Succubus Sexy and Entertaining; Incubus... Terrifying and Rapey

The Evil Demon Seductress is a trope described by the YouTube channel Feminist Frequency as “Supernatural creature (i.e. demon, robot, alien, vampire) disguised as a sexy human female.” Commentator Anita Sarkeesian continues to give a large list of examples within the film industry in which this trope can be found. Popular examples included characters such as Jennifer Check (played by Megan Fox) from Jennifer’s Body (2009) and Mystique (played by Rebecca Romijn) from X2 (2003). It sounds harmless in that the characters make for good entertainment, but Sarkeesian identifies the underlying misogynist stereotype behind it which is that women primarily use their sexuality to manipulate, trick, and control men. She continues to add that this may give women the impression that their only social power is their sexuality.

The trope can be seen all throughout popular culture, but the video focuses on the film industry. Returning to the examples provided, we can see Jennifer from Jennifer’s Body (2009) is a cheerleader (an already hypersexualized trope) possessed by a succubus. For those unaware of what a succubus is, they are in, in demon mythology, female demons which seduce and have sex with men. In the case of the 2009 horror flick, they are killed as well. The succubus lures men in with her sexuality to ultimately kill them. There’s a perfect scene where this is portrayed, in which Jennifer lures a football player into the woods, seduces him, but they stop due to all the creatures in the wood staring at them. Jennifer realizes she’s lost his attention, and unzips her shirt to reveal that she is wearing nothing underneath. Whilst he has her attention once more, and ends up turning into her succubus form and kills him. This same theme repeats with her other victims. The next example used was Mystique from the movie franchise based off the Marvel comic series X-Men. The movie specifically named was X2: X-Men United (2003).  There is a scene in the movie where Mystique seduces a security guard. She brings him over a couple of beers, which are drugged, and eventually she lures him into the bathroom, where he finishes his beer and he becomes unconscious, and from there she can complete the mission, injecting him with iron.

There are many more examples of The Evil Demon Seductress, for example the POV horror anthology V/H/S (2012) includes a segment in which a vampire-like female  demon devours two men. Sarkeesian notes that this trope is popular in that it gives into objectifying females. This is appealing to the male audiences. It is not, however, rare to see this role switched, in which a male would seduce a female and ultimately kill her, but rare for it to be a male supernatural being unless we’re speaking of examples like The Incubus (1982). Most of the time, the sexual circumstances are depicted as rape instead of something seemingly consensual (aside from being murdered, of course), found in horror such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968).  Honestly, other than Rosemary’s Baby (1968) male incubus-like horror is not as popular. Interesting to note that the popularity of the evil demon seductress trope is contingent on the women being the offender, otherwise it would be a disturbing supernatural rape scene instead of a sexy woman seducing a man. Neither are positive things.

Mass Culture Theory in Youtuber Commentary

Commentator and YouTube Cody Ko has a video titled "It's Everyday? No. (Jake Paul reaction). I believe that in this, although I completely agree with the video, and am a fan of it, critiques an element of popular culture through the lens of mass culture theory. This is an older video, being at about a couple of years old. It is about YouTuber Cody Ko reacting to another YouTubers, Jake Paul,  music video to his song It's Everyday Bro. At the time of the video, around the summer of 2017, the song had made it to the number 2 spot on iTunes music charts, second to Justin Bieber's Despacito, making it popular culture. Cody Ko tears the music video apart humorously, but the video as a whole tends to have a gatekeeping elitist feel to it, similar to the ideas in Mass Culture Theory. Cody Ko compares the song to mainstream rap music, which would be the equivalent of someone comparing a teenager's drawing to a Renaissance painter. It focuses on Cody Ko's taste and aesthetics versus the taste and aesthetics of Jake Paul, and in the end devaluing Jake Paul's work. The YouTuber makes a list of things that shouldn't be rapped about, and talks about the quality and creativity that the lyrics are lacking. He says things such as "It's a sad day for music," and  "don't rap about YouTube. It's not cool" (Cody Ko 2017). Although I agree with Cody Ko on this, it is putting down one aspect of popular culture and devaluing it due to believing that the quality that would have been spent on any other mainstream rapper would have been immensely better. YouTuber Cody Ko addresses that music is much harder to make than it seems, and makes the comment: "This video was wrote, shot, and edited in one day... Yeah. It's pretty [explicit] clear, bro" (Cody Ko 2017). Which comes from the Mass Culture Theory of things that have value in them must take time and not be quick and easy. This video is satire, of course, but within that has some pretty elitist views that I would not have recognized at first.

