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.

Werwolves - final thoughts

Something I discovered while studying werewolves, was how similar this idea is in some ways to that of witches. It might be thought of as the male counterpart, though the actual creature is very different. Supposedly witches were choosing to be them, while werewolves have no choice. In both cases people were murdered for 'being' them, and it was used as a tool of persecution. I wonder what it says that the usually female 'witch' has been thought to have chosen her supernatural affliction while the man was simply cursed. In the highly patriarchal world that persecuted these people, was it thought that men were more helpless of any problem because they were more understandable by other men, while women must have been calculating because their 'motives' were not understood. Of course plenty of women were murdered for being werewolves despite that not being very accurate to the legend.
If the 'curse' of being a werewolf has to do with sexual aggression, no wonder it is applied to men more in fiction, but women could be accused of it in real life. Most of the tales we read now are adaptations of stories that were told by word of mouth, so they have been adapted to modern audiences. The author would change details that might be too strange, such as a female werewolf. People would find it hard to accept a female sexual predator, not only because it happens less often in real life, but common thought still does not think that women have much of any sexual desire, let alone enough to become a 'monster' over it.
So why did women get accused of being werewolves in real life then? In mob behavior people are somehow more able to believe things they would find impossible in fiction, particularly if it matches a belief they already have, like not liking the person accused. Witches were often accused of having sex with demons or the devil himself, any aberrant sexual behavior in women, (or behavior at all), was not acceptable, so it was a good way to get someone burned at the stake.
Because my books of physiognomy lateness at the library have delayed that topic, I am going to read more about werewolves by briefly reading over a book called the Curse of the Werewolf: Fantasy, Horror and the Beast Within by Chantal Bourgault Du Coudray. (Available here on Google Books.)