Sexy Vampires

and the Women Who Love Them

Sexy vampires are all hot right now, and women are loving them. Why?

While very few readers would be interested in sexual relationships with the vampires of Thirty Days of Night, a great many would be interested in getting frisky with such sexy undead hunks as Eric Northman or Bill Compton (Charlainne Harris), or Jean Claude (Laurel K. Hamilton) since they are portrayed by their literary creators as attractive, intelligent, powerful males. They would have been attractive while they were still “alive;” so the attraction continues into death as long as they behave as human males would. And this is key; they behave not as real human males do in real life, but as their female authors would like to have them behave. These men, for the most part, aren’t participating in non-consensual sex. AND they pay attention to the sexual pleasure of their partners (often in exchange for blood). Their bites are often, in fact usually in the various fictions, portrayed as orgiastic and pleasurable for their victims – if; indeed, the term victim can be used here. And their sexual preferences are generally unbiased since the sex is generally prelude to feeding as much as prelude to orgasm – although generally they do that too, and how the blood flow is directed to the penis to engorge it for sex is another question setting fiction apart from reality. In these novels, the vampires get erections; big ones. And if they have issues, there are always sexual aids for vampires in need of them.

But what is it, apart from the fantasy of having men concerned with making certain they too have orgasm, which attracts such a large readership to paranormal romance and the sexy vampires who populate the genre? Do they connect on some deeper level with a buried part of our societal psyche which impels girls to want to be the princess in the tower who’s Prince comes and slays the dragon then carries her to a safe place where he cares for her the rest of her life? In the wonderful world of the vampire it can become a very long life, eternal even. Certainly the females of these stories by and large need rescuing, although often it is rescue from the supernatural world that the presence of the vampire impels them into. For instance Sookie Stackhouse wouldn’t have needed saving from the Drainers if Bill hadn’t walked into her world. Yet she also wouldn’t have had the sexual experiences she was able to have with her two vampire lovers; I doubt she’d have traded ecstasy for safety.

It is not only protection; however, that these novelistic heroes offer (I am excluding the evil vampires) the female protagonists; they offer them security, both monetary and emotionally. The vampire finds his soul mate, his beloved, recognizing her when he meets her, and he sweeps her off her feet. Stephanie Edward’s Bella and Edward can’t stay apart, although Edward and Bella both see the logic and safety in not being together. Anita Hamilton’s Anita Blake can’t quite get away from Jean Claude, even though he is a master vampire and she is the master slayer. Erin McCarthy’s Alexis Baldizzi can’t escape her attraction to Ethan Carrick before she is his for eternity. And in one way or another, each winds up not just mated to their vampire, but dependent upon him. It is Edward’s finances that enable Bella to flee when the evil vampire comes looking for her. Anita Blake needs Jean Claude to keep her free from other master vampires who would possess her if they could. Alexis is moves into the Casino with Ethan where she happily accepts his provisions of clothing, jewelry, blood, and sex.

Few of the novels feature female protagonists who are having sex with vampires don’t wind up being vampires themselves – changed forever by their relationship choices as real females are changed by their relationship choices. But the sexy vampire sex is mind-blowing, life-changing, orgasmic in ways that, one presumes, sex with mere human men isn’t, perhaps as much a product of the vampire’s extended learning curb as original talent. But then again, each heroine winds up having sex with their “soul mate” which presumably provides an emotional connection.

But then we have Sookie Stackhouse who has sex with both Bill and Eric (though not at the same time). She is an anomaly. She is not normal in quite the same way the other women were normal, (yeah, necromancy is normal?) yet the sex is again described as well above average. Perhaps it is Sookie’s multiple vampire partners which enables Harris to continue inputting plots that aren’t all graphic sex (see Hamilton). But while the sex is terrific with each vampire partner, it is only Eric who notices and provides for her human needs, and he attempts to provide in ways she can accept, delivering gravel for her driveway, ensuring payment is received for services rendered, etc. In this Eric, who has been a vampire for over a thousand years, acts as a human male might be wished to act. And that he is incredibly hot and wanted by pretty much everyone can’t help but add to the appeal, for her, of being wanted. She, like Bella, Alexis, and many of the others, are pretty normal women who have been mostly passed up by human men, unwanted until their vampire lovers want them; perhaps this is what makes the sex so wonderful (as much as the years of the male’s experience), it is livened with acceptance, physical closeness, and orgasm. Does life get better that?