Is Wolverine a Cow Boy?

When looking at cowboys from past generations when black and white films were popular there were many similarities in characters between Johnny from Rebel and Wolverine. The characters of cowboys tend to be demanding, separates himself from civilization, masculine, self sufficient and adventurous.  So when comparing cowboys traits to modern pop culture films such as the Wolverine from the 2017 film Logan, is he considered a cowboy? 

Logan was released in 2017 and directed by James Mangold. Wolverine was apart of the X men team and known for the steel knives that come out of his hands. He was apart of the X men team until the love of his life passed. He then became depressed and isolated himself from society and became alone wolf.  The leader of X men Professor X discovered a young girl with the same powers is in need of Wolverines help and thats when the trouble beings. Wolverine is also very self reliant and he is stubborn does not like to team up with anyone. As for Cowboys in the black in white films they also tend to keep to themselves as did Johnny from the short film The Rebel. The main character Johnny is always seeking off into the wild west by himself.  Even though the environments are different Wolverine represents characters of the cowboy series by showing the same characteristics such as masculine, protector, self sufficient, demanding, and dealing with enemies. 

In the short lecture of The Cowboy and Western in popular culture professor Eaton talks about the different types of cowboys such as seekers and explorers vs visitors and wanderers.These two main character Jonny and Wolverines are visitors and the trouble seems to find them. When Johnny was visiting a town for a stop he was targeted by other men the moment he arrived. As for Wolverine he was targeted the moment people knew he had super powers. These two characters from these two films are outsiders and other people felt threatened by them which caused the violence. If you really think about our generation today a lot of the movie characters in action films are in a way cowboys by the traits and characteristics they contain, they both just have different way of presenting the characters. 

Link, the Cowboy

In the Legend of Zelda series, the player acts through a character known as Link- the mute protagonist with an affinity for smashing jars. In the most recent installment for the Nintendo Switch, Breath of the Wild, Link wakes up in an unknown "frontier" that is overrun by evil.

The region that he wakes up in is known as The Great Plateau, where he meets a mysterious man who explains that he's been in stasis for 100 years, however Link has no memory of his purpose, and now he has to form a new identity, starting in the Great Plateau. This is fairly reminiscent of cowboys fleeing where they're from to forget their past, and start anew. The Great Plateau might as well be the Wild West. This is the first game in the series to be Open World- that is, a game where the player can decide when they wish the story to progress, and can explore the different regions/frontiers. In this game, Link has to acquire resources, clear out enemies to make things safer for the people that still live in Hyrule, and he even gets weapons and can ride a horse. Cowboys are known to bring order to a lawless land, which in his absence, Hyrule has become. The enemies may as well be the same "foreign invaders" that cowboys defend against, as well as the corruption- Calamity Ganon- that has taken the castle, and left Hyrule with no true leaders which . Civilization as Link knew before he went into stasis has been erased, and all that's left is small towns and groups that are incredibly spaced out and affected differently by what is going on, which is representative of the towns on the frontier. Link has to move through the frontiers and bring order and law back, has weapons and resources that he collects through his journey, and protects against external and internal threats to the land- Link is an elven cowboy!

Robin Hood, a Cowboy?

