# Why are vampires so sexy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738 "2011-05-13T01:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/1 "2011-05-13T01:26:04Z")
I have my own ideas about this, but I’d like to hear yours. The TV is on but the sound is off. There was some random show about vampires, and it was just dripping with sexuality. Why don’t we get the same charge out of zombies? Or do we? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/2 "2011-05-13T01:28:36Z")
Vampires want us for our bodies while zombies value our braaaiiins. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/3 "2011-05-13T01:28:54Z")
I’ve always loved vampires. They are my favorite supertnatural creature, but I don’t find them the least bit sexual. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/4 "2011-05-13T01:40:37Z")
I don’t find them sexy either. I have to guess it’s because they can’t get pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/5 "2011-05-13T01:44:56Z")
Vampires never used to be sexy. They used to be bestial, the embodiment of the dark side of man’s nature. I can’t say this for sure, but I’m pretty sure the blame for Vampires=sexy can be laid pretty heavily at Anne Rice’s feet. Vampirism is an allegory for sex in a lot of ways. Giving yourself utterly to someone, the vulnerability of the bite, the penetration of the fangs, the exchanging of fluids. The fact that most current vampire myths have some degree of bond forming between a vampire and (his) prey also speaks to the (mostly) feminine mindset that wants to see that if you just open yourself to him, he’ll be inextricably linked to you forever. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/6 "2011-05-13T01:56:14Z")
> [@Sierra\_Indigo](#): > > I can’t say this for sure, but I’m pretty sure the blame for Vampires=sexy can be laid pretty heavily at Anne Rice’s feet. Great post, but I’m not sure if I agree with the quoted bit. I’m too lazy to look up which came first, Anne Rice or _Fright Night_, but _Fright Night_ had a lot of sexuality. As did Bela Lugosi. Even the original _Nosferatu_ (and the remake) had some sexuality, in a really creepy way. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/7 "2011-05-13T02:01:59Z")
Interview With the Vampire predated Fright Night by about a decade. However, [The Vampyre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vampyre) and [Carmilla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmilla) predate them both by more than a century. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/8 "2011-05-13T02:07:54Z")
Oh, and quite a bit less obscure…_Dracula_ isn’t exactly a poster boy for the ‘non-sexy’ vampire idea - Drac himself, in the novel, is a bestial thing, but also seductive, and the females who attempt to kill Harker early on are far from unappealing. This, however, doesn’t apply to any of the well known movie version, except for Nosferatu, which made Orlok more bestial and unpleasant than Dracula. [Edit - to clarify, by this I mean the Universal and Hammer movies make Dracula undeniably a desirable being, not just strangely seductive, despite his vaguely inhuman countenance.] ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/9 "2011-05-13T02:47:10Z")
Is vampire sexiness a masculine sort of sexiness? Human females being attracted to male vampires feels like a way more popular meme than human males being attracted to female vampires. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/10 "2011-05-13T02:53:40Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Great post, but I’m not sure if I agree with the quoted bit. I’m too lazy to look up which came first, Anne Rice or _Fright Night_, but _Fright Night_ had a lot of sexuality. As did Bela Lugosi. Even the original _Nosferatu_ (and the remake) had some sexuality, in a really creepy way. The overt sexualisation - not just “the wolf in sheeps’ clothing” style, but the sexy, rockstar, girls want to be with him and so do boys androgeny personified sex god vampire is a pretty Ricean creation. Earlier vampires had an appeal despite their bestial nature. The hormone-flooded vampires of now had a definite if not genesis, then real boost from Rice’s boy-love-fests. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/11 "2011-05-13T02:58:38Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > Is vampire sexiness a masculine sort of sexiness? Human females being attracted to male vampires feels like a way more popular meme than human males being attracted to female vampires. It’s all about penetration. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/12 "2011-05-13T03:01:58Z")
Being bitten is usually presented as being pretty orgasmic. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/13 "2011-05-13T03:14:52Z")
Lighting and stage sets. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/14 "2011-05-13T03:23:15Z")
“Welcome to my home. Come on your own free will. Go in peace, and leave something of that happiness that you bring.” –the count’s welcome to his guest at his castle. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/15 "2011-05-13T03:33:19Z")
Quoting from Stephen King’s nonfiction book _Danse Macabre_: > [@Stephen King](#): > > It is also sex without responsibility, and in the unique and amusing term coined by Erica Jong, the sex in _Dracula_ can be seen as the ultimate zipless fuck. This infantile, retentive attitude toward sex may be one reason why the vampire myth, which in Stoker’s hands seems to say “I will rape you with my mouth and you will love it; instead of contributing potent fluid to your body, I will remove it,” has always been so popular with adolescents still trying to come to grips with their own sexuality. The vampire appears to have found a short-cut through all the tribal mores of sex…and he lives forever, to boot. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/16 "2011-05-13T03:54:31Z")
I think it’s because of the taboo nature. Let’s face it, being in a relationship with somebody who’s dead falls well outside of social norms. And that invokes the Romeo and Juliet syndrome - only a love that is truly great can overcome that amount of social disapproval. So people back-rationalize it and decide that any love that causes that amount of social disapproval must be truly great. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/17 "2011-05-13T04:00:44Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > There was some random show about vampires, and it was just dripping with sexuality. Why don’t we get the same charge out of zombies? Or do we? Vampires are sexy to women because they get to sleep with powerful strangers and not be responsible for it. In fact, it may make you the heroine. Zombies are “sexy” to men because we get to take people and shoot them in the face and not be responsible for it. In fact, it may make you the hero. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/18 "2011-05-13T04:26:53Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > Is vampire sexiness a masculine sort of sexiness? Human females being attracted to male vampires feels like a way more popular meme than human males being attracted to female vampires. It may be more popular _now_, but there have been sexy female vampires in popular culture since at least “Carmilla” (1872), and the female vampires in _Dracula_ (1897) were overtly sexy in a way the Count was not. In _Dracula_ the appeal of Dracula’s brides and vampirized Lucy are pretty obvious: they’ll be beautiful forever, they don’t have the usual Victorian hang-ups about the body/physical contact/Christian morality, and they \*vant \*to put their big red lips on you. The title character in “Carmilla” has all that, plus she makes out with pretty girls. I’d speculate that more relaxed social attitudes towards sex and easy access to a wide variety of pornography means men today are less interested in _metaphors_ about hot, dirty, bi-curious nymphos than they were in the 19th century. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/19 "2011-05-13T04:51:23Z")
I don’t find vampires sexy; I find them disgusting. No wonder I feel so out-of-touch with popular culture nowadays. Every other movie, book or TV show is about vampires, which makes me want to throw up. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738/20 "2011-05-13T05:33:49Z")
Vampires represent giving in, submitting to the power of another, losing yourself to something bigger, better, and more immortal than you would ever be on your own. So yeah, it’s pretty much the same thing as falling in love. And it always has been. Watch Bela Lugosi’s performance, (or Max Shreck’s) and you’ll see that it’s always been there. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-vampires-so-sexy/581738.md?page=2)