The Appeal of the Sexy “I want to kiss you, not kill you” Vampire

You’ve probably heard about the widely popular teenage vampire series called Twilight. The books have been flying off the shelves and fans are anxiously awaiting the second film to open next month. But what is the Twilight series really about, anyway, besides unconsummated desire between two abstinent teenagers? What is the appeal of the vampire who would rather kiss you than kill you and why are we seeing a trend of chivalrous, animal-bloodsuckers who want to kiss and cuddle instead of suck every last ounce of blood out of your body?
The earliest legends of vampires depicted them as disgusting abominations of human flesh. They were believed to be malevolent spirits who possessed corpses and tried to infect those around them. The fear of vampires created such mass hysteria that public executions were held for people believed to be vampires.

In the nineteenth century; however, vampires were reborn in fiction as charismatic and sophisticated man-beasts. Stories such as The Vampyre by John Polidori, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula provided the basis for the modern vampire legend. They were less beastly and more refined, but just as menacing to the living, especially young women.
In modern fiction, films, and television, vampires tend to be suave, magnetic, and seductive anti-heros (see HBO’s True Blood). They repress their animalistic desire to feed on humans and look for human mates. With this important evolution in the vampire genre, the question of why we turned vampires into somewhat restrained beasts remains.
The vampire and human make-out scene in the recent vampire movies, books, and television tend to go something like this: He caresses her neck with his lips, rubbing his fangs lightly along her skin. She closes her eyes in ecstasy and pulls his face to hers. Their lips meet, sending her body into a series of uncontrollable quivers. He restrains the urge to throw her head back and rip deep into her flesh. The urges grow stronger and he breathes harder and faster, but he stops himself from biting her flesh.
The power and sexuality of the vampire is intoxicating, but this is a very different beast from the unrestrained vampires of the past. Nosferatu would eat women without remorse. He’d fling aside his victims as if they were meaningless food, merely objects for him to consume. The modern vampire, it seems, has been influenced by feminist ideals. His women are not disposable, but rather, they are the key to what remains of his humanity. Even his love interests and potential victims have changed. No longer are they portrayed as terrified, weak little twits who barely put up a fight. Now they are strong, capable and insightful women who can throw a mean upper cut if provoked.
A friend pointed out to me the other day that vampires are really only appealing to heterosexual women. He claimed that when it comes to wooing women, men are disadvantaged because they lack both the beastly masculinity of their vampire competitors, and the stylized, inflated gender role needed to attract the jilted lady vamps “unless they seek puny human males out of pity.” If that’s the case, perhaps vampire hunters are born of emotional emasculation. When you think about it, vampires are like rock stars with god-like powers. That’s some tough competition. One can’t help but feel sorry for poor emasculated Van Helsing.
Female Vampires are at a disadvantage as well. They are easily stereotyped as either weaker versions of their male counterparts (“The Lost Boys”) or femme fatales (“From Dusk Till Dawn”). They tend to serve as sexy one-dimensional characters whose only purpose is to lend validity to the main male vampire. There are obvious exceptions, such as Kate Beckensale in “Underworld” for example, but those characters are few and far between.
And yet, there is a Swedish film called “Let the Right One In,” about a vampire girl who falls for a puny, bullied little boy and protects him from harm. Perhaps with movies like this, the vampire genre will become more inclusive to female empowerment.