the Curse of the Werewolf - werewolf as puberty - final post for werewolves

Werewolf week is ending, as the Google books preview is rather short, so I will make one short final post on werewolves.
I think one reason werewolves are usually male, is that the 'transformation' is symbolic of male sexual development. The development of secondary sexual characteristics and increased hormones and sexual desire in young men probably seems very disturbing to them. Girls of course have lots of disturbing problems in puberty, but they are not the ones writing this fiction. (Until recent times.)
In the Curse of the Werewolf, the author relates the "body horror" film genre of the 1980's to the werewolf. In these films, (such as ones by David Cronenberg,) the body undergoes terrifying changes, and this is the source of the horror. The changing of ones body in strange and horrible ways does seem a very primal feeling, because all of us have grown into adults, and had strange things happen to us. The graphic novel Black Hole is about a disease that affects only teenagers, turning them into mutated monsters physically, but does not change their minds. The werewolf rather neatly fits into this same idea, a physical change one is helpless over, that occurs at a certain time.
Also notable: on this page which recommends various modern werewolf books, it seems the vast majority have 'graphic sex' and rather sexual covers. Strangely these books seem marketed towards women mostly. (Though women read more books, and more 'romance' books, so this could be the reason.) Perhaps to werewolf fans, the 'beastly' nature includes less inhibited sexuality, and that is part of the appeal.

the Curse of the Werewolf - werewolf as the other

It seems that the werewolf could be a portrayal of xenophobia, at least, fear of people who are different from one's self. For example, fear of foreigners, women, people of different races and people from other classes.
In the Curse of the Werewolf, pg. 47, the werewolf in English literature is often portrayed as a continental European, often with an accent. This of course recalls the 'foreign' Count Dracula. The continental European is someone who is not utterly foreign to an Englishman, someone who looks Caucasian, and can speak at least a little English, but is still 'unknown' and 'mysterious.' Who knows what these strange foreigners are actually like?
In addition, the female werewolf became more well known in the later half of the 1800s, in timing with the suffragette movement, or the "New Woman" movement. Amusingly, the author quotes Werwolves here:

"Apparently women are more desirous of becoming werwolves than men, more women than men having acquired the property of werwolfery through their own act. In the case of women candidates for this evil property, the inspiring motive is almost always one of revenge, sometimes on a faithless lover, but more often on another woman; and when once women metamorphose thus, their craving for human flesh is simply insatiable - in fact, they are far more cruel and daring, and much more to be dreaded, than male werwolves."

These "new women" were unknown and un-understandable, who knows whether they might turn to cannibalism even! The Curse of the Werewolf goes on to say that the werewolf could also be a symbol of distrust of the poor and lower classes, and indeed many of the folk tales feature urban heroes traveling through a poor country town where they must stay the night with the 'town's people.' Of course werewolves can also be symbolic of people of other races and cultures, how many people of the world were dismissed by whites as "savages" and "animals?" It doesn't seem a large leap for one to write fiction in which they really are animals.