Love at first bite: politics of gender and sexuality in the portrayals of vampires in American popular culture

• Main Author: Goh, Jolene Jie Ting
• Other Authors: Emma Jane Flatt
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Arts and Humanities; Popular culture
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/174455
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper explores the portrayals of vampires with regard to gender and sexuality in American popular culture from the 19th century to modern day. Using the iconic works of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga, I investigate the ways in which vampire portrayals have served to reflect contemporary concerns about gender and sexuality. By placing these works within their cultural context, we gain a deeper understanding of how American society perceived gender and sexuality at various points in history, shaped by events like the women’s suffrage movement and the AIDS epidemic. Through this intersectional lens, I aim to show how gender and sexuality intersect with other concepts like religion, race and medicine. I argue that to a large extent, the portrayals of vampires in American popular culture have served to reflect and mirror the social and cultural contexts of America.