This time out he seeks to illuminate how late 19th century evolutionary theory and biomedical lore conditioned the representation of women in popular and high culture: ``The theory of evolution, given its emphasis on `natural selection' and it assumption of the existence of inherent hierarchies of inequality among all beings, gave a dramatic ring of truth to the period's imagery of women as prowling sexual animals, veritable spermatophages in search of nourishment.'' Women, Dijkstra argues, were seen as vampires (e.g., the ``evil sisters'' in Dracula's castle) thirsty for the lifeblood of men-which is to say, successful white men, the ``evolutionary elite.'' The ensuing blood- and sperm-letting saps the vital essence of male culture, which, in contrast with the lustful quiddity of woman, is cerebral and spiritual. of Calif., San Diego) made his first pass at this theme in his 1986 Idols of Perversity (not reviewed), a lusciously illustrated study of the femme fatale in art and literature. Dijkstra (American and Comparative Literature/Univ. An ideologically framed study of women as sexually insatiable vampires in the racist culture of Europe and the United States at the turn of the last century.
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