Why vampires make us hot
I was never one of those people who got totally into the idea of vampires. I saw “Lost Boys” once. If memory serves, I fell asleep while watching “Interview with a Vampire“. And I never had an interest in tuning into ”Buffy the Vampire Slayer“ or “Angel“, the series that developed as a result. I would watch a three-hour movie of David Boreanaz sitting in a chair watching paint dry if the man was doing it shirtless. In fact, I’m picturing that now. (Sigh) Oh sorry, where was I?
Anyways… The vampire thing just didn’t “do it” for me. The only thing I knew about vampires was from watching the aforementioned flick and hearing from a number of men that their earliest sex dreams? Were of being seduced by a hot, dangerous vampire vixens. I didn’t understand the allure. That is until Dana introduced me to “Twilight“.
If Dana likes it, that’s good enough for me. I read the books. (The dorky yet hopelessly romantic 14-year-old girl in me was hooked.) And now I’m thinking about reactivating my NetFlix account just so I can check out “True Blood“. (I hear it is like Twilight only with alot more sex. To be honest the “good sex” part is what’s appealing to the 36-year-old woman I actually am!)
As I watched parts of “Twilight” (again) last night, it got me thinking. Why oh why are vampires so sexy?
I asked a good friend Lilah Smith an expert in vampire literature who also spent a few of her teen years totally immersed in the genre. She had some very interesting thoughts on the subject.
”Vampires have long-since been offered up as symbols of sexuality and the dangers/evils inherent therein,” she says. ”Stoker’s Dracula was the very embodiment of sex – he could mesmerize with a gaze, could draw his victims to him with only the power of his mind and his intent, and could make them crave his touch (while loathing it at the same time, of course – silly Victorians). That kind of sexual power is undeniable.”
For some the appeal is everlasting life. (And in the case of Twilight, everlasting love.)
“They also symbolize an “answer” to the fear of death – the survival instinct triumphing over the grave (and a kind of tempting abomination that serves as a warning against such hubris). Add to that the whole romance angle – a love eternal, bound by blood as well as emotion, blah blah blah – and you’ve got yourself one hell of an undead sex symbol.”
Whether you love the Twilight franchise or hate it, you can’t deny the book has been a huge pop culture influence as of late. So in honor of that ( and New Moon’s release on Friday) we’re serving up a number of vampire-themed articles. Check ‘em out!
