Vampire Period Drama
This post might be NSFW, or not for life in general, depending on your opinion of the content :/
The newest horror of Twilight’s influence come to us from Jezebel:
What the hell? Is that supposed to seem sexy, funny, or just befuddling? The comments on the article seem equally at odds with some cheering the idea of a male partner going down on them during their period while others were grossed out, horrified, or amused (Punch lines of “Vampire teabags” and “See you next month/period!” came up several times).
I’ve let on to a few people I’m trying out a vampire story and am still enmeshed in the reading/research process. So for the past few months I’ve been learning vampire history, folklore, and legends to keep me creatively busy. I feel I can say with some authority that folkloric vampire texts don’t mention menstrual blood, i.e. the original revenant wasn’t interested in a woman’s cyclical blood letting. Actually, the only literary description I found was in “The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Dead” detailing Israelite body rituals regarding menstruation (a female body is unclean and cannot enter a sanctuary while menstruating).
After some internet searching, the most famous example of a vampire drinking menstrual blood was Anne Rice’s character Lestat during “Memnoch The Devil,” wherein he drank the menstrual blood of a woman so not to kill her.
The internet was obligingly resplendent with information about vampires and periods from dirty jokes to articles like “Menstrual Misogyny and Taboo: The Medusa, Vampire and the Female Stigmatic.”
Then there were the forum Q&A about vampires dining on menstrual blood, as in this Yahoo! Answers post the responses settling into:
- Yes, because of Lestat/jokes about lesbian vampires (See you next month!).
- Yeah, blood is blood. Vampires like their meat like they like their women - bloody.
- No, that’s gross.
- No, because vampires don’t exist.
- Possibly, but it’s a matter of taste. Aristocratic Dracula wouldn’t but savage vampires might.
- No - menstrual blood is ‘dead blood’ so it’s not nutritious.
The idea that menstrual discharge isn’t live blood puzzled me. I understood the content of menstrual discharge was an unnecessary ‘nest,’ a temporary & secondary uterine lining, unwanted tissue to be sloughed off. Where blood came into it and whether or not it was ‘living’ blood provoked me into further research.
There is a secondary endometrium (uterine lining) that forms to provide an attachment site for the blastocyst (fertilized, dividing cell) to create stability. Eventually the endometrium becomes the life-giving placenta, the vascular connection between mother and fetus. However, when the ovum is not fertilized, the lining dismantles and two-thirds of the endometrium is reabsorbed into the body while the remaining third is expelled through the vagina.
Beyond tissue, the endometrium contains blood vessels. Lots and lots of blood vessels. When the tissue breaks down, well… the vessels break down, too. And thus the bright, oxidation-red blood to be cursed at when found in the crotch of one’s favorite pair of panties.
Psychologically, to protect my feelings of well-being I willfully forgot the part about bleeding. Open or bleeding wounds are ingrained in my conscious as a cause for immediate alarm, so as not to be constantly in a panic for a week straight I let the part about active bleeding go. I’ve thought of it as a fully-formed glob of tissue just waiting to pass through the system rather than open, oozing capillaries leaking out of me. Which might be how other girls think of it - more fecal than urinary, really, and thus more disgusting.
In conclusion: Menstrual blood is real, ‘nutritious’ blood. Theoretically, a vampire could drink it and be sated. I’m glad we had this talk together.
Other freaky terms I came across:
Hematophagia (blood drinker)
Hematolagnia (blood fetishism)
Hemotigolagnia (sanitary pad fetish)
Menophilist (fetish for menstruating females)
Blood sport (any sex game that involves blood or breaking the skin)
“Red wings” (wing-like blood smears left on the face after cunnilingus)*
*Consequentially, a male Vampiric character will now be nicknamed Redwings. It doesn’t matter if he’s actually done it - that’s just hilarious.
Random,
abi
The newest horror of Twilight’s influence come to us from Jezebel:
What the hell? Is that supposed to seem sexy, funny, or just befuddling? The comments on the article seem equally at odds with some cheering the idea of a male partner going down on them during their period while others were grossed out, horrified, or amused (Punch lines of “Vampire teabags” and “See you next month/period!” came up several times).
I’ve let on to a few people I’m trying out a vampire story and am still enmeshed in the reading/research process. So for the past few months I’ve been learning vampire history, folklore, and legends to keep me creatively busy. I feel I can say with some authority that folkloric vampire texts don’t mention menstrual blood, i.e. the original revenant wasn’t interested in a woman’s cyclical blood letting. Actually, the only literary description I found was in “The Vampire Book: Encyclopedia of the Dead” detailing Israelite body rituals regarding menstruation (a female body is unclean and cannot enter a sanctuary while menstruating).
After some internet searching, the most famous example of a vampire drinking menstrual blood was Anne Rice’s character Lestat during “Memnoch The Devil,” wherein he drank the menstrual blood of a woman so not to kill her.
The internet was obligingly resplendent with information about vampires and periods from dirty jokes to articles like “Menstrual Misogyny and Taboo: The Medusa, Vampire and the Female Stigmatic.”
Then there were the forum Q&A about vampires dining on menstrual blood, as in this Yahoo! Answers post the responses settling into:
- Yes, because of Lestat/jokes about lesbian vampires (See you next month!).
- Yeah, blood is blood. Vampires like their meat like they like their women - bloody.
- No, that’s gross.
- No, because vampires don’t exist.
- Possibly, but it’s a matter of taste. Aristocratic Dracula wouldn’t but savage vampires might.
- No - menstrual blood is ‘dead blood’ so it’s not nutritious.
The idea that menstrual discharge isn’t live blood puzzled me. I understood the content of menstrual discharge was an unnecessary ‘nest,’ a temporary & secondary uterine lining, unwanted tissue to be sloughed off. Where blood came into it and whether or not it was ‘living’ blood provoked me into further research.
There is a secondary endometrium (uterine lining) that forms to provide an attachment site for the blastocyst (fertilized, dividing cell) to create stability. Eventually the endometrium becomes the life-giving placenta, the vascular connection between mother and fetus. However, when the ovum is not fertilized, the lining dismantles and two-thirds of the endometrium is reabsorbed into the body while the remaining third is expelled through the vagina.
Beyond tissue, the endometrium contains blood vessels. Lots and lots of blood vessels. When the tissue breaks down, well… the vessels break down, too. And thus the bright, oxidation-red blood to be cursed at when found in the crotch of one’s favorite pair of panties.
Psychologically, to protect my feelings of well-being I willfully forgot the part about bleeding. Open or bleeding wounds are ingrained in my conscious as a cause for immediate alarm, so as not to be constantly in a panic for a week straight I let the part about active bleeding go. I’ve thought of it as a fully-formed glob of tissue just waiting to pass through the system rather than open, oozing capillaries leaking out of me. Which might be how other girls think of it - more fecal than urinary, really, and thus more disgusting.
In conclusion: Menstrual blood is real, ‘nutritious’ blood. Theoretically, a vampire could drink it and be sated. I’m glad we had this talk together.
Other freaky terms I came across:
Hematophagia (blood drinker)
Hematolagnia (blood fetishism)
Hemotigolagnia (sanitary pad fetish)
Menophilist (fetish for menstruating females)
Blood sport (any sex game that involves blood or breaking the skin)
“Red wings” (wing-like blood smears left on the face after cunnilingus)*
*Consequentially, a male Vampiric character will now be nicknamed Redwings. It doesn’t matter if he’s actually done it - that’s just hilarious.
Random,
abi