Let's Talk Sex

It is interesting how sexual expression is represented in Bram Stoker’s gothic horror novel Dracula and I want to take a look at the vampires versus the humans. Stoker was writing in an era where sex wasn’t discussed nearly as openly as it is now. Just three years before Dracula was published, Ruth Smyther’s released the satirical Instruction and Advice for the Young Bride booklet in 1894, filled with tips for how newlywed women should “endure” sex. Her tips include: “when he finds her, she should lie as still as possible. Bodily motion could be interpreted as sexual excitement by the optimistic husband. Sex, when it cannot be prevented, should be practiced only in total darkness” and “if he attempts to kiss her on the lips she should turn her head slightly so that the kiss falls harmlessly on her cheek instead. If he lifts her gown and attempts to kiss her any place else she should quickly pull the gown back in place, spring from the bed, and announce that nature calls her to the toilet.” These “tips” were satirical criticisms on Victorian thought about sex and obviously carry a very negative connotation with the expression of sexual desire. The silence on sex is reflected in the lack of any recorded sexual tension between newlyweds Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray. This is very different from the sexual expression between the vampiresses and Harker. When seeing the vampiresses for the first time Jonathan felt “a wicked burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” and laid waiting “looking out under my eyelashes in an agony of delightful anticipation.” Harker was clearly interested in the proceedings. One of the vampiresses “went on her knees, and bent over me, simply gloating” with a “deliberate voluptuousness as she arched her neck and licked her lips.” This is a sexually confident female. “Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and seemed about to fasten on my throat.” Her lips about to finally touch his neck, Harker “closed his eyes in languorous ecstasy and waited with a beating heart.” I mean we can really see how eager Harker is in this scene surrounded by the sexually empowered vampiresses. So what is Stoker trying to do? Is he trying to explore sexual expression in a way that it hadn’t really been before? What does it imply about the monsters who are behind the sexual fervor?

I got the Smyther quotes from this blog:

http://historyofsexuality.umwblogs.org/pre-20th-century/victorian-era-2/

The Dracula quotes are from the end of chapter 3 

Sex Sells: Grendel's Hot Mother

We live in a world full of sexism against women and men with fragile masculinities, and unfortunately, with men having a great majority of the power, that means that their depictions of things will tend to be pretty biased. As a way beef their egos and channel their masculinity, men tend to resort to taking any idea of a female antagonist and do one of two things with it: either the female is made to be overly disgusting (“ugly” if you will) or some sort of “sexed-up” seductress.  In many cases, it tends to be the latter, and this stereotypical depiction devalues the female character, because it judges the character simply based on appearance, as men often tend to do with women.

This trend can easily be seen with Grendel’s Mother in her depictions in the “Beowulf” movies that have come out in recent years. Her original descriptions in Beowulf describe her as monstrous, hair, ugly and other similar characteristics. Already, we can see the first depiction of a women, ugly and monstrous, from the original material. In addition to this, she is also given the purpose of exacting revenge for her fallen son, something which is very uncommon for women to do in this time period. She is also given acidic blood, just to drive home the monstrous factor. However, in the movies, the “monstrous” depiction is thrown out the window in favor of the sex factor.

Take for example this picture of 1999’s Grendel’s Mother. She is portrayed by a blonde, obviously attractive woman in racy clothing. It’s pretty easy to see that they are going for sexy vibe. And if you couldn’t tell from just looking at her, the director’s actually CAST a playboy playmate to play her! Her purpose in this movie is not revenge, but a form of child support. She shows up and explains to everyone that she had an affair with Hrothgar and that the resulting offspring was Grendel. Gone is the story of revenge for her murdered son, and is instead replaced by a story about her seducing the king. Now her character has transitioned from a grief stricken mother, to a malicious seductress. How can it get worse? The answer: the 2007 version of Beowulf

They aren’t even being subtle here. Here is Angelina Jolie, who had been named the sexiest woman alive at one point, nude and covered in gold paint (not shown in the picture is her high heels). If you weren’t sure that they were going for sex appeal yet, I think this makes a pretty good argument. And they went even farther; Grendel’s mother proceeds to seduce and sleep with Beowulf. It is then revealed that Hrothgar also slept with her, and again we find out that Grendel was the offspring born out of this. To be fair, in this movie she actually does react out of revenge for her son and that the whole point of sleeping with Beowulf is so she can bear another son, but this still deviates from her actions in the original text.

These two depictions represent the exact opposite of the original: she was wild, grief-stricken, vengeful, monstrous in the original, but is now instead depicted as calm, collected, and sexy in these movies. But why?  She was perfectly fine in the original, but Hollywood is so obsessed with appealing to men’s sense of sex that they threw out the source material. And this is only one example of the use of sex in media. They are many, many more.