{"id":1908,"date":"2021-10-28T00:22:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T04:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2021-10-28T00:22:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T04:22:48","slug":"sex-and-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2021\/10\/28\/sex-and-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Sex and Power"},"content":{"rendered":"

After indulging in Stoker’s\u00a0Dracula<\/em>, I have come to the conclusion that Stoker believes Victorian women are unnaturally powerful. Stoker develops this idea through the “thrilling and repulsive” ways in which the three vampire women at Dracula’s Castle sensually desire to consume Johnathan’s blood (45). One of the three women was described as sensually moving “like an animal” (Stoker 45). This imagery suggests that the sex appeal of women is strong enough to make honest men, like Johnathan, desire them. It renders ‘strong’ men powerless, while at the same time villanizing these women for this unpure and demoralizing effect they have on men.<\/p>\n

In addition to the power that sex grants Victorian women, Dracula himself represents the highest level of sexual power. His sex appeal is the most unnatural and controlling. With Dracula, Stoker makes the claim that powerful Victorian men see women as objects and use them to their desires. Mina finds something “long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure” (Stoker 101). Here, Mina seems to be oblivious to the sexual assault by Dracula on Lucy. After this initial occurrence, Lucy seems to worsen in health when Dracula visits her in the nights that pass. The more he sees her, the greater her neck scar gets in injury, and the more “ill” she appears. However, when she cannot return to him, Lucy begins to heal. Here, Stoker suggests that in addition to the claim that powerful Victorian men see no need for consent, once sexually ‘liberated’, women will become sexually inclined and filled with uncontrollable desire. Not only does Stoker acknowledge gender inequalities, but he reveals that Victorian women are powerful only when they can bend ‘honest’ and ‘pure’ men to their will, and even then, this is evil and unnatural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After indulging in Stoker’s\u00a0Dracula, I have come to the conclusion that Stoker believes Victorian women are unnaturally powerful. Stoker develops this idea through the “thrilling and repulsive” ways in which the three vampire women at Dracula’s Castle sensually desire to consume Johnathan’s blood (45). One of the three women was described as sensually moving “like … Continue reading Sex and Power<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4752,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2021-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4752"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}