There has long been a fascination with the stories and folklore of the vampire. Throughout the age of art and literature and film, these creatures have been a source of fantasy, horror, and revulsion. By the same token, however, there have also been a number of tales of the vampire that have delved into their sexual nature. Perhaps one particular aspect of that sexuality that is the source of some debate is the great deal of homoeroticism inherent in many vampire stories and films. Other literary genres seem to delve into the subject less than vampire stories do, so it might appear that homoeroticism is central to vampirism. Is the state of being a vampire given to an equal state of homoerotic norms, or are vampires simply doing what they must in order to survive, regardless of their victims’ sex?
What Goes There?
The study of the debate might best begin by posing the question: What is a vampire? Vampires are a race of the undead. They are creatures (or individuals, perhaps) who do almost all of the things that living, flesh-and-blood people do, except for the fact that vampires are not alive in that respect. The vampire is an immortal, and throughout that immortality, it is driven by a deep compulsion to drink human blood. Feeding that hunger for blood is the only way the vampire may survive. However, perhaps there is also the possibility that the vampire longs for a mortal, human, emotional love or tangible connection that it cannot possess in its immortal state. Further, perhaps there is a desperate hunger within the vampire to be mortal again, so that it can rejoin and revel in a society that its vampirism has removed it from.
A Breed Apart
However, as vampires are not a part of this world’s society-at-large, are they necessarily obligated to follow its social norms and mores? Vampires are the undead, they do not live in any realm except their own, so perhaps they do not have to follow the rules mortal society has established. Essentially, the things that vampires do go against many conceivable norms and mores anyway: murder, sucking blood, sleeping in coffins, living primarily in the shadows of the night, and other aspects of the natural ways. And in many societies, particularly Western society, homosexuality is considered a blatant taboo and an affront against natural laws. So, might it be said that because vampires are already of their own world and not ours, it is perfectly “normal” for them to be indiscriminate as to the sex of their victims/conquests?
For instance, in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and in Francis Ford Coppola’s film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is enraged when he discovers the three vampire wenches seducing and feeding off of Jonathan Harker. He hurls them away, declaring that Harker belongs to him and no one else. Though the reader or viewer might feel that Dracula looks upon Harker as his own because of his needing Harker’s assistance in getting to Mina, there also seems to be a considerable amount of underlying homoerotic jealousy in that scene. It really seems that Dracula only turns women into vampires out of his need to survive, turning his true carnal attentions and bloodlust to men. One way he does this in the story is when he drinks the men’s blood through Lucy, where it was mixed with hers when she was given the blood transfusions. In that case, he became more lustful for the men’s blood.
** Author's Note: This article is the first in a three-part series.
Sources:
Bram Stoker's Dracula. 1992. Prod. by Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Fuchs and Charles Mulvehill. Dir. by Francis Ford Coppola. Sony Pictures. 128 mins. DVD.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Penguin Group, 2003.
