Arts
Vampires, and the Sluts and Virgins Who Love Them
The latest craze for bloodsuckers is bad for women.
The New York Times Thursday Styles had a trend story last week on the new vampire glamour, with the sultry bloodsuckers showing up in fashion magazines, dominating the paperback sections at bookstore chains, and starring in a host of new TV shows. As the piece points out, the new crop of fanged fantasy fodder are light years away from the original Dracula, Béla Lugosi. Vamps are a combination of “deathless good looks and decadent sexuality,” writes Ruth LaFerla, but the piece misses the undercurrent in the trend. The latest wave of novels and series are not like the glossy look-but-don't-touch sexuality you see in Vogue. They reflect our culture’s deep ambivalence about women's sexuality and our obsession with glorifying chastity and sexual violence.
The latest in the genre is HBO’s True Blood. From its opening down-and-dirty guitar peals (chorus: “I want to do bad things to you”), it taps into the old notion of vampires as our own ids, unleashed. Sookie Stackhouse, the major protagonist in True Blood, is tender, chaste, and completely inexperienced in the ways of love. In her case, being a virgin marks her as different in the Southern town of Bon Temps, where sleeping around is one of the few recreational activities available. Particularly in the first season, when women who lay with vampires are marked as loose (and quite a few end up dead at the hand of the town's deranged serial killer), a theme emerges dividing the "good girls" from the "bad girls" or "fangbangers." Sookie, who sleeps with her undead suitor Bill, ends up marked as bad, although she ultimately gets the upper hand on the killer.
Stephanie Meyer, the author of Twilight, has been criticized for emphasizing chastity in the story arc between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen. Quite often, their scenes together felt like an extended tease, or a test of will, exemplified by Edward conquering his lust for blood (read: booty). Some critics attributed it to Meyer being a both a Mormon and a housewife when she started the series. Alan Ball, the creator of True Blood, may have more progressive politics than Meyer—he openly discusses the allegory that the struggle for vampire rights on the show is a pop culture critique of the current climate toward gay rights. But, from a feminist perspective, he is still transmitting the same idea: To be desired, a woman should be beautiful, virginal, and submissive.
In both series, sex is spiked with danger. A man’s protection and a woman’s desire are intimately connected to violence. Sookie frequently finds herself the subject of Bill’s wrath while he is trying to protect her. In Twilight, Edward’s penchant for pointing out all the ways in which he could maim Bella by accident borders on S & M foreplay. This would have never gone down with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The original new vampire heroine, Buffy possessed her own powers and could easily protect herself. For her, fending off a man’s threats was all part of a day’s work. If one of her lovers (either vampire or human, as she dabbled with both) decided to get a little rough, Buffy’s super strength and agility kept the fight fair.
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Comments
While watching the first
By: mleemily | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 13:17
While watching the first season of True Blood on DVD, I turned to my friend and said: "This sort of the apotheosis of the Cinderella Complex, huh?" He chuckled and agreed. And then we watched three more discs.
Vampires
By: msnowe | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 11:37
Blogged about this last year: http://msnowe.wordpress.com/2008/11/21/where-have-all-the-vamps-gone/
And again today: http://msnowe.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/not-necessarily-a-clean-or-origin...
I will totally agree that the
By: keysburg | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 11:36
I will totally agree that the Twilight series presents some mixed and possibly harmful messages about female sexuality. Besides which its just a crappy, trashy series. However, I think that the author of this article would do better to become more familiar with True Blood's source material. Sookie Stackhouse is both an intelligent and moral figure - a rarity in pop culture these days. She doesn't stay virginal for long, and she's certainly not submissive. Besides, though I love Buffy to death, she's not a perfect feminist figure either - despite having an excellent head for battle plans and being supernaturally strong, she's still not the brightest crayon in the box.
give the twilight fans a break
By: rcp206 | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 10:20
My roommate convinced me to read Twilight, and I was expecting to find it moralistic and annoying, with their thinly-veiled abstinence themes and silly teenage romance. But of course, I'm completely hooked, now digging into the third book with gusto. Of course it *is* a silly teenage romance, but instead of being turned off or offended by what Meyer has to say about teen sexuality, I've found the books to offer a more nuanced and insightful persepective on sex and love in young adulthood, one that resonates with a good number of my peers.
Remember "90210," when it was a big deal for the girls on the show to lose their virginity? Things appear to have changed a lot - between Britney Spears and "Gossip Girl", there is a lot of pressure on young women to have sex in their teens - which a lot of smart young women don't particularly want to do. After high school, the pressure to be casual about sex only increases - think MTV Spring Break, or Sex and the City. Women who don't necessarily want to have a "variety" of partners, for whatever reason, can very easily end up classified as prudish, behind the times, and anti-feminist. It has been a huge relief to read Twilight and to encounter a young female protagonist who doesn't sleep around.
What's wrong with presenting a sex-free option for young women? It's not that Bella isn't sexual (she's ready to go, it's Edward who's reluctant), there are just a lot of complicating factors to consider, like there always are for real life teenage girls. Maybe it's a fantasy that a young man would hold out to prevent his girlfriend from making a rash and potentially risky decision, but at least it might get some of these 13- and 14-year olds thinking, if they're already considering taking that next step.
I can't comment on True Blood or Buffy, but it seems unwise to continue fixating on sexuality as an indicator of liberation or equality. Some women are going to be sexually active early and wind up having a lot of partners; others aren't. Stigmatizing the "virgin" instead of the "slut" marginalizes the choices individual women make about their lives, too, even if it's in the name of feminism.
