Women and Vampire Craze

Vampire craze sucks in female fans

Yvonne Pastor never thought twice about vampires. Then one Saturday night she was bored and flipping through the TV. She stopped at HBO, on which a rerun of "True Blood" was showing.

"When it first started airing, I thought I wasn't going to waste my time watching a stupid vampire show," the city of Phoenix employee recalls. "But then I watched that one, and I was hooked. I spent the rest of the weekend watching the other episodes on Cox on Demand."

Pastor is not the only woman who has succumbed to the vampire's bite. Though it's been hanging around for more than 100 years, the genre today is as fresh as a shirtless 20-something, with shaved chest gleaming in the moonlight. And since that also describes many a contemporary bloodsucker, it's no wonder vampires are mesmerizing a growing number of female fans.

In business terms, the numbers are huge. The first three "Twilight" films, featuring Stephenie Meyer's brooding teen vampires, have earned a cumulative $1.76 billion at the box office, according to the "Hollywood Reporter." "True Blood" has emerged as HBO's most successful show since "The Sopranos." And in the publishing world, Meyer's books have sold around 100 million copies.

"This particular subject seems inexhaustible at the moment," says Jay A. Fernandez, who wrote about the business of vampires for the "Hollywood Reporter." "If you really widen your gaze to the different types of pop culture, it's endless."

And it seems obvious to Susan Shapiro Barash why women would be particularly attracted to these immortal bad boys.

"It's such a fantasy to have this kind of love affair," says Shapiro Barash, a gender professor who wrote the book "Toxic Friends." "It supersedes times. It supersedes being human. There is something so compelling about the idea that you could be with someone who looks 20 but is really 100 years old."

That sense of fantasy is evident in Meyer's creation. Edward Cullen may look like your typical teenager - well, as much as Robert Pattinson can look typical - but he's got a rare old-school gentility.

"There are certain issues for women in which the circumstances might change, but the emotional response doesn't," Shapiro Barash says. "What you're seeing here are just women of all ages having this visceral response to such a romantic figure."

For Pastor, it has turned into something she shares with her daughter. She wound up reading the "Twilight" books because her 12-year-old girl was a fan. Now, the two get into philosophical debates about vampire logic. Avert your eyes now if you haven't read all the Meyer books and hate spoilers.

"I keep getting into this argument with my 13-year-old," Pastor says. "How is he able to get Bella pregnant if he's dead? It just doesn't make sense."

That's another thing about the current rage of vampires: No matter how old you are, there seems to be a bloodsucker for you. There are books for young adults (the "Blood Coven" series); stuff aimed at teens ("Twilight," TV's "The Vampire Diaries"); and the sex-and-blood suds of "True Blood." You could probably find several vampire-related porno flicks if you tried.

"If you're female, this resonates with what you've been taught," Shapiro Barash says. "Our nature is to really long for the most phenomenal, wonderful partner out there, so even if he is a vampire, romantic love wins the day. It doesn't matter if you're 20, 40 or 60."

In some ways, vampire books and movies are becoming the equivalent to Harlequin romance novels and those sudsy old soap operas about the woman who finds a dashing gentleman to take her away. Really, is Southern gentleman Bill Compton from "True Blood" all that different from a classic romantic hero, other than the whole undead thing?

"Often (in Harlequin books) the love interest is someone different than the mainstream, someone who might be strange or strangely alluring," says Carsi Hughes, an associate clinical professor at Dominican University. "With this, that aspect has become a lot more upfront."

Plus, in something like "Twilight," Hughes says, the vampire "is attracted to a girl not necessarily that popular or attractive" - down, Kristen Stewart fans!

"The idea of just being loved for no other reason than who you are - that's mighty appealing," Hughes says. "When does a woman hear that? That is the exact thing a middle-aged women realizes she doesn't have in her life."

Younger women and girls may find some different appeal in the old-school ways of an Edward Cullen.

"Kids have their own burgeoning hormones," Hughes says. "This is a comfortable way for them to ease into thinking about sexual activity."

For Shoni Burg, 35, of Phoenix, it may be about something even simpler.

"It's a form of escapism," the city employee says. "Vampires are so different from us and from our daily lives, the possibility that such a person exists is just fantastic."

Burg says she's been a vampire fan for decades. She even read the Anne Rice books ("Interview with the Vampire," etc.) while she was in high school. But that's nothing compared to Letty Graham-Corona, 50, who used to rush home from school on her bicycle to catch "Dark Shadows," ABC's daytime soap that looked at gothic vampire Barnabas Collins. The 1966-1971 serial made an unlikely sex symbol out of a pasty-faced Canadian actor named Jonathan Frid.

"Vampires have really changed," says Graham-Corona, an event planner for Mesa Community College. "They've gone from being guys like Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, these monstrous, gothic guys, to being sexy and romantic. I think George Hamilton in 'Love at First Bite' kind of turned things around."

But even before that 1979 comedy, Graham-Corona knew there was just something kinda hot about the undead.

"Vampire movies were always sexy," she says. "Now, the vampire might have been ghoulish, but the women were always very beautiful.

"Plus, you know, there's just something about biting that is very sexual and seductive."

Dead or alive, you can't really argue with that.

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xoxo
Carrie