Sexuality

Sexuality has become an extremely important facet of vampire media in the last couple of decades. As America’s cultural relationship and comfort with sexuality and alternate forms of sexuality have altered, the vampire’s relationship with sexuality has changed as well. Beginning in the mid-1970s with Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire, female exploration of same-sex pairings has become a dominant element of vampire media. As the Millennium approached, this element was picked up by not only professional writers, but amateurs as well. Given this behavior, it is likely that female artists will continue to explore the many facets of sexuality in the coming years.

Additionally, a smaller sexually related movement is underway. Slowly, over the course of the last twenty-five years, male artists have begun using the vampire genre to explore human sexuality in its many forms. This has been difficult. There has yet to be a significant breakthrough on this front. While female artists like Anne Rice have become celebrated within the genre, no male artist has yet to enjoy this level of recognition. Instead, these artists tend to struggle, their work admired and acknowledged by people in the know but not by the mainstream public.

Unfortunately, many scholars of the genre appear to hold strong stereotypes about male-generated homosexual or polysexual vampire media. They frequently consider it to be "fringe media," exploring only the darker, more animalistic facets of human sexuality (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 172). Often, these artists and products are diluted to only the simplest of terms: sadomasochist, pervert, freak. J. Gordon Melton describes the movement as

beyond just a demand for sexual freedom or the acceptance of homosexuality, some . . . [have] also argued for the destruction of the taboos that surround sado-masochism (an essentially androgynous activity that explores the pleasure of pain), fetishism, bondage, and all sexual activities still considered perverted even by many who consider themselves otherwise sexually liberated (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 173).

Many male artists are actively working to dispel the assumptions made about their work. They are accomplishing this task in many ways. Some, like Trevor Holmes, a doctoral student in English at York University, do so by publishing scholarly articles on the topic and teaching, while others work toward developing anthologies of popular vampire fiction written by homosexual men (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 185, 262). In addition, the establishment of a strong online literary community is also helping to strengthen the bonds within this artistic sub-group. In the future, as male artists continue to work hard to abolish the stereotypes that exist in relation to their growing exploration of sexuality, these opinions will begin to change.

Gender

Vampire media’s exploration of sexuality has gone hand-in-hand with the broadening of American perception of gender identity. Gender role expectations of women have altered significantly in the last three decades. In response, female roles in vampire media too have changed. Women have become significantly more powerful and influential in the genre than they had ever been before. The last ten years alone have witnessed the proliferation of female artists, female vampires and female vampire slayers within mainstream vampire media. Those who were once the hunted have now become the hunters.

In modern vampire media, power or dominance is frequently determined not "by gender but by role" (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 32). As vampires have established a hierarchical social structure, reliance on traditional gender behavior has weakened. For example, in the Hammer films of the 1970s, women were restricted to the roles of victim, underling or minion. They were never given any sort of appreciable power. However, by the 1990s, this had changed. In movies like Blade and novels like those of Anne Rice’s series The Vampire Chronicles, power was resolved through the individual’s overall position within the hierarchy of the vampire community. In some cases, as witnessed by Rice’s characters Maharet, Mekare and Akasha, women became the most powerful vampires in existence. These stories illustrate that power and strength come with age and experience and are not related to masculine or feminine gender identity. Thus, it stands to reason that women may be just as powerful as men. For the moment, women are no longer bound by the oppressive confines of physiology.

Future years will attest to the continued growth and change of the concepts of gender identity within the genre. As many women continue or begin to use vampire media as a way to express their conceptualization of gender roles, their ideas of gender parity and gender fluidity will continue to diversify the genre. Traditional power structures will be rethought (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 32). In the future, artists may begin to explore the inherent power that comes with the giving of life rather than just that which takes life (Gordon & Hollinger, p. 32). In this way, the beneficent vampire that has been modeled by the homosexual community may become a more appreciated and widely recognized segment of the mainstream vampire genre.

If future decades witness the inundation of Anne Rice’s androgynous model of the vampire, it will be vital that artists continue to develop the balance between male and female gender identity. As gender roles become more amorphous, the implications of these ideas become increasingly difficult to predict. If, as with the majority of vampires, creation of new vampires is not dependent on sexual intercourse, what is the need for separation of gender identity? As cloning and other technological advancements loom on humanity’s horizon, the vampire will continue to address these deeper questions and fears about the future of gender in the human race.