Beneath the knave of her neck, the rhythm of her pulse builds from a steady thump to a staccato flutter. He approaches her slowly, deliberately, boring his eyes through her. His cold hands cradle her jaw, and she wonders if he will kiss her or bite her. One bite could be enough – but what if it isn’t? She closes her eyes, giving into the potential pleasure and imminent fear, as he sinks his teeth into her flesh and feasts.
This scene is one that many people in the past few years are experiencing through pop culture in books, film and TV. And if you have yet to partake in this phenomenon, then you are one of the few who doesn’t know – vampires are everywhere and they’re not leaving anytime soon.
The two bloodsucker dramas paving the way for the vampire craze are the “Twilight” teen-drama book series by Stephanie Meyer, which are now being made into movies, and the sexualized HBO series, “True Blood,” based on The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.
While vampires have been part of folklore and myths in various cultures for thousands of years, the modern vampire is no longer a beast. Instead, he is a brooding, pensive, powerful, penitent and sexual being in human form.
So why are vampires such a hot commodity right now?
According to Michelle Lee, an undeclared sophomore and “Twilight” enthusiast, Stephanie Meyer is responsible for the current popularity of vampires.
“She opened a new gate that allowed vampires to be more sexually attractive than scary, a depiction that appeals to women,” Lee said. “[Vampires] have become a larger trend because we are more open minded to new ideas.”
Lee explained that Edward Cullen, the male protagonist in the “Twilight” series, is particularly sexy because he is portrayed as the perfect man who embodies what most women want.
However, the vampire as a sexualized figure did not start with Stephanie Meyer’s teenage vampire-romance series. Instead, critics argue that the modern-day vampire began as the humanized and sexualized character Dracula in Bram Stoker’s classic novel.
According to Tim Kane, author of “The Changing Vampire in Film and Television,” Dracula was depicted as a man and a beast that audiences were fearful of and intrigued by.
Michael Lundblad, the director of animality studies and an assistant English professor at Colorado State University, said he couldn’t easily trace a trajectory from “Dracula” to the modern vampire, but that the two are obviously connected and related.
He said that sexuality is a major part of vampire representation because it seems their lusty desire for blood – a primal, ancient longing – often making people think that desire comes from “our animal instincts.”
The connection between animals and vampires is still present, which can be seen in films and books today, but, as Kane explained, over time the vampire has become less animalized and more humanized.
In early vampire films from 1931 to 1948, the vampire was a “ruthless killer who had no compassion for humans.” Then in 1957 to 1987, Kane said the vampire became less murderous and more of a sensual, erotic figure who seduced his victims with a kiss before attacking. In the last cycle, from 1987 to today, the vampire retains his erotic nature, but is more of a sympathetic figure that is more human than beast.
Alaina Steiner, a graduate student in the English department, agreed that vampires are most definitely becoming more humanized and sexualized.
Currently, she is working on a project to complete her master’s degree in which she is looking at the ways vampires are being used as a metaphor for a commodified “Other” in the “True Blood” series and “Twilight” novels.
“Vampires are operating as a consumable object, more so than as actual characters,” Steiner said.
The term “Other” is defined by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan as socially differentiating between one group of people and another, that is, “us” and “them.”
One way Steiner is looking at how vampires are consumed is through the TV show “True Blood,” where vampires have “come out of their coffins” by attempting to gain civil rights. While there are numerous topics she would like to discuss, she is focusing on the subculture of humans in the show who exploit vampires by using their blood as a new designer drug, which is known as “V.”
“Doing ‘V’ is described as a very sexualized and euphoric experience,” she said. “By consuming vampire blood, you get a little bit of vampire identity for a short period because they claim you can feel actual elements of the vampire whose blood you’ve ingested.”
When a user takes “V,” not only can they see and hear more, but they are also stronger with increased libidos.
“The desirability of this drug expresses the cultural insecurities and the desires for more – more beauty, strength, virility – more of whatever it is that our cultural identity issues tell us we need,” Steiner said.
In the context of sex, vampires are another way to define what sexuality is for human beings, albeit sensual or erotic.
“Because they’re [vampires], not humans, they’re a safe place for less politically correct sexual desires to be expressed, [like biting] or S and M,” Steiner said.
