Demonic possession has been documented beginning with the introduction of the New Testament and continues to appear in both reality and in fiction today. Such possession has occurred, again in fiction and reality, more frequently in women than in men. In their state of possession, these women are involuntarily willed to commit acts against their nature which often involve sexual promiscuity, a characteristic deemed more normal in men than in women throughout history. There are several documented cases of entire nunneries being afflicted with this particular sort of possession in the 16th century as sarirized in Monty Python’s Search for the Holy Grail.
This increased sexuality was often coupled with a raspy, deep or rough voice more befitting a man than a woman. In appearance, women who were once fair were turned, upon possession into wild creatures, devoid of attractive feminine qualities they may once have possessed.
Perhaps the most notable case of possession in recent American cultural history is Linda Blair’s possessed character Regan MacNeil in William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist made in 1973. Regan (Linda Blair) appears to be a normal child until she starts displaying strange characteristics including sexual behavior unbefitting a child. At one point in the film, she bares her torso which is so twisted and tortured that it appears to be that of a man.
