Eltis and the "...androgynous mixture"

Eltis' article makes valid points, and in reading it I realized a few times that he was saying things that I was thinking while reading. His claims that certain characters embody both male and female traits is dead on, and he offers a lot of textual proof to back it up. He focuses mainly on Mina Harker and Dracula as the characters with the most evidence of possessing both masculine and feminine traits. He remarks on p. 456 at the top about how Dracula embodied certain female characteristics, namely his "...red lips, long pointed nails, and his housekeeping skills - making Harker's bed and preparing his meals with invisible ease - [which] are suggestively effeminate." On the other hand, he also says that "Mina is the character who most clearly subverts traditional gender categories" (459). She is repeatedly said to have the appearance of a woman, but the brain of a man. She is a learned and skilled protector whose contributions are vital to the eventual conclusion of the story. On page 463 of the essay, it becomes clear that the androgyny exhibited by both Dracula and Mina is a good thing - "...a fusion of masculinity and femininity is viewed admiringly as an ideal for men and women."