ESSAY: A Commentary on Evolving Gender Roles in Vampire Literature

The vampire; mysterious, deadly, and seductive, has become a cultural phenomenon sinking its teeth into as many countries as people. From Dracula to Twilight, the vampire myth has pervaded popular culture with countless novels, movies, and television programs adapting the myth for modern audiences. Tailored to ever-evolving demographics and sensibilities, the vampire has evolved as well. While Bram Stoker's Dracula created a whirlwind of interest when it burst onto the scene in 1887, it was far from the first vampire novel.

Decades before the Count entered public consciousness, there was another bloodthirsty predator perched on bookshelves. Joseph Sheridan La Fanu's Carmilla, which according to author Christobel Hastings is "now recognized by many as the original vampire novel of modern Europe," was vehemently rejected by polite society upon its publication. Hastings, asserts that repressive Victorian culture had, "no place for a female-centered story of supernatural seduction- especially one with the Sapphic, homosexual undertones of bite marks on breasts." As a result, author Joanie Falletto argues that the heteronormative 'Dracula' story which was better suited for the larger public interest became the archetypical vampire of popular culture.

As the vampire entered the 20th century, the women of vampire literature were relegated to the role of victims or in the case of Dracula's brides' examples of monstrous femininity. The erasure of Carmilla from the public conscious of morally rigid Victorian society guaranteed the eclipse of female protagonists by Stoker's suave, predatory male vampire. Reiterations of the vampire tale during the 20th century held fast to Dracula's heteronormative template with few female characters taking up the mantle of vampire hero.

1922's Nosferatu, featuring a rat-fanged Count Orlock, is no exception to this rule. The woman in the story plays the role of the defenseless victim and the man portrays the predatory monster. Following Nosferatu, the moviegoers of the 1930's and 40's were swept up in the monster-movie craze propagated by Universal Studios. Dracula became a staple of cinema with dozens of movies named after the classic fiend; only one of which, Dracula's Daughter featured a female protagonist. However, even Dracula's Daughter was a problematic depiction of women within the vampire genre. According to Aurora, author of "Dracula's Daughter Shines Despite Universal's Failure", Universal Studio execs requested script changes leaving, "little hope for anything suggestive [making] it into [the] movie." The resulting film was a thinly veiled condemnation of homosexuality whereupon the Count's daughter seeks a cure for her vampirism through psychiatry; a nod to homosexuality being considered a mental illness at the time. Elizabeth Erwin, asserts that despite this censorship, "Dracula's Daughter includes a number of scenes in which a lesbian subtext is evident." Erwin elaborates by noting "in the 1930's and 1940's there was no easier way to imply impurity than to suggest lesbianism" as audiences were "conditioned to view homosexuality as a violation of the natural order."

It wasn't until the publication of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire that the "heteronormative" vampire of the Victorian period was replaced with a creature more analogous to man than Dracula's monster. The first of its kind, Interview with the Vampire was narrated not by the victim, but by the monster himself. Centering on the Byronic vampire protagonist Louis de Pointe du Lac as he recounts his immortal life, Interview with the Vampire doesn't shy away from homosexual undertones or strong female characters. In fact, the novel does something unprecedented by subverting the heteronormative mold of toxic masculinity in favor of a blended vampire family with two fathers. While not as overtly homosexual as Carmilla, the novel focuses on the relationship between Louis and his male counterpart and maker Lestat. Janina Nubbaumer argues that in the mythos of Anne Rice's vampires, the vampire quote "turns his chosen victim- his lover- into a vampire and thus becomes his father and the newborn vampire his child... the older vampire functions as father, mother, and husband." In the course of the novel, Lestat and Louis turn Claudia into a child vampire thereby creating a family that subverts traditional conservative gender roles.

Bloodthirsty, brutal, and bitter, Claudia manipulates her fathers and uses her childlike charm to plot Lestat's murder. In depicting Claudia as a ruthless perpetrator of patricide, Anne Rice masculinizes the traditionally over-feminized woman vampire. However, by creating a female vampire that is not openly womanly, Anne Rice is forced to feminize Louis and Lestat to maintain a balanced power dynamic. According to Nubbaumer, Louis occupies the role of mother and confidante to Claudia. In fact, Claudia herself remarks to Louis, "You became my mother, and my father, and so I'm yours forever." In this regard, Anne Rice's vampires are more like those of Carmilla than Dracula because they do not adhere to the societal expectations of their genders and live beyond the natural law.

By the late 20th century vampires were no longer grotesque like Count Orlock or Dracula. They were the morally conflicted, marble-skinned vampires depicted by Rice; and the vampire began to develop an androgynous appearance isolating it from the traditional gender roles of past vampire mythology.

In the 21st century, Twilight's sparkly vampires replaced Rice's and further blurred the gender roles within vampire literature. According to Susan Jeffers, Bella, often lambasted as weak and passive, fulfills the masculine gender role essential in vampire literature as she, "rejects the violence inherent in a patriarchal system" by refusing "to allow Edward and Jacob to remain rivals." [end quote]. However, unlike Claudia,

the other masculinized female I mentioned, Bella is not devoid of the feminine bias thrust upon female characters. She walks a fine line between victim and protagonist, passivity and stubbornness. Edward, like Bella, is both feminine and masculine. In fact, he is the most glaring example of the modern androgynous vampire in recent years. Described by Stephanie Meyer as, lanky, with untidy, bronze-colored hair and a handsome boyish face he is often referenced in a more feminine light than Bella. According to Anna Silvers, however, "Edward's appeal is, throughout the novel, paternal. [He] is the father that Bella never had ... [and] is not just lover but father...[He] frequently refers to or treats Bella as a child." In this respect, Edward is to Bella what Louis is to Claudia. In both instances, the vampire fulfills the role of mother and father to their significant other as a result of their androgynous nature.

In summary, as the vampire has evolved from heteronormative monster to beautiful androgynous creature, mankind has only become more enamored with the bloodsucking fiend that lives just beyond our laws of nature. But how long will this fascination continue? And how will the vampire continue to evolve in the years to come?