant seeds of doubt about prejudices held by adults who are already enculturated, and they might serve as a cognitive frame for kids who haven't encountered the thing yet. And they might create various reactions in the people the metaphor is actually about.

If a kid first encounters prejudice related to HIV/AIDS and thinks, "This reminds me of how everyone was so mean to nice Professor Lupin," well, that's a good thing. In that sense, it becomes more of a metaphor for prejudice in general, but comes down on the side of "helpful."

As for adults... like many metaphors in speculative fiction, I don't think the werewolves-as-HIV metaphor is going to affect adults one way or another. Like too many authors trying to craft a metaphor for prejudice, JKR had made her prejudice too justified. (Werewolves, unlike people with HIV, are legitimately dangerous to have around.) This would be "neutral, but unsuccessful."

And as for the proxy-representation function... I don't want to speak for people with HIV/AIDS here, but those I have seen react have mostly considered the metaphor tone deaf, and have felt badly represented by it. This is largely a coincidence of which tweets I happen to see and should not be taken as a representative sample, but if my impressions are correct, that would come down on the side of "harmful."

(Note: JKR is a good storyteller and does a great job of creating compelling, interesting characters. There are definitely problems with her text, and I understand the perspective of those who think the problems are enough that they don't want to engage with her work, but the level of hate she receives in the fandom is on the whole excessive.)

[ratlesbian]

Descriptions of werewolves in their wolf states: Like a wolf. Exactly like a wolf. 100% just like the way a wolf looks. Maybe more powerful.

Every goddamn movie director ever: Ok so like, if I took a coyote with mange, right. And I stretched it out to make it big. But it’s really thin. And ugly. No tail. Big feet and cat eyes. Perfect. That’s a werewolf.

[drsilverfish]

Werewolf My Beloved... 12x16

Werewolves epitomise the journey Sam and Dean have been on since the beginning of the show - away from their father’s black and white view of the supernatural towards a more nuanced “grey area” perspective. 

Remember Madison the werewolf from 2x17 Heart?

 Sam fell for her but then they all realised she’d been bitten, and turned. The Winchesters were unable to cure her, so she begged Sam to kill her, and, very reluctantly, he did so. This was giant mirror at the time for their father’s instruction to Dean that, if he couldn’t save Sam (from the fate Azaezel had planned for him) he’d have to kill hm.

Dean gave up his father’s black and white view of the supernatural (which was much more deeply ingrained in him, the “good little solider”, than in Sam, the rebellious one) first and foremost because of his love for his psychic-powers, fed-with-demon-blood-as-a-baby little brother. He refused to follow his father’s (posthumous) orders.

But, it took Dean a long and rocky road (Castiel being an early exception) to extend that beneft of the doubt to other supernatural creatures. He killed Sam’s childhood friend Amy the kitsune in 7x03 The Girl Next Door, precipitating a major fight between the brothers. 

Dean’s growth is clearly evidenced in 8x04 Bitten, another werewolf episode, in which he agrees (to Sam’s surprise) to let Kate the werewolf go. Of course, much of this growth has been precipitated by Dean’s purgatory friendship with Benny the vampire, something Sam doesn’t find out about until the next episode, 8x05 Blood Brother (when Sam has his own prejudiced moment).

Garth gets a mention in Meredith Glynn’s 12x16 Ladies Drink Free. 

The last time we saw Garth was in, 9x12 Sharp Teeth, happy with his pure-blood werewolf wife Bess, having been wolfed himself (to save his life following a car accident). Again, the Winchesters make the choice to let them go in peace (as they are not attacking humans).

This is the episode where Garth tells Dean “Look, amigo, I know this all looks nuts. But I found it. Love and a family? Who cares where that comes from?” A mirror, in the subtext for Dean/ Castiel.

Werewolf narrative on SPN thus travels from 2x17 doomed love (Madison/ Sam) where the Winchesters make the choice to kill the werewolf, through 8x04 Bitten where the Winchesters make the choice to let the werewolf go (and 10x04 Paper Moon where they meet Kate the werewolf again and let her go a second time) to 9x12 Sharp Teeth where their friend Garth has found love with a werewolf.

From doomed love (Sam/ Madison) to happy love (Garth/ Bess) - a mirror, in subtext, for Dean and Castiel’s search to find love with one another, despite the fact that they are from different species, one of them being supernatural (and despite the prohibition on angel/ human love spelled out for us in 12x10, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets). 

In 12x16 the Winchesters (semi thanks to Mick) finally find a cure for early-stage werewolf bite and Claire (whom they love like a daughter) is saved. Is Claire’s transition in 12x16, back from werewolf to human, another mirror in subtext, for Castiel eventually becoming human? 

Certainly, the fact that Mick spends the episode in a tan trench-coat, links the subtext of SPN werewolf narrative, i,e. the transition from doomed love to happy love, firmly to Castiel.

Thus, no monster more epitomises the grey areas of Sam and Dean’s supernatural world than the werewolf. Sam has slept with one (albeit neither of them knew that at the time) and their friend Garth is one.

Therefore, it’s no surprise a werewolf episode should rear its head mid-season 12, or that the theme of the season, a black and white view of the supernatural (John Winchester’s, and now apparently Mary Winchester’s perspective) vs a grey area view of the supernatural (their sons’ perspective) should be explicitly spelled out in it, by Dean (grey area) to BMOL Mick (black and white). 

The theme of parents vs children is further reinforced through the return of Claire Novak, Sam and Dean’s semi-adopted wayward daughter.  

At this point in their lives, if Claire had chosen to live as a werewolf, Sam and Dean would have supported her to do that (without killing anyone) - not something John, or at this point, Mary, would have approved of.

This clash of values chez Winchester generations is going to come to a head, and all the signs point to (Sam and) Dean’s connection to Castiel being at the center of it.  

[werewolfcave]

The origin of werewolves was a wolfMAN not woman

[werewolfcave]

You're just a neko but for dogs.

[werewolfcave]

You're not welcome in the werewolf community.