Sexualization Of Women In Bram Stoker's Dracula

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1 VIRTUOUS AND UNVEILED Mandy Gold sits down with famous director Francis Ford Coppola to discuss the controversy surrounding his sexualisation of women in his famous film, ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula.’

Since its release in 1992 Coppola has been accused of ruining the original story line of Bram Stoker’s Dracula by hyper-sexualising the women and thus changing the focus completely. Coppola however, maintains his position that he has not destroyed the original, rather, he has enhanced the many gothic elements that were already present. 2 We sink our teeth into this sticky issue to expose the truth.

Mandy: Critics have claimed that by sexualizing female characters such as Mina and Lucy, but also the vampire brides, you …show more content…

“Dracula’ depicts what happens when Victorian women abandon their role as house-maker, house-wife and the ‘possession’ of their husband. Lucy is the ‘wanton’ women in this case, presented as subtly sexual with her flirtations to not one but three suitors, her sexual innuendos for example, about the size of one beau’s knife and continual requests for being kissed. In contrast, Mina is the embodiment of the perfect Victorian woman, the Gothic female. She is steadfast and reliable, and knows her role as a demure submissive fiancé. She personifies the new era of working women with a sensible job as a teacher, indicative of her intelligence.

In their idealized forms, Lucy and Mina are marriage-oriented, subservient to, and reverent of men. Dracula clearly demonstrates its preference for women such as these by contrasting them with the horrible, damned female vampire figures, especially that of vampire Lucy shows how easy it is for women to become corrupted and then break down the fabric of society – the family, by tempting men away from their own wives ideal Victorian woman can be converted into the evil, unchaste, impure, …show more content…

One of the techniques that I used in particular was costumes to show the difference between Mina and Lucy’s sexuality. Lucy and Mina were purposefully dressed differently to show not only their sexuality, but also to present the different ideas of the gothic women that they portray.

Lucy dressed was portrayed as being sexy and ‘out there’. For a start, most obviously, her hair was striking and eye catching; a vibrant red. Often it was unrestrained, flowing down her shoulders, suggestive of her being seductive and wild. Also, Lucy’s clothing was more revealing – with a dramatic, off the shoulder green ‘snake’ dress symbolic of the tempting snake in the Bible. The billowing costumes symbolize her loose morals, in contrast to the tight-laced and restrictive costumes of Mina, whose morals were equally restrained, befitting her modest demeanour. This positions the viewer to consider Mina as submissive and demure. She had conservatively coloured dresses, covering her from neck to toe and buttoned up securely. Mina was shy, pure and innocent, her hair was sleek and tied back to depict a young woman with self-control and

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