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Do you wish your vampires were gay?
Oct. 16th, 2009 02:42 pmMoving swiftly along, apparently one of the reasons Twilight is so popular is because girls want to have sex with gay men. I find this fascinating. I'm all about monsters as symbols (I wrote an essay on werewolves as a metaphor for adolescence at university, and would have gotten a first if I hadn't forgotten to include a bibliography, I seem to recall), and I can ramble for hours about the vampire's changing symbolism over the years. The article cites Polidori's The Vampyre as an early example, with the bloodsuckers representing the sort of filthy deviant sex the Victorian era secretly loved, and notes that Dracula was written during a time of rampant heroin and cocaine use in Europe. In the 80s the vampire became associated with AIDS; in the 90s, addiction.
The Noughties have moved us firmly into sexy vampire territory, and largely defanged the deviant funmuppets of Polidori and Stoker's day. Instead of bloodsucking monsters stalking the night for quivering virgins, we now have emo boys in questionable leather outfits stalking night clubs looking for their One True Love, who they can usually identity by her smell, which is generally "woman." (Seriously, if I read one more book in which the hero says, "you smell like woman" to the heroine, there will be reprecussions. Because if she doesn't smell like woman, there is a problem).
And now it seems we've gone a step futher and turned our vampires into a metaphor for sparkly, unattainable sex:
(Bella) is attracted to him because he is strange, beautiful, and seemingly repulsed by her ... Twilight's fantasy is that the gorgeous gay guy can be your boyfriend.
I knew girls at school and sixth form who had crushes on gay men. None of them were like Bella, and none of the men were like Edward, but that's beside the point. I can see the parallel. I don't know if having someone find you repulsive is attractive or not, but again, that's beside the point. I think you can maybe tie this back to worries about STDs again (as in the 80s) in that sex is often presented as something to be avoided unless the circumstances are just right (you're married, you're in love, you've got a condom etc), and is something to be feared if you deviate from the perfect circumstances (you're cheating, you're underage, you're in the back of a car etc). A girl can lust after and fantasize about sex with a gay man all she wants; she never has to worry about it happening in real life. There's no rejection, no pregnancy, no STD, no consequences.
Which I guess, to some degree, is the appeal of the vampire as a romantic hero as well. It's great to sit back and think about how devastatingly romantic it would be to have some mysterious, exotic, inscrutable type sweep you off your feet and carry you away to his dank European castle to be his soul mate. Really. It's fab! But in reality, look. You don't know this guy, he's drinking your freaking blood for Christ's sake, and you don't speak Bulgarian, so really. The consequences aren't that romantic.
That's what everybody wants, isn't it? Sex that's dangerous and safe at the same time, risky but comfortable, gooey and violent, but also traditional and loving.
Again, this is part of the vampire's appeal now that he's mutated into a pointy-toothed beefcake/sparkly honours student. (I won't go into my concerns over the defanging of monsters here, but I do not approve of sparkly vampires. At any time). I'm sure a big part of Twilight's success rests on the fact that Edward is the perfect boyfriend - handsome, protective, rich, sparkly... And that Bella has total control over their relationship. Don't believe me? Look at the books - whatever Bella wants, she gets, including vampirism, sex, and a baby, despite Edward's initial refusals. And Kit Whitfield has a fascinating take on that, if you're interested.
...vampires have appeared to help America process its newfound acceptance of what so many once thought strange or abnormal.
The vampire is often a mirror of our fears and desires, moreso than other monsters (although zombies as a metaphor for terrorism is an awesome subject), and since about 1819 and John Polidori, has been a solid metaphor for sexual desire and anxiety. He allows people to explore their darker urges without actually indulging in anything dangerous. It's no coincidence IMO that so many paranormal romances and urban fantasy feature some form of BDSM-lite. You can take pretty much deviance and make the vampire representative of that, and what with all the biting and blood, bondage is one of the more obvious choices.
