Vampires, Homosexuals, Race issues and a new found tolerance we should all be happy about.

It is common in any academics university education that the subject of vampires and a contextual public fear of contamination will come up at some point. For me, it was, naturally, studying Bram Stokers Dracula although from speaking to people it has also come up in psychology (Psychoanalysis) literature and media studies.
We all listened to earnest lecturers harp on about how humankind’s fascination with vampires is always highest at a time of a public fear. They will talk about the fear of black people mixing with white people at the time of Dracula’s publication. They will then back this up with films such as ‘the lost boys’ in the 80s gaining popularity when fear of AIDs was at its peak. A few of them, I am not sure as I am no longer at university, will no doubt be talking about how the current vamp culture is coinciding with illegal immigration fears or even, at a push, the fear of computer viruses infecting our home computers.

I think there may be more to it than this. I think if we look at the likes of True Blood and Twilight we may get a prettier picture of our collective attitudes to difference.

Vampires in the past have always been lustful, aggressive, exotic and dangerous. Incapable of feeling romantic love. This was always seen as a metaphor for how black slaves were seen and represented after the abolishment of the slave trade. I think it would be a correct analysis of the times. People were certainly worried about being contaminated or raped or beat up by black men, who were seen by the whites as lustful, aggressive and dangerous. (Of course this is not true, but at the time it was accepted as gospel)

I want to look at the Twilight series especially in relation to this. Edward is not your typical historical vampire. He can feel romantic love and he protects Bella from all sorts of danger. This is the kind of boy meets girl story that people are accepting in the deigesis of the film and also in the real world (we can tell this by its almost cult like popularity among the younger generation) I think that this may mean, finally, we are getting over our fears of skin deep racial difference and are generally starting to not only tolerate mixed race couples, but celebrate them. Of course some of the people in the world of twilight object to Bella and Edward being together (Interestingly from the vampire side) but they are seen as obstacles that the viewers and the protagonists want to overcome. It is a universally accepted ‘happy ending’ when they are together at the end.

More recently (when fear of AIDs was at its height) vampires have been seen as a metaphor for fear of homosexuals. The whole blood infection thing and the misguided assumptions that all gay men just want to have debauched, casual sex with as many partners as possible, and again, not being able to feel true love, only aggressive lust makes the analogy to vampires easy. Of course, this has changed, and with it, so have our vampires.

True Blood’s stratospheric popularity is testament to how the majority of the population now feels about homosexuality. It is no coincidence that True Blood was made shortly after gay marriage was made legal. True Bloods vampires, for those who haven’t had the pleasure of viewing, have made themselves known to humans and want equal rights. The metaphor deepens when, in the title credits we see how some people in the true blood parallel universe feel. We see signs from religious groups stating ‘God hates fangs’ only a one letter difference to real signs recently seen in America ‘God hates fags’. It is said over and over again in episode one that the vampires are ‘coming out’ of their coffins. My intellect cannot take this analogy much further but there has to be something in the whole popularity of true blood that we are now, on the whole, accepting of homosexuals. The fact that it was written by a gay man should really drive home this point, and further investigation into the show is warranted.

Vampire Bill is, like Edward, in love with Sookie and protects her. He feels love. He is a hero. The viewers love him. In conclusion I have to say that the whole scope of vampire literature has, thankfully, moved with the times. The vamps are no longer the feared, they are the loved. And that makes me optimistic about the world we live in.