A history of vampires and bisexuality: the real-life inspirations

October 29, 11:03 AMBisexuality ExaminerMike Szymanski

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Bisexuality Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Vlad Tepes

Courtesy of the Romanian Tourism Site

Why are vampires bisexual?

The legendary undead bloodsuckers seem to have a penchant for going after anything—both male or female—as long as blood is pumping through them. That erotic intimate moment of cradling a victim while ravaging their neck and feeding on their life fluids is the only sensual intimacy that a vampire has in its immortal life—and gender preference is usually irrelevant.

Although it's seemingly cool and hip now to be a vampire, with all the good-looking bi bloodsuckers on "True Blood," the "Twilight" movies, "Vampire Diaries" and "Interview with a Vampire," it's also equating bisexuality with something that is aberrant, anti-social and (dare I say) confusing behavior.

To look at the world of bisexuality as it pertains to vampirism, it takes going back to the history of actual vampires—and the people who wrote about them.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory is one of the real-life inspirations for the vampire legends, and she was indisputably bisexual. Even in the 16th Century, her conquests with men were legendary while her husband was away, but she also had a lust for women, and particularly their blood. History documents her bisexual interests and her torture murders of an estimated 600 girls.

Then, there's the creepy 15th Century Romanian Count Vlad Tepes, who liked to drive stakes through bodies and stick them upright as they died like human shish kabobs. He had sex organs cut off, and often had his victims impaled through the butt.

The guy who took these real-life cases and turned it into the erotic fiction "Dracula," is considered by many historians to be bisexual himself. Bram Stoker actually married and had a child with a former girlfriend of bisexual playwright Oscar Wilde and for 30 years had a close relationship with a flamboyant actor, Sir Henry Irving.

A great deal has been written analyzing Stoker's "Dracula" having plenty of bi undertones, with his interest in blocking Jonathan Harker's wedding and Renfield's total devotion, but many other mentions of bisexuality in vampires go back to writings of the 19th Century.

For example, a poem titled "Christabel" and written in 1817 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge talks about a female vampire who falls for a woman. That was later turned into "Carmilla," which was made into many movies featuring a vampire of that name who goes for guys and girls.

That all laid the groundwork for Anne Rice, and the bisexuality to come in literature and film.

* Here's a comprehensive list of bisexual vampires in movies and on TV.

* Read about the real-life vampire tours of Dracula in Transylvania.

* Evan Rachel Wood plays bisexual queen vampire in 'True Blood,' continuing her bi resume

* Vampire Film Festival haunts New Orleans and scares up big crowd 

* Ted Casablanca talks bisexual shenanigans among 'Twilight' cast

* A bisexual view of Comic-Con 2009