Vampires, Sex, Feminism, and other things that probably shouldn't sparkle but sometimes do.
So there's something that's been on my mind for a while now--or, really, two things that have been on my mind that combine fairly nicely to make this post. That's probably because both of them have to do with vampires, sex and depictions of women in literature of questionable quality (read: trashy), all things which are often on my mind
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The first part of your (very nicely structured) rant kind of reminded me of the German comedic musical "Tanz der Vampire", which tends to deconstruct Dracula-type victorian attitudes towards ladies in vampire fiction. In that the lady decides for herself she wants to be a vampire, for the freedom it offers (the freedom to bathe daily, for example, an act that's considered vulgar by her peasant family).
The musical is modeled after Polanski's "Brave vampire hunters", and its vampire lead is quite an interesting character: not so irredeemable as Dracula, his angst over his condition is more concentrated over how hunger (physicality) dominates his will, than over needing to kill people. Also, he stinks of grave.
I particularly enjoyed the last two paragraphs, since even most female horror writers seem to stack their works full of misogyny, placing their female leads in unequal relationships, describing them as constantly needing protection. Since most of the writers I read were American, I started thinking this was just the way women act over there.
Or maybe all the bad-ass walking corpses stayed in Styria, while America's full of glittery blood-suckers?
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