Robin Hood

Robin Fitzooth otherwise known as Robin Hood was on a personal quest to bring justice to a corrupt Nottingham and Prince John along with his crooked sidekick the sheriff. All very cowboy like behaviors right?
Eventually Hood left Nottingham and moved into near by Sherwood Forest to conceive a plan to right the wrongs of Nottingham.  Hood was an excellent archer and a would get justice for the murder of his father and the mismanaged authority.  The story and character of Hood is good verses evil and as in many other tales good prevails.  Hood was not a typical iconic looking  "Cowboy" wearing a wide brimmed hat with a gun, and stirrups.  Was he a cowboy wearing tights?  A spoof was made of this tale in later years; Robin Hood: Men in Tights, a must see clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59JnM4JKNQ , does this make him less manly?   In fact the only similarity between a "Western Cowboy" would be getting around on a horse.  Hood in the story carried out the same duties associated with "Cowboy".   As in any good story after good triumphs over evil, the hero gets the girl.  This tale is no different, ending with Hood and Lady Marian

The marriage of Lady Marian and Sir Robin Hood

This tale is no different, ending with Hood and Lady Marian living happily every after.

The Story of Robin Hood 

https://youtu.be/u99fcv16-7U
Image of Robin Hood
 https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4PuJ86NyqfpwrFRM4WSblAZZR8i6AzJcW1AAMzzPWH5zTRhicGA
Image of Hood and Lady Marian
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSsCWtVffgOHaQ-4NcFFnnI9YYmCV_RQBic7hXtbRYb2MBp7Snp1g
Robin Hood: Men in Tights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G59JnM4JKNQ

Frank Castle, Cowboy.

Netflix’s The Punisher series is based off of Marvel comic character Frank Castle, who is an anti-hero who is seeking revenge with whoever was responsible for his family’s murder. For the sake being of this blog post, I will be specifically referring to the Frank Castle which is depicted in the Netflix series, not the comic version of him. I believe the series parallels that of the Western genre.

Frank Castle (i.e. the Punisher) is a cowboy. He embodies that of a hyper-ideal image of masculinity in the Western sense. He is, as the cowboy criteria within the “Cowboy and Western in Popular Culture” video describe, white, male, masculine, and self-sufficient. For physical attributes, the Punisher has a very deep voice, almost to the point where it sounds a bit hoaky. He’s brooding and muscular, miserable within his introspection as he becomes a brick wall without emotion (the peak of toxic masculinity entering around the fact that processing grief and emotion in a healthy manner would be a sign of weakness). As for the Westernization, Frank Castle may not have nationalism in the sense that he feels as if he has been failed by his country, but before the tragedy in his life, he was a proud marine. So, in this sense he would make more of a Jesse James (Jesse James: The Outlaw) than a Jace Pearson (Tale of the Texas Rangers Radio Program). He’s the lone wolf trope who works alone because he feels as if danger is around him so often that he wouldn’t want to bring anyone else down with him. He is, then, surrounded by danger in that it is him versus common criminals, corrupted authority figures within law enforcement, or super villains (within the Marvel universe, of course).

Frank Castle’s character mirrors many famous tropes of Westerns. He has a code-of-honor so to speak, in that he does not kill women or children. How admirable. It is a little wishy-washy in the sense, but within masculinity, there is that obligated sense of responsibility to protect women and children, or, those who are weak (We’ll save the feminist argument against this tired ideology of viewing women as fragile flowers for another time). But, he does embody the romantic notion of fighting for a cause, and to defend the damsel in distress, and take her away from the uncivilized danger in which she finds herself in and take her to a utopian place where they can live quietly. Probably on a ranch or something.

Although Castle is not equipped with a horse or cowboy hat, these icons are swapped for a bullet-proof vest with a skull spray painted onto it, and any car that can easily be hijacked.

He roams the country due to being an outlaw, thus moving through the new frontiers of America, and once he “rides into town,” he takes justice from both internal and external threats into his own hands. There is no shortage of gun violence, however. There are even a few scenes in which the Punisher finds himself in a duel.

Image Sources:

https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/marvel/278737/the-punisher-season-2-complete-marvel-universe-easter-eggs-and-reference-guide

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/frank-castle-fully-unchains-the-punisher-in-latest-trailer-for-season-2