Vampires are known as inherently sexual beings, but aside from that aspect, what is it about vampires that make them so appealing?
Kristopher Hite, a biochemistry graduate student, runs a popular science blog, tompainesghost.com, which he explained is a way for him to make science more accessible to non-scientists.
“People are so fascinated with these paranormal, non-science myths,” Hite said. “And with vampires, their whole sexualization has led further into pop culture allure, and [science] is a great tool to try and understand vampirism.”
One of the ways vampirism can link to science is through the rare genetic disease called porphyria.
On a blog post Hite wrote: “Victims of this disease have an uncanny similarity to historical descriptions of vampires and phenotypes [traits of any living being] of this disease have been suggested as [a] possible explanation for the origin of vampire legends.”
According to the American Porphyria Foundation Web site, porphyria symptoms can include muscle weakness, confusion or hallucinations, sensitivity to the sun, dark-colored urine, nausea and other symptoms; however, since this disease is not limited to one disorder but eight, different patients experience different symptoms.
“Science is not saying people suffering from porphyria are vampires – that is a big misunderstanding that people have – porphyria patients are real and vampires are not,” Hite explained.
He uses science in a rational way to explain the world. One way he does that is through the biochemical link between symptoms of vampirism with symptoms of porphyria.
“When you crush garlic, the smelly compound goes into the liver and blocks the enzyme that clears the malformed porphyrins [that lead to porphyria],” Hite said. “So it exacerbates some symptoms, including extreme light sensitivity, gums receding to make fangs, glowing teeth, etc.”
In most vampire myths, garlic is often used as a repellant to ward off vampires, which Hite said has been used since the Middle Ages.
But for the modern vampires in the “Twilight” series, garlic holds no power. And, following with Kane’s theory about the sympathetic vampire, the vampires who are considered “good” and morally sound do not feast on humans, but instead on animals.
Hite explained that, for many people, vampires are alluring because the characters are usually sexualized males who are both powerful and fragile.
“This dichotomy is alluring [in the sense] that it is completely ephemeral because vampires can go away if they’re exposed to the sun,” Hite said. “The whole combination of death and sex could be some weird connection that people have with death and sex, possibly a biological imperative to consummate before you die.”
And that ephemeral nature of vampire existence is a fact that is not forgotten by current fans of this genre, but it is something that can be overlooked when a story is being told.
Jessica Allaire, an undeclared sophomore, said that the “Twilight” saga is interesting and the drama is fun for so many women because they can relate to the Bella, the female protagonist, and her love obsession with Edward.
Allaire described Edward as, “overwhelmingly beautiful and muscular with abnormal-colored eyes … but the whole beauty [about Edward and vampires] is the eternal part.”
Yet Allaire did not mention that Edward is a vampire – a non-human figure who is hungry for human blood. While the modern vampire is a sympathetic character, a “tortured hero” as Steiner said, their animality is always present in their constant need for blood.
For Hite, the aspect of blood with vampires fascinates him because as a biochemistry student, he said he automatically thinks about the properties of blood, how blood works and also the connection to porphyria.
“Blood is amazing, when it’s contained in you, it’s giving you life,” he said. “But when it’s out of you and exposed to the world, then you see the red – then there’s a risk – and you’re risking dying and death.”
As vampires have become humanized since they first appeared in folklore thousands of years ago, they have developed a conscience and have the ability to show regret and reason.
“The modern vampire is much more of a trope or metaphor for how we express some cultural wants and needs that may not be easy to express directly,” Steiner said.
Lundblad agreed, adding that vampires are figures for negotiating differences among human beings, like class issues among vampires and other supernatural creatures like werewolves.
The vampire’s progression through pop culture has gone through several transformations from a beast to a sexualized and sympathetic figure in a human body, but where does the myth of vampires go from here?
“They will probably continue to get more human,” Steiner said. “And arguably less counter-culturally powerful, less amoral, and maybe less strong and extraordinary until there will probably be some teenage nerd vampire who is picked on and can’t get a date to prom.”
Tags: blood, media, porphyria, true blood, twilight, vampires, Volume 5 Issue 2
