In his email newsletter, The G-File, Jonah Goldberg writes about what the popularity of vampire romances says about our culture. Since the column is not available on the web, I'll quote the entire section addressing the subject:In Twilight, the romantic lead is Edward Cullen, who's about 120 years old and falls in love with a 17-year-old girl.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel was born in the 1700s, and he's in love with Buffy, who's 16 or so when the relationship starts.
In The Vampire Diaries, Stefan Salvatore is about 160 years old. His girlfriend seems to be about 17.
In True Blood, Bill Compton is roughly a century-and-a-half old, and he seduces a woman in her early twenties.
Anyone see a trend here?
Put True Blood aside, since it's intended for adults. Imagine if the 17-year-old girls in Twilight, Buffy, or Vampire Diaries were being seduced by 65-year-old guys. That would be gross. But when the teenage girl is seduced by a guy two, three, four times as old, it's like-totally-OMG-super-romantic. Why?
The explanation, according to the girls, seems to boil down to: Because he's good looking. Because he's mature. Because he's mysterious ("I've never met anyone like him!"). And because he's at war with his urges.
The problem is that if you take away the good-looking part, you're describing a run-of-the-mill dirty old man. If you keep the good-looking part, you're describing a slightly younger but really, really sleazy dude who cruises high schools looking for jailbait.
Either way, I'm not sure it says anything good about the men and women who get too carried away with the "romance" of the vampire genre. Just try to imagine an old white guy in these roles: Phil Gramm going to the prom. Harry Byrd necking in the woods with a 17-year-old. Walter Cronkite sweeping a young damsel off her feet. All of these guys are a lot younger than the buff old men cruising the girls in these movies and TV shows. And if you think it's different just because the super-old men look good, what does that say about you, or the culture? ("Don't ask us, you're the creepy nerd watching all these shows!" -- The Couch.)
And that's putting aside the question of whether vampires can even be good people. Even if you allow for personal growth, they're all still murderers. Imagine your teenage daughter dating a forty-year-old with a serious criminal past. Now imagine she tries to defend him:
"He's so sweet!"
"He's so gentle!"
"He's grown so much, he's, like, super mature now. He's not like he was when he killed all those nuns!"
And what does it say about a dude if he thinks, "Man if only I could get my brain inside the body of a buff teenager, I'd totally hit the high schools"?
I think that Goldberg is reading a more into this trend than is warranted. The popularity of ancient vampire/teenager girl romances probably has more to do with contemporary American society's contempt for aging, which I've written about previously. That said, the obvious apparent age difference between Buffy and Angel in the first season should have provoked the concern of Buffy's mother. Or the fact that she hung out a lot with an older man from school, namely Giles.
But I digress. To respond to Goldberg: these fictional romances between teenage girls and ancient men in the bodies of teenage boys say more about what teenage girls want than some lolita complex among older men. A vampire in a teenager's body has the hotness of a youthful body, but is past all of the awkwardness and immaturity of male adolescence.
Remember that the primary audience for vampire romance isn't sixty-something men, but teenage girls. The genre is marketed at their desires.
8 comments:
One of the tropes of vampire stories is that being locking in an ageless body also stunts their growth in a number of ways. I know this is a major plot point in the Twilight series.
One thought kept occurring to me as I read this, The original author, Goldberg, seems to miss the point even though his side arguments are well made. The main point, as I see it, is the violence. That the vampire ancient-yet-youthful man is a very dangerous person. And I think it is well documented that teenage girls have a certain fascination with "bad boys." The age of the romantic lead is pretty much just a story point that is glossed over.
The movie Thirty Days of Night portrays vampires the way they were originally meant to be portrayed. Showing vampires to be hideous blood sucking animalistic creatures.
Over the years the vampire genre has emphasized the search for eternal youth as the driving force in vampirism. If there is an obsession with youth, seeking out very young females is completely logical to the stories.
Jeff wrote:
One of the tropes of vampire stories is that being locking in an ageless body also stunts their growth in a number of ways.
Emotional as well as physical?
Rich wrote:
And I think it is well documented that teenage girls have a certain fascination with "bad boys."
Alas, this is often true.
bob wrote:
Over the years the vampire genre has emphasized the search for eternal youth as the driving force in vampirism. If there is an obsession with youth, seeking out very young females is completely logical to the stories.
This is a very good point, and connects well with the actual pre-film legends of vampirism.
"Emotional as well as physical?"
Yes. This isn't quite so true of Edward, but it is definitely true of Rosalie and Emmett. The author says it is also why you don't kill a vampire's mate, because falling in love is one of the only things that will fundamentally change a vampire and they can't change back.
I think it's true in all vampire stories though. The undead seem capable of holding grudges for centuries. Their surroundings often change but their personalities do not.
That would seem to fit into Bob's suggestion that some women are strongly attracted to dysfunctional, even emotionally abusive men. What could be more abusive than a vampire, especially one that has anger issues?
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