There's something that's eerily
familiar and almost comforting in the pallor, fangs,
and blood-thirst that vampires provide us with. Needless to say,
mainstream media has sucked this up (pun intended?) and turned it into a
multi-billion dollar industry in its own. Thanks to our great American writer
and hero of modern literature, Stephanie Meyer, society has resurfaced a new
curiosity for the supernatural and evil forces of this universe, fiction or
otherwise. From Twilight to Dracula, however, this phenomena has lasted
centuries in literature and has transpired into other forms of media, such as
film.
In the
third chapter of How to Read Literature like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster
shows us the symbolism of one of the most familiar and ordinary supernatural
figures to date. Not only are vampires of mystics and evil, but they also hold
a sensuous nature as well. There must be something arousing their
bloodsucking nature that I’m not quite aware of. Nevertheless, audiences worldwide
are captivated by the sexual nature of vampires. Between Twilight and the
Vampire Diaries, society is latching onto the sexuality of vampirism, whether
they acknowledge it or not. The Twilight Series is infamous for its mediocre
writing and even more cringe worthy film adaptations, yet has dominated ticket
offices upon release and managed to become earn billions of dollars in total,
and it doesn’t end there. Twilight has somehow influenced a world of alternate
universes and realities that could only come from one source: fan fiction. What
is the most famous of this fan-written, fan-submitted works? Fifty Shades of
Grey, which has created an industry of its own by captivating middle aged and
young women. This proves another one of Foster’s theories: that an evil,
sensuous character doesn’t even have to be supernatural, a relatively
good-looking, young man with a fetish for domination of women does the trick.
This also reveals another horror
about vampires and other dominant figures in literature: that we’re captivated
by them, despite the example that they set for young people everywhere. Even in
non-fiction works, dominant male figures play central roles and their behaviors
are justified. In Devil in the White City, H. H. Holmes uses his wits and
sexuality to charm dozens of women for his own benefit. Throughout the course
of the book, he embezzles thousands from women and their families in an attempt
to fund his own mischief. Horrible, right? But the reader still gets a chance
to read about his background and childhood as a way to almost justify the way
that Holmes turned out. This pattern, although real in this case, follows in
Fifty Shades of Grey as well. Christian Grey uses his virginal submissive for
his own selfish agenda. Even though a contract of sorts was created, there’s
still a human being that is emotionally and physically affected by this sexuality,
and audiences eat this up without a second thought.
These things considered, are vampires really a subject to glorify and fund? Human manipulation, abuse, and mistreatment isn't something to be taken lightly, but of course when adding fictitious elements, it turns into a source of entertainment which is detrimental to the mindsets of young adults.
Something to consider: http://www.care2.com/causes/fifty-shades-of-grey-is-a-lesson-in-fifty-shades-of-abuse-says-study.html
