![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Rant on Werewolf Behavior
Sep. 28th, 2011 10:07 amBecause I live under a rock, I'm only just now getting around to reading Moon Called by Patricia Briggs. I've heard good things about the Mercy Thompson series and figured I'd give it a shot since it has werewolves (and vampires), and I did need something totally different while I give myself a breather from reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series (I've read the first two thus far).
The writing is good and the plot is interesting despite not making me white knuckle the book and putting me on the edge of my seat. But of course, there's something that's bugging me and it's something I see in a lot of paranormals with werewolves, and that's this excusing of bad behavior on the part of the males.
Look, I get that werewolves aren't technically supposed to be humans. In most books about them, they might start out as human and are then transformed, but the end result is that they are other, no longer 100% human. Most retain some sense of their humanity and make a point of interacting with humans, or are at least forced to live alongside humans and exist in their world peacefully. So, with that in mind, can we please stop using biology to excuse horrible misogynistic, sexist, and violent behavior?
In Moon Called, Mercy remarks that un-mated females are lower than males (and so far, it's only hetereosexual couples I've seen mentioned). Always. A female werewolf can only gain rank by pairing up with a male who has power. She remarks that even though she isn't in Adam's (the Alpha of her region) pack, he talks down to her and expects her to act submissive (i.e. no direct eye contact). Mercy does this to avoid getting harmed because, well, werewolves just can't help it. It's in their biology to be violent and dominant, and gee, doesn't this sound familiar?
Perhaps a werewolf would have more biologically-based reasons to respond with violence to a perceived slight, and perhaps the females of their wild cousins are supposedly always submissive when not paired up*, but for fuck's sake they're still at least partially human and show they can control their beast so they're not out running on rampages. You've even mentioned this several times that with a strong dominant/Alpha around, they're under control. So why do the males get the same pass we give men in real life. "Oh, it's just their testosterone makes them that way! They can't help but be aggressive!"
Bull. Fucking. Shit. Stop excusing bad behavior. Maybe male werewolves are assholes because, well, they're being assholes. We don't need to excuse it. If you'd just said, "They're jerks and I don't want the hassle of a confrontation," I'd be fine with it. At least then you'd still be calling it what it was and not excusing what should be inexcusable behavior.
Yes, I get that it's fantasy/fiction, but that's why I think I should expect to escape the crap I deal with in real life. And your mileage may vary.
* = And I don't believe this is true. Also what's not true are the whole notion of alphas and betas in wolf packs. More research is proving what we've thought of captive wolf behavior is not reflective of wild wolf. ...I'm not making sense there, am I? Colds suck.
The writing is good and the plot is interesting despite not making me white knuckle the book and putting me on the edge of my seat. But of course, there's something that's bugging me and it's something I see in a lot of paranormals with werewolves, and that's this excusing of bad behavior on the part of the males.
Look, I get that werewolves aren't technically supposed to be humans. In most books about them, they might start out as human and are then transformed, but the end result is that they are other, no longer 100% human. Most retain some sense of their humanity and make a point of interacting with humans, or are at least forced to live alongside humans and exist in their world peacefully. So, with that in mind, can we please stop using biology to excuse horrible misogynistic, sexist, and violent behavior?
In Moon Called, Mercy remarks that un-mated females are lower than males (and so far, it's only hetereosexual couples I've seen mentioned). Always. A female werewolf can only gain rank by pairing up with a male who has power. She remarks that even though she isn't in Adam's (the Alpha of her region) pack, he talks down to her and expects her to act submissive (i.e. no direct eye contact). Mercy does this to avoid getting harmed because, well, werewolves just can't help it. It's in their biology to be violent and dominant, and gee, doesn't this sound familiar?
Perhaps a werewolf would have more biologically-based reasons to respond with violence to a perceived slight, and perhaps the females of their wild cousins are supposedly always submissive when not paired up*, but for fuck's sake they're still at least partially human and show they can control their beast so they're not out running on rampages. You've even mentioned this several times that with a strong dominant/Alpha around, they're under control. So why do the males get the same pass we give men in real life. "Oh, it's just their testosterone makes them that way! They can't help but be aggressive!"
Bull. Fucking. Shit. Stop excusing bad behavior. Maybe male werewolves are assholes because, well, they're being assholes. We don't need to excuse it. If you'd just said, "They're jerks and I don't want the hassle of a confrontation," I'd be fine with it. At least then you'd still be calling it what it was and not excusing what should be inexcusable behavior.
Yes, I get that it's fantasy/fiction, but that's why I think I should expect to escape the crap I deal with in real life. And your mileage may vary.
* = And I don't believe this is true. Also what's not true are the whole notion of alphas and betas in wolf packs. More research is proving what we've thought of captive wolf behavior is not reflective of wild wolf. ...I'm not making sense there, am I? Colds suck.
