Supernatural and the female antagonist, or why I'm maybe not a misogynist after all
I was thinking about my (three little) Supernatural stories this evening, and how in each one, the antagonist was female (Lilith from mythology, a succubus, and a female ghost, respectively). I don't generally consider myself a woman-hating sexist pig, so making my "bad guys" female is A) proof I'm wrong or B) coming from somewhere else in my psyche. I don't think I'm fooling myself when I pick B. Where those characters come from* inside me is a place where I find women more powerful, their emotions and determination stronger than men. Hell hath no fury like a woman who's pissed, and all that. I don't think I could have written Chains with a male mythological figure, even adjusting the background story to fit one. The succubus in on rocks, now, could have just as easily been an incubus, I guess, except it might have made the Jessica angle a bit . . . stupid, actually. Bearing Witness, of course, is based on an actual ghost story based on "real"** events, but I think the story struck me so powerfully in part because Delphine LaLaurie was a woman. Not only were her actions the antithesis of the mother archetype, but they also led me to speculate that she might have been a frustrated (and deranged, and possibly truly evil) woman who wanted to study medicine and wasn't allowed to, or perhaps was the victim of a rape or a botched abortion, or... well, I don't know. She may have just needed some really strong medication. The thing is, when I try to imagine standing outside that mansion in New Orleans, listening to the story of all the people she tortured and murdered, I don't know if I would have had the same reaction if the story had focused on her husband rather than her. The horror would have been there, for sure; I don't believe anyone can stand right in front of that house, hear that story, and feel nothing. But somehow the story was more powerful for the women in it: Delphine herself and the girl who jumped from the second story window to escape her.
Hmm. Maybe there's a connection there between why I write slash and m-m gen. To me, women already have power, have depth, have a history behind everything they do. They can, archetypically speaking, be the innocent maiden, the loving mother, the wise crone, or the evil witch-and-no-I-don't-mean-pagan/Wiccan. They're real. They're powerful enough to be a match for our heroes. Men? A mystery to be explored, their depths uncharted, their emotions only real when I uncover them by writing them out. Not inherently powerful until they rise up to meet a challenge, and not capable of the great love and great cruelty of a woman under ordinary circumstances.*** I put them in extraordinary circumstances so that they feel those powerful emotions and act on them, because I want to see what will happen.
*Where Lilith and the succubus, at least, come from universally is more the fear of a powerful woman that is present in a male-dominated society. Fear of the unknown, the magical, the holder of sex and new life. For me, I see the power of woman as being potentially fearsome, but also awesome, in the most literal definition of that word.
**I have no idea about the historical accuracy of the events that lay behind the ghost story. It's not, however, one I made up.
***Erm, this may be proof that I'm a misandrist, although I don't think I have hatred of men so much as I have lack of understanding that I want to explore.
Hmm. Maybe there's a connection there between why I write slash and m-m gen. To me, women already have power, have depth, have a history behind everything they do. They can, archetypically speaking, be the innocent maiden, the loving mother, the wise crone, or the evil witch-and-no-I-don't-mean-pagan/Wiccan. They're real. They're powerful enough to be a match for our heroes. Men? A mystery to be explored, their depths uncharted, their emotions only real when I uncover them by writing them out. Not inherently powerful until they rise up to meet a challenge, and not capable of the great love and great cruelty of a woman under ordinary circumstances.*** I put them in extraordinary circumstances so that they feel those powerful emotions and act on them, because I want to see what will happen.
*Where Lilith and the succubus, at least, come from universally is more the fear of a powerful woman that is present in a male-dominated society. Fear of the unknown, the magical, the holder of sex and new life. For me, I see the power of woman as being potentially fearsome, but also awesome, in the most literal definition of that word.
**I have no idea about the historical accuracy of the events that lay behind the ghost story. It's not, however, one I made up.
***Erm, this may be proof that I'm a misandrist, although I don't think I have hatred of men so much as I have lack of understanding that I want to explore.