Homosexuality and vampires isn't a new idea, and I'm sure it won't be long before we find some new aspect of our cultural to explore via vampirism. In the same why that early 19th century literature explored our fear of the Other due to the explosion of colonisation and slavery (see War of the World and The Island of Dr Moreau for example), 21st century vampire literature is dealing with 21st century issues. There are a hell of a lot of sexual preferences and identities out in the open now than there were even a few decades ago. Once we're all over homosexuality, transexuality, BDSM and emo boys, we'll find some other use for our vampires, I'm sure.
The Noughties have moved us firmly into sexy vampire territory, and largely defanged the deviant funmuppets of Polidori and Stoker's day. Instead of bloodsucking monsters stalking the night for quivering virgins, we now have emo boys in questionable leather outfits stalking night clubs looking for their One True Love, who they can usually identity by her smell, which is generally "woman." (Seriously, if I read one more book in which the hero says, "you smell like woman" to the heroine, there will be reprecussions. Because if she doesn't smell like woman, there is a problem).
And now it seems we've gone a step futher and turned our vampires into a metaphor for sparkly, unattainable sex:
(Bella) is attracted to him because he is strange, beautiful, and seemingly repulsed by her ... Twilight's fantasy is that the gorgeous gay guy can be your boyfriend.
I knew girls at school and sixth form who had crushes on gay men. None of them were like Bella, and none of the men were like Edward, but that's beside the point. I can see the parallel. I don't know if having someone find you repulsive is attractive or not, but again, that's beside the point. I think you can maybe tie this back to worries about STDs again (as in the 80s) in that sex is often presented as something to be avoided unless the circumstances are just right (you're married, you're in love, you've got a condom etc), and is something to be feared if you deviate from the perfect circumstances (you're cheating, you're underage, you're in the back of a car etc). A girl can lust after and fantasize about sex with a gay man all she wants; she never has to worry about it happening in real life. There's no rejection, no pregnancy, no STD, no consequences.
Which I guess, to some degree, is the appeal of the vampire as a romantic hero as well. It's great to sit back and think about how devastatingly romantic it would be to have some mysterious, exotic, inscrutable type sweep you off your feet and carry you away to his dank European castle to be his soul mate. Really. It's fab! But in reality, look. You don't know this guy, he's drinking your freaking blood for Christ's sake, and you don't speak Bulgarian, so really. The consequences aren't that romantic.
That's what everybody wants, isn't it? Sex that's dangerous and safe at the same time, risky but comfortable, gooey and violent, but also traditional and loving.
Again, this is part of the vampire's appeal now that he's mutated into a pointy-toothed beefcake/sparkly honours student. (I won't go into my concerns over the defanging of monsters here, but I do not approve of sparkly vampires. At any time). I'm sure a big part of Twilight's success rests on the fact that Edward is the perfect boyfriend - handsome, protective, rich, sparkly... And that Bella has total control over their relationship. Don't believe me? Look at the books - whatever Bella wants, she gets, including vampirism, sex, and a baby, despite Edward's initial refusals. And Kit Whitfield has a fascinating take on that, if you're interested.
...vampires have appeared to help America process its newfound acceptance of what so many once thought strange or abnormal.
The vampire is often a mirror of our fears and desires, moreso than other monsters (although zombies as a metaphor for terrorism is an awesome subject), and since about 1819 and John Polidori, has been a solid metaphor for sexual desire and anxiety. He allows people to explore their darker urges without actually indulging in anything dangerous. It's no coincidence IMO that so many paranormal romances and urban fantasy feature some form of BDSM-lite. You can take pretty much deviance and make the vampire representative of that, and what with all the biting and blood, bondage is one of the more obvious choices.
Homosexuality and vampires isn't a new idea, and I'm sure it won't be long before we find some new aspect of our cultural to explore via vampirism. In the same why that early 19th century literature explored our fear of the Other due to the explosion of colonisation and slavery (see War of the World and The Island of Dr Moreau for example), 21st century vampire literature is dealing with 21st century issues. There are a hell of a lot of sexual preferences and identities out in the open now than there were even a few decades ago. Once we're all over homosexuality, transexuality, BDSM and emo boys, we'll find some other use for our vampires, I'm sure.
