Monsters Just Like to be Confusing...

I think it's safe to say that vampires are monsters... right? I mean, they are frightening, cunning, stealthy, and do things out of the ordinary, like Grendel who eats humans, and Aliens who plant their eggs into peoples abdomens through their mouths. What's interesting, however, is finding concrete evidence of their motivations, whether masculine or feminine.

Through Stoker's Dracula, we see so many instances of gender inversion. Count Dracula flirts, seduces, even tries to attract Jonathan Harker. These characteristics seem more feminine. All the same, Dracula being the stud that he is, lures in Lucy as well as Mina. Dracula is clever, charming, strong and manipulative, some characteristics associated with masculinity, as he enslaves Dr. Renfield. Although we all know Dracula is a male monster, his intentions and motivations are inverted; sometimes he shows dominant masculinity and sometimes he adverts to feminine actions.

A big thing that classifies vampires as monsters includes their fangs. Vampires' fangs have been seen as body parts that can penetrate the skin, a very masculine aspect. However, if Dracula penetrates the skin of Mina and Lucy by biting them and sucking their blood (very heterosexual), why do vampiresses have fangs as well? The vampiresses act with both masculinity and femininity traits. Like Dracula, the vampiresses are menacing, strong, and sexually aggressive. Also like the Count, the vampiresses use their fangs in attempts to penetrate. A reoccurring concept in Stoker's Dracula is that neither of the vampires actually penetrate Jonathan's skin. A very famous scene includes the vampiresses stroking Jonathan's neck with their lips and coming very close to taking a bite. In this scene, the vampiressess's motivations switch back and forth between masculinity and femininity.

Now, you might be wondering where Grendel, Beowulf and Aliens come into this idea of gender inversion. Grendel's mother shares similarities with the Geats and the warriors. She has maternal motivations for her son, Grendel, like the other women characters in Beowulf, however, her ultimate motivation that comes through in this epic poem is revenge for Grendel's murder, like the male characters. Similarly to Grendel's mother, the mother Alien in the movie Aliens seeks revenge for her baby aliens. Both Grendel's mother and the mother Alien have tough skin and super human strength, all signs of masculinity. Their feminine characteristics include their maternal love for their offspring, grief, and acidic blood (representing menstruation from Freudian psychology).

Do you remember Medusa from Greek Mythology? She was cursed with snakes for hair and then was beheaded by demigods in order to keep from turning to stone. Maybe she was diagnosed with hysteria... Anyways, in Stoker's Dracula, both the Count and Lucy Westenra are beheaded. In this time period, hysteria was a madness that all Victorian sexuality references to feminism. Lucy's beheading was reasonable, in this case. However, was Dracula's beheading another example of gender inversion? I would like to think so.