One Wolf Girl Battles Against All Mankind: The New Breed of Female Werewolf as Eco-warrrior in Contemporary Film and Fiction

Literary ecofeminists suggest that by reimagining nature, and the possible relationships (including metaphorical and conceptual relationships) between humans and the nonhuman world, one might contribute to the "elimination of institutionalised oppression on the basis of gender, race, class, and sexual preference and [in doing so] aid in changing abusive environmental practices." As greater concern for the nonhuman world enters the popular consciousness and human/nature and human/animal dichotomies are re-evaluated, depictions of the female werewolf are beginning to shift, reflecting a parallel evaluation of feminine alignment with the natural world. This paper surveys the rise of ecological concerns and shifting evaluations of the culture/nature hierarchy in recent feminist theory, and the opportunity this presents for the female lycanthrope to be re-invented as champion of the wilderness in contemporary film and fiction.