The projection of a vampire is the outcast of society. The vampire is in the in wrong preying on those of us who are good, god-fearing, helpless people. The vampire is the threat that stems from the wrong. It is the vampire who is the alcoholic, the murderer, the rapist, or he who commits suicide. As Rickles describes, the vampire is the social outcast, one that we feel must be conquered and put to rest. This perception of a vampire still exists in our culture today, but it is changing.
Today’s media is glorifying the creature of the night. The vampire is changing from a creature to be feared, he is becoming one to be desired even before the first bite. With the Twilight series and shows such as “True Blood”, the vampire who was once the social outcast is now standing in the spotlight in a whole new way. The attention that is focused on the vampire is no longer one that wants to see him vanquished. The attention is now directed to befriending vampires. In essence the recent depictions of vampires are desensitizing us to the downsides of something that wants to suck our blood, we are going through the process of accepting and romanticizing the outcast. Our body is accepting the parasite.
Are we approaching a time where vampires and humans can live side-by-side, accepting the vampire for what and who he is and no longer labeling him as a social outcast who is harbored in a foreign land. I have seen this cultural acceptance during my summer job at The Viewpoint Inn in Oregon that was the filming sight for a few of the scenes in the first Twilight movie. Day in and day out over the summer I saw fans of the vampires coming to the Inn and hoping to get a glimpse of the area that was once blessed with the aura of vampires. These fans of Twilight would make the pilgrimage to the site of the vampire, but unlike the trek that John Harker once made these people are coming support and give praise to the vampire. These people are not there to exterminate the devilish creature they are there to feed him.
Even if our cultures view of the vampire has changed, it is hard for me to believe that he himself has made much of a change. For the vampire is an undead undying creature that sees time race by never able to find a foothold, a perpetual outcast. So is this cultural change one that our society has chosen, or is it that the vampire has used his time over the years wisely. He has infected those of significance, parasiting those at the top so as to make less work for himself. I don’t find it hard to believe that the use of the media to desensitize us humans to vampires is anything other than a ploy by the vampire himself to make us do the footwork. What would make a vampire happier than having hysterical women in search of him, so all he has to do is sit back and wait. And it is the women who are hysterical. The future brides are already knocking on the counts door. Ready for an answer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIj8VK67W4
Why the women some may ask. Well beyond the obvious of the Count Dracula and his many wives, the vampire’s lust for women. It seems that it is the infected women who control with the greatest of ease the rest of the humans, using the power of seduction and lust to lure and take advantage of the male libido as well as being able to befriend and infiltrate more women. In this way, by doing his part to infect the women who are captivated by the new depiction of him it is a no lose situation for the vampire. The vampire gets his pick of the women who are desensitized to his image, who then go out and do the bulk of the work for him.
It seems that the creature who has been pinned and stereotyped as a demon for so many years has used his everlasting life wisely, playing and preying on the mind of us. It seems as if the vampire has taken the centuries of abuse and persecution badly and is now coming back to steal the women and control society how he likes it. Almost as if he has a direct line of circulation to our bodies, feeding us what he wants and filtering out what he doesn’t. He is the romantic who tugs at our heartstrings, however is it he who has changed or us?
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