Chivalry Is Dead –– And So Are These Teen Vampires
Chivalrous vampires are the "latest craze," says NPR.
If you asked if me if I'd ever read a romance before, I'd say "no, of course not."
Then I'd pause and realize, that's not right –– I'm a voracious consumer of young adult vampire novels!
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer, and Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, by Beth Fantaskey, are two of my favorite vampire romances (both young adult novels). Though they're not packaged as "romances," exactly, I surprised myself enamoured with –– swooning, even! –– over the hunky male protagonists.
Even though they're, um, undead.
At first, neither Edward in Twilight or Lucius in Dark Side are particularly likeable young men as dating prospects. Both treat their young female paramours as desperately in need of protective male guidance –– naive, helpless and a bit silly, even. In the beginning, both be-fanged relationships read as obnoxiously paternalistic.
In Twilight, the tone Edward takes with Bella is arrogant, authorative, and often stern. He insists Bella trust him to make nearly all of the decisions in their relationship. He even becomes angry when she questions his decision-making and makes her promise all kinds of things to him.
In Dark Side, Lucius is a vampire prince from Romania and he is even more arrogant and annoyingly bossy. He hopes to make Jessica his vampire princess and throughout the first half of the book, Lucius noodges her to take more care in her appearance and not consort with men who are not worthy of her friendship or attention. Lucius buys Bella dresses and jewelry, often complimenting her on how lovely she looks in a way that made me, the reader, audibly "awww."
To be honest? I found this power-play, this dominance, extremely hot.
But what surprised me, a feminist, even more? It was even more hot how both young men were so chivalrous to their ladies. I don't just mean the "life or death" protection. Without seeming sexist at all, the vampire boys opened car doors, pulled out chairs and even defended their ladies' honor in front of schoolyard bullies. Both of these vampires were teenagers in different centuries and thus practice centuries-old gender roles.
Real teenage boys? Chivalry is dead, my friends, and it can't decide who should pay for dinner. Suffice it to say, no one has ever pulled out a chair for me (other than a waiter, once). Maybe 10% of car doors have been opened for me. And no one has ever defended "my honor" –– in fact, quite the opposite.
Discussion
First, I must say Ms Wakeman that chivalry is NOT dead (unlike a vampire) ! ! It is sad that the men you have encountered felt no compunction or desire to treat you with special regard or consideration or respect as you might have been accorded in decades past. Me? I open car doors and any other door that I can find for my wife (and her daughter) to show her respect and consideration. It's a matter of good breeding for which I blame my parents. If a young suiter calls me 'dude' or 'man' or anything other than 'Mr' he won't be taking any of the available females in my house anywhere (a point by the way my step daughter has come to appreciate).
I admit, my first thought, when it comes to sex and vampires, is: "how can I make this more intellectual?"
Okay, I'm kidding, My first thought, when it comes to sex, is kind of what you'd expect it to be, since I'm a guy. It has to do with female physical attributes. But thank you.
It's easy to see why people fantasize about vampires, and why exploitation writers and moviemakers have been using them for centuries. They're basically sex incarnate -- all they do is feed and screw, often at the same time. Vampire women tend to be very skimpily dressed -- like Elvira, or Vampira (remember her in Ed Wood?) -- and are usually of the lipstick lesbian variety. Vampire men tend to be ripped, superstrong, superfast, and superpotent.
The Victorian Edward and Carlyle Cullen in Twilight, and the 19th century gentleman Bill Compton in True Blood, are (really really ridiculously good-looking) men of exquisite taste and manners who died back when such things were in style. Ann Rice's Louis has a few such instincts. Of course, since they aren't alive and don't breathe, their only bodily desires are feeding and sex, which are eminently forgiveable considering how gorgeous they are. The single word that Stephenie Meyer uses most often to describe Edward Cullen in Twilight is "perfect" -- he may have a burning desire to suck tongue and drink blood, but at least he doesn't have any ulterior motives.
Vampires have come a long way from their demonic origins, and it's mostly perception. They still all want to screw and eat, but we humans have a lot less compunction about admitting that they're hot. The difference between a good vampire and a bad vampire is that good vampires do everything they can not to feed on humans, or at least not feed on sympathetic humans: hence, Blade, Edward Cullen, Angel from Buffy, and Bill Compton all drink blood substitutes. Bad vampires just regard us as meat.
Gender roles are, at least in part, informed by perceptions of motive, and vampire motives are entirely on the surface, which makes them much more trustworthy, if no less dangerous. It's a lot easier to submit to someone whose intentions you completely understand.
