the lovers, the therianthropes, and me…
(It ain’t easy, being goth.)
Okay, enough of that. As much as I like the Muppets, I’m not here to talk about Muppets. I’m here to,talk about shape shifting. Somebody posted a valid question in the shorts section, “Why don’t you see more werewolves in your pussy goth subculture?” It deserves an answer.
First: I think you see more people into fallen angels, vampires, demons, and spirits because goth culture is androgynous, almost feminine in nature – and werewolves are masculine. In folklore, male vampire tend to change into bats and wolves, but female vampires tend to change into owls and snakes and pussycats. Same thing holds for witches (who were often accused of being vampires – there’s a lot of overlap). Wolves are not thought of as feminine beings. They’re large, furry, have a “savage” image (another thing that is opposed to ultra-civilized gothdom) and are quite muscular and tough.
On my e-list, I have several therianthropes (shape shifters), a couple of which identify with thr werewolf. One of my donors was a werewolf. However, none of these people consider themselves to be goths. Most are self-identified vampires, but they aren’t goths. The werewolf seems to be more popular among pagans than among goths, unless you deal with gothic pagans of course.
I think wolves could really fit into the goth scene. I have a hard time seeing a rough and tough werewolf dressing up in velvet and lace and listening to Faith and The Muse – that would invite too many Beauty And The Beast jokes – but I could easily see an industrial-goth werewolf moshing to Rage Against The Machine.
Why aren’t werewolves more attracted to gothdom and to vampires? That’s what I’d like to know. The aforementioned donor was quite attracted to me, but found goths and vampires to be pretentious and depressing, which meant that he had fallen for a stereotype. His main contact with vampires had been through role playing games, and in the White Wolf universe, vampires do not get along with werewolves. Whether White Wolf made that up to push a series of gaming modules, or rather, based it on the tensions within the goth subculture, remains to be seen. There was certainly a vampire subculture before White Wolf. At that time, “vampyre lifestylers” drew on Anne Rice, who never wrote about werewolves or any other sort of shape shifter, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe werewolves have avoided the vampires and goths because they perceive their invisibility and minority status as a sort of snub.
Why do you think werewolves have been absent? How can we be more inclusive?
The Grand Poobah