I read a Dan Savage column about a guy who had a zombie fetish. And I know they make "horror porn", which kind of disgusts me because it conflates sex with fear and I find that disturbing.
That said, I've totally studied the business about why vampires are perceived as being sexy, and I can't remember a lot of the details. Just that vampire fiction, if I'm not mistaken, began with LeFanu and other writers around that era, and in books at that time - at least in American books written by men, which was obviously most of them - women were generally perceived either as perfect household goddesses or as whoreish temptresses. Female sexuality was demonized very literally in the form of vampires.
But I can't remember what's cause and what's effect here. Were women written as vampires because vampires were sexy and dangerous, or did vampires become sexy and dangerous after LeFanu got the ball rolling? You'd have to ask chavvah. I'm forgetting so many details I might as well just be making shit up.
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ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2005-07-27 01:57 pm (UTC)That said, I've totally studied the business about why vampires are perceived as being sexy, and I can't remember a lot of the details. Just that vampire fiction, if I'm not mistaken, began with LeFanu and other writers around that era, and in books at that time - at least in American books written by men, which was obviously most of them - women were generally perceived either as perfect household goddesses or as whoreish temptresses. Female sexuality was demonized very literally in the form of vampires.
But I can't remember what's cause and what's effect here. Were women written as vampires because vampires were sexy and dangerous, or did vampires become sexy and dangerous after LeFanu got the ball rolling? You'd have to ask