Nice Hook
By: Rainmacher | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 09:41
I like how "Vampire genre is bad for women" turns into "Twilight and True Blood are bad for women"... turns into "okay maybe just Twilight."
Not to mention your use of Buffy as an example of how vampire plots can actually be empowering to women.
So let me get this straight... Twilight is sexist. True Blood is sometimes sexist and sometimes okay. And Buffy is feminist.
Holy crap, do you mean to tell me that different authors/directs can have different takes on the same subject, and produce different results!? Well, I guess the vampire genre isn't "inherently" sexist then...
I'm tired of hearing what is "bad" or "good" for a certain group of people (i.e. Bruno is bad/good for the gays). If you want to call something bigoted, by all means do it. But don't be so condescending as to tell a group of people what is "bad" for them.
"...go on to have healthy and
By: kluhman | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 09:10
"...go on to have healthy and varied sex lives with a variety of other partners" The author seems to be implying here and elsewhere in the article that a healthy sex life requires a variety of partners. One can have a healthy sex life with a single partner throughout one's life, as well.
I don't think True Blood is anti-feminist
By: strrygrrrl | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 08:46
After watching pretty much every episode of true blood, I don't think it is anti-feminist per-se. The relationship of both Sookie and Bill seems more born out of the fact that Sookie is an open minded and independent woman. In fact if anything early in the series her telepathy has exposed the pervasive sexism in her small town. And while Bill has saved her many of times, the series started out with her saving Bill. The series has evolved into one where the characters save each other. In fact I see both Sookie and Bill as pretty much equal, and Sookie is a pretty inspiring character. I am not one to see the show as well...anti-feminist as lets say twilight. While Bill and Sookie may be playing a certian dynamic with vampires, it is not one that either really applies to each other, both see each other as equals with different talents.
If anything the weakest character on the show is the shape-changing bar owner. Everybody just roles over him and he can't seem to get his life straight. He is rather passive compared to strong willed people around him, such as Sookie. Or Sookie's brother who is easily manipulated and not too bright. If anything the show does not have alot of positive things to say about straight men.
I have to agree Sookie is more of a southern version of third wave feminism. I would not even see her has weak, she has more often than not gotten Bill out of trouble, and can stand up for herself. Even with the vampires, she had no shame in negotiating with the vampire sheriff on her own merrit. She is pretty strong character, and not as two dimensional as some women in vamp flicks. Anti-feminist, a simple romance...far from it.
Bela and Bella
By: vyreque | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 06:39
It's Bela Lugosi. Bella's the tart in the book.
Ishtar
By: Ishtar | Mon, 07/13/2009 - 02:10
I think Latoya makes a valid point about the good girl/bad girl dynamic. I watch the True Blood series and I read the books and this is something that's irritated me in both.
Sookie often comments on female characters' sex lives (particularly in the books), usually with a subtle hint of disapproval, even when she denies being judgemental. She loosens up a little later in the book series but still emphasises to her lovers how she doesn't sleep around and won't sleep with them unless they intend sticking around. That, in itself, is fine and doesn't bother me but she usually adds comments about how she is not a loose woman or that type of woman.
I still enjoy the TV series and the books and try not to notice the bits that annoy me.
As for Buffy - she kicked butt! That show (and Angel) had strong, complex female characters and I miss them. Can you imagine Buffy and Willow taking on the True Blood vamps? :-)
Latoya calls it as always.
By: jvansteppes | Sun, 07/12/2009 - 22:30
Wow, I'm surprised at how defensive people get over vampire romance. Perhaps it IS unfair to compare Buffy to True Blood or Twilight, because the latter 2 are nothing more than romance novels dressed up with the vampire genre, whereas Buffy's creator explicitly pursued a feminist arc while allowing love stories to flow in and out of it.
Being a regular reader of yours at Racialicious, Latoya, I'm a bit surprised you haven't mentioned the racial undertones in Twilight, although perhaps you haven't wasted the time to read it. I did unfortunately read the first 2 books for a paper about teen fiction, and the racial undertones hit me pretty hard. While the racialization of vampires, originally linked to projections of Jewish monstrosity, has certainly evolved to the inclusion of characters like Blade, I've long associated vamps with a whiteness fetish, and Stephanie Meier doesn't deviate from that trend. She takes great pains to emphasize the Cullen family's pale demeanor, linking both Edward and Bella's alleged beauty to their white, translucent skin over and over again. While I don't imagine she's conscious of this theme, it's ever-present in her less than creative descriptions of vampire beauty or the purity of white Bella.
Contrast perfect Edward Cullen with Jacob Black however, and the race narrative gets even more obvious, even without a deconstruction of her shaky use of Indian myth as a plot device. Meier uses the phrase 'russet skin' so often to describe her Quileute characters that a drinking game could follow suit. Her exoticized, shallow accounts of each Indigenous character's skin color are so over the top they left me wondering why an editor didn't say anything. While white, refined Edward is a testament to abstinence and self control, russet Jacob is a werewolf unable to control his emotions, who ultimately forces a kiss on Bella. Edward is cold and beyond human weaknesses, while animal Jacob's body constantly overheats, as do so many portrayals of uncivilized people of color. Edward struggles for control and ultimately we never doubt his ability to maintain his control of mind over body, while Jacob's body, too big to be anything but dangerous, takes precedence over his mind. I could go on and on.