#great obsevrations anon

[scienter]

I am aware body horror is a popular sub-genre to write for on supernatural shows like Buffy,Angel and vampire Diaries.But it is really icky that female characters are almost always subjected to these tropes.On tvd ,for instance, Elena's body was taken over by katherine who then tried to hook up with stefan.Bonnie's body was turned into an anchor(as the sole means for her survival) and dead people would pass through as she screamed in pain each time that happened.Caroline's body was turned into an incubator by a group of raging lunatics.I get that this is all fiction and the sole point of this trope is to show grotesque violation of the human body.In spite of that what was being done to Caroline just hits hard for obvious reasons.

Caroline: Why would the coven want me to?

Ric: I don't think they had a choice.The Geminis were all dying.They couldn't let the future of their coven perish along with them so they had to put the baby someplace safe...inside a body that wouldn't die.(7×07)

This whole arc was so severely unsettling not to mention the psychological damage, this certainly caused to Caroline, was swept under the rug.Moreover,people who came up with such ludicrous ideas definitely skipped middle-school biology classes.

Body horror. Huh. That’s an interesting angle to consider the plots on TVD. Now that I think about it, Caroline’s transformation into a vampire was compelling because of the body horror.

Caroline wakes up in the hospital and realizes that something isn’t right. Although she feels fine, she’s photosensitive. When she looks in the mirror the veins on her face are prominent. Then she grows fangs.

Caroline rightly freaks out at this transformation.

The horror isn’t over yet: she craves blood too.

The body horror in 2x01 was well done. The audience experiences the horror of Caroline turning into a vampire.

However, the great exploration of body horror in 2x01 reiterates your point about the writers not fully exploring the body horror Elena, Bonnie, and Caroline experience in the later seasons. The Katherine body swap, Caroline’s pregnancy, and Bonnie as the anchor are horrific transformations that are treated as mere inconveniences. You’re right. The writers had an opportunity to explore a classic horror trope in those instances, but they ignored it.