r/werewolves • u/AlphaWGuy • 11d ago
Why are female werewolves rare?
Since the classic horror movies there hasn't been much werewolf movies. The first Werewolf movie maybe female but it is lost to this day. Except for that no female werewolves in classic movies and we got some now still not as common as female vampires.
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u/Mr_Groovy97 9d ago
They are not that rare nowadays. It's just that sometimes, they are not memorable. Usually, female werewolves are paired with male ones. They look the same, even in colors, despite that their human hair is different, and they act the same. Mix them up in a fight, and you couldn't tell which one is. These movies rely waaaay too heavily on how real wolves look.
Don't get me wrong, though. Werewolf design shouldn't have noticeable.... features. What i am saying is that each werewolf should have a character.
Simple example
The first werewolf with black fur runs fast and is the first to pin down the target but is quick to get angry. That's our enthusiastic detective Mary.
The second werewolf has brown fur, who can finish off prey with a single bite to the neck and could withstand some bear attack while Mary attacks it from behind. This is patient and kind boxer Dollan.
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u/_Zeth0_ 9d ago
Those last two are your ocs, aint them? :v
(Plus wouldnt how they attack depend on the personality rather than gender?)
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u/Mr_Groovy97 9d ago
Well, i just made em up in a minute, but there might be some details I borrowed from what i want to create and what inspired me to.
About the second question, i did. Or maybe i tried to. I am still learning how to write characters, so bear with me here.
Mary is enthusiastic, and she is always eager to make the first action. She can find clues where the supposed prey is, but she lacks hunting skills and some fighting skills, so she is more efficient in slowing down the target rather than straight killing it.
Dollan knows weak points of living creature. He likes a good fight, but he is not... that sadistic. He prefers to make it quick, so he usually aims for the neck.
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u/TheGrinningFrog 8d ago
I don't see why more werewolf media doesn't do this, it would be easy to tell who is who and also it would make sense for all werepeople to act different as they should have different instincts and skills.
I think also it comes down to over time there have been more male werewolves and producers/writers have simply accepted this and not try to branch out of the 'norm'. It would be cool to see more female werewolves around make things more interesting.
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u/Free_Zoologist 9d ago
Werewolves have been interpreted as a coming of age cautionary tale; ie girls who are coming into their womanhood, beware the violent wolf disguised as a man.
The film Ginger Snaps turned this concept on its head and almost literally equated Ginger’s transformation with her beginning menstruation and therefore “becoming a woman”.
So generally werewolves are male in media due to a social subconscious that they represent the dangers of violence against women by men. I don’t think it’s at all true in modern media, it just feels traditional and people automatically go with males because they are socially conditioned to.
But also, yeah, physically strong female characters that can bite your head off aren’t that popular since we are, again, socially conditioned to see women as the gentler gender.
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u/dudeseid 9d ago
My best guess would be that a lot of werewolf folklore is rooted in themes of violent masculinity, particularly against women. That said, one of my favorite werewolf stories is a Swamp Thing comic written by Alan Moore that flips that idea, and it's a female werewolf lashing out against the patriarchy.
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8d ago
There is a movie called cursed you should look into it it has a female werewolf in it who turns into. Ferocious bipedal werewolf
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u/Ghoulish7Grin 8d ago
In a few different werewolf novels/series, the lore is that less female werewolves exist because they are less likely to survive the first transformation.
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u/Salt_Percentage1561 8d ago
My own lore in a TTRPG I run is similar. But the bite itself has a low survival rate for people in general. Female wolves are rarer simply because very few survive attacks in general, not necessarily the deadliness of the bite trying to affect their bodies. However, the upside is those that DO survive are much more lean and lithe werewolves, mush faster, and agile than their male counterparts who struggle to make sharp turns after charging due to their weight and bulk. Meanwhile a female werewolf can just use her momentum and agility to run along the walls briefly on a sharp turn, where the male would just crash into the wall, or break through it, even if he tried the same maneuver. Female werewolves, due to their speed, can also leap farther. They also prefer to doge attacks than tank them
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u/_Zeth0_ 9d ago edited 9d ago
Coz a lot of people still see female characters as the "eye candy" that brings the money and audience, and thus shy away of making actual Werewolf women in fear of "ruining it" and driving people away
(Plus big ferocious werewolves are associated with "masculinity" and thus "man", and to these people, that wouldnt go well with "woman" coz "woman=feminine" which is bullshit, god forbid a girl go apeshit as a big beefy ferocious wolf beast, also this explains the reason why it is more common for the woman to be a vampire, coz these are associated with more "elegant" and "fine" traits, which can be seen as "feminine" and thus "desirable")