Homosexuality and Heteronormativity in Vampire Fiction

Homosexuality and Heteronormativity in Vampire Fiction

By Syeda S. Raza

With the predisposition of seducing, biting, penetrating and sucking vampirism is perhaps the highest symbolic representation of eroticism. Vampires in literature are often not fixed in their sexuality but prefer both men and women. They are often polygamous and driven by a thirst of blood combined with sex. While vampires represent eroticism broadly, a recent trend has materialized in vampire fiction, particularly Dead until Dark, that focuses on the association between vampirism and homosexuality. Contrastingly, a frightening tendency toward the normalization of bloodsuckers within Twilight is also seen.

In Dead until Dark where vampirism is presented as an illness, homosexuality is also presented as an illness. Like homosexual couples, the novel portrays that vampires are also not able to conceive biological children. In the novel, the bill explains Sookie “We can have sex, but we can't make children or have them” (78). Also, vampirism and homosexuality both are presented as an illness specifically when Charlene portrays the homosexual vampire infected with the “Sino-virus1”. Where Sino-virus makes vampires sick, weak and could even kill them, it also provides evidence that Charlene Harris is comparing Sino-virus with AIDS and HIV among homosexual men. Moreover, the fictional term “fan-banger” seems to be adapted from the word fag hag. A “fag hag” is a heterosexual woman who associates mostly with homosexual or bisexual men. While fan bangers are not respectable women in the novel, so are fag hags in contemporary society. Sookie describes fan-bangers in the novel as “…extraordinary, and extraordinarily pathetic”. (110). Thus, it is evident that Charlene Harris has stigmatized homosexual men as vampiric. Not only do homosexual men and vampires share the same stigmatizing traits but the vampirism itself is shown as a metaphor for homosexuality.

However, Stephanie Meyer’s chaste and conservative Twilight demonstrates this tendency toward the “so-called” normalization of the vampire figure. Despite the obvious ambiguity of Edward’s sexual appeal, there are no homosexual couples in the novel nor even a nod to the fact that not everyone on the planet is hetero! As for the widespread heteronormativity the book upholds, all characters are represented as heterosexual in a hetero-monogamous marriage and thus represent the ideal. Twilight mostly centers around a morally righteous family of vampires referred to as ‘The Cullen’s’ who construct an image of vampirism that is white moneyed, educated, patriarchal and domestic; contrary to what is shown in Dead until Dark. It seems as if in the light of Cullen’s, Stephanie Meyers was representing the American dream family. The question arises as to why Meyer’s chose to make every single character heteronormative and have monogamous relationships?

As simple as it seems, Stephanie Meyer and Charlene Harris are a representation of so-called ideal writers who show no compliance in their own writing. Meyer’s representation of an ideal vampire or non-vampire shows that it is extremely likely that she herself believes homosexuality is wrong or because she didn’t have confidence in writing of a homosexual character. Similarly, Charlene Harris’s presentation of vampirism and homosexuality as an illness, and also the representation of homosexuality in minorities shows how limited she is in her writing. I believe, the writing of both authors depicts their conservative thinking and their in-acceptance of the fact that we live in a society where there are freedom and liberty in the choice of one’s sexuality. Thus, writers should focus on portraying that diversity in their writing without stigmatizing the beliefs of people that are distinct in their practices.