Vampires: Girls vs. Boys

What most of the unofficial Feminists Against Vampire Romance Novels organization, --bent on the mass destruction of a fictional theme, --seems to miss in the world of vampires right now, is that normally, chicks are over-represented in vampire literature and cinema. How many badass vampire guys can you think of? Blade, Dracula, Kurt Barlow, Count Orlock, etc., etc., --but lately, doesn't it seem like we've had our share of vampire chicks? Let's see, who was the most badass, top vampire in From Dusk Till Dawn? That sexy she-bitch with the snake, Santanico Pandemonium, played by Salma Hayek. How about Queen of the Damned? Bloodrayne? Underworld? --all of them? In what world is it that vampires are suddenly the embodiment of all things sexist?

One of the first vampire novels the world ever saw, coming even before Bram Stoker's Dracula, was Carmilla, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. What was it about? Those of you currently Google'ing are automatically disqualified. The novel was about a female vampire preying on, --not a man, --but a woman. Now the truly dedicated feminist will search her inner database of man hate to come up with a reason as to why this novel was anti-female, but let's just roll with this theme we're building here. Why is it that men seem to make such crappy vampires? Whose love destroyed Dracula? Why, it was Mina, --and she was a vampire at the time. I won't even go into the whole Akasha thing in Queen of the Damned, because we're past that.

The point is, independent women in vampire novels are not a scarcity; the literary strong female vampire archetype is older than the literary  strong male vampire archetype by twenty-five years. It's actually rare to see a popular vampire role filled by a male, because Hollywood loves to cash in on the snotty vampire bitch trend: hot female vampire warriors are gold. At the end of the Twilight saga, Bella ends up being one of the most gifted vampires in their clan for her amazing presence of mind. How can that leave a bitter taste in the mouth of popular feminism? Vampire and horror cinema in general have moved with the times, not against them. Women as vampires have become a stronger force than men as vampires, both literally and metaphorically.

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