Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Preppy Vampire

Preppy female vampires are my favorite kind but they're a woefully under-represented segment of the genre. Maybe it's due to the seeming incongruity of the "good vs. bad girl" dynamic but that's a basic tenet of the vampire myth and it was a prominent theme in Bram Stoker's Dracula. BFF's Lucy (the bad one) and Mina (the good one) are naturally compatible opposites. Dracula easily satisfies his lust with Lucy while he attempts to seduce a resistant Mina and make her his vampire bride. Of course, Lucy succumbs very quickly and as punishment for her immodest ways she's compelled to steal babies as food and ultimately gets a stake through the heart (no Freudian messages to be seen here...move along.) After a few love bites from Dracula, Mina momentarily dallies with her own set of fangs but is rapidly rehabilitated and is none the worse for the wear. Popular culture's takeaway from this is that a woman bit by a vampire is automatically transformed into a slutty, tacky, sex-starved vixen and there are plenty of examples online to prove it. They range from the mildly tacky, to tasteless, sleazy, vulgar, ridiculous and contrived, and just plain fucking weird and repulsive


However, there are a few examples of vampiresses who retain their classic beauty and serve as an antidote to the above. Most good vampire movies have a trio of vampire brides whom are classically pretty with my most recent favorite being in the film Dracula 2000. Then there's the episode of the recent Superman series where the vampiress president of the local sorority has her own three brides, including a classically beautiful Erica Cerra (in flats, a skirt and a blouse!), a stunning blonde, and a third girl who probably got the role as the result of a favor of one type or another. This episode also included the exceedingly beautiful, wonderfully fanged, and wholesomely normal Kristin Kreuk. In the "reality" show The Bachelor a very pretty bachelorette appeared in fangs who in true reality is model/actress Madison McKinley. Nina Dobrev from the show Vampire Diaries also has classic preppy looks and in a recent appearance on the Conan O'Brien show she appeared dressed in an tasteful evening gown, with surely a crew of stylists who preened over her hair and makeup with great results, made even better when she donned her fangs for a bit of intensely sexy role-playing


And now we have the fine example pictured here, a random beauty gleaned from the Internet. No excessive piercings or any tattoos to be seen, a beautiful smile and wholesome demeanor. Those wonderful quad-fangs coupled with her demure appearance make an incredibly appealing package; she's the good girl who was transformed into a vampire and she likely has some very hot secrets. For some excellent information on exactly what that is, go explore the wonderful TVTropes.org on the subject