Friday, May 29, 2009

Pointless Question #61

Why do girls go squee over vampires?

15 comments:

King of Ferrets said...

Dunno.

The ones I know tend to go squee over Dante even more, though. Dunno why.

Jonathan Hepburn said...

Because they're bad boys, which is traditionally cool, but they've got a much better dress sense, and they're prepared to work at the whole seduction thing.

Plus, there's that whole "penetration" thing going on, which is Fruedian on so many levels.

MWchase said...

What bothers me is the girls who swoon over the idea of getting 'turned' by REAL TWIPIRES OMG, and then, in the next breath, talk about how deranged and demented people who have pica are.

If the kind of people I'm talking about see this, they should realize that the only way they'd have even a shred of credibility talking about me that way is if they addressed stuff that's actually part of my personality, as opposed to a habit.

Plus, ever since the Always Chaotic Evil, or whatever alignment they were, aspects of vampires got deconstructed, girls were allowed to squee over them without having to commit to evil, and instead get watered-down imitation Nietzsche blah, or something like that. This can change if they feel like being rebellious, but gives them the out of redeeming their chosen manwhore^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H sophisticated, otherworldly paramour with the power of Twu Wuv™.

Dark Jaguar said...

I thought vampires were lawful evil and werewolves were the chaotic evil ones. Vampires always struck me as the secret aristocratic society thing, and werewolves were the secret wild clan thing. I can't see a chaotic evil sitting around in a throne room drinking red wine.

DO girls go "squee" over vampires? I guess I'm just way out of touch with whatever's popular with teenagers these days.

Amanda said...

I'm more of a werewolf girl myself. ;)

MWchase said...

Lawful Evil is somewhat of an innovation, relative to folk myths that spawned the idea. Before, they were savages with demonic powers. Dracula just codified a minor trend in making vampires more aristocratic.

I was doing research on making a vampire-and-otherwise hunter for a d20 game. Now I know things.

James K said...

Don't forget that Dracula may have been an aristocrat, but he was named for someone with a reputation as a bloodthirsty monster (the reputation is probably overblown, but that's beside the point). Aristocratic doesn't mean civilised, the nobility were often just the biggest pack of unstable psychopaths in a given country.

Tom Foss said...

Because that was the whole point of vampires for a long time. They bundled up a whole slew of human desires--immortality, superhuman strength and durability, mind control, the ability to wear capes without people laughing at you--threw in a dash of Freudian penetration anxiety/desire, and wrapped it all up in an Aesop about how the only way to achieve all that was to lose your humanity (because you'd have to kill people, see) and that would be evil. Dracula came largely out of tension between normal human desires and 19th Century cultural mores, as well as various anxieties about foreigners and immigrants--Dracula starts the story as old, decrepit, and disgusting (clearly "the other"), but upon arriving in London, he becomes indistinguishable from the masses. He assimilates entirely, blending in with the crowds, and then he starts in corrupting our womenfolk.

Vampires have long been a symbol for illicit, forbidden sex, from the clear lesbianism of "Carmilla" to Dracula's premarital affairs, gender role reversals, and orgies, to the watered-down teenage girl "OMG a dangerous boy that daddy doesn't approve of!" of Twilight.

Laser Potato said...

Because love isn't just blind, it's stupid too.

Tom Foss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom Foss said...

There's also the possibility they just haven't seen this.

Jimmy Blue said...

Damn that video was made of awesome.

Anonymous said...

Vampires suck.

Anonymous said...

"Why do girls go squee over vampires?"


Because the vampire is played by Alex O'Loughlin.




JS:)

Tom Foss said...

I saw/heckled "New Moon" last night, and all the teenage girls around us squeed pretty much exclusively at the constantly shirtless werewolf.

Unfortunately, I think they'd all be disappointed. While wolf-boy is far and away more attractive than the vampire guy (he's not pasty or sunken, and doesn't have weird chest hair and a weirder nipple...that guy is the opposite of attractive), he's also always wearing a pair of denim shorts. Sorry, Team Jacob: he's a Nevernude.