A Legacy of Lesbian Vampires

Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries… Vampires are all the rage in the entertainment world right now, but the obsession is hardly a new phenomenon. These pale, immortal monsters have been the object of lust and legend for centuries. One theme consistently interwoven into the stories of bewitching blood-suckers is the titillating and torrid portrayal of the lesbian vampire.

True Blood’s lesbian vampire queen Sophie-Ann (played by Evan Rachel Wood) and the cheesy exploitation horror flick Lesbian Vampire Killers are only a few of the latest examples of a long history of lesbian vampires in literature, film and television. Folk tales of vampire-like creatures have been in existence virtually since the beginning of human civilization, although the term “vampire” did not come into popular use until the 18^th century. And where you find legends of vampires, you are almost always going to find corresponding tal es of female bloodsuckers who prefer to snack on their own sex.

Since the ancient days of Greek, Roman and Egyptian mythology, hints of homosexuality and bisexuality have always hovered at the edges of legends of the undead. Centuries later, the myth still prevailed when 16^th century Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian) is alleged to have killed thousands of young women and bathed in their blood in the twisted belief this would keep her young and beautiful forever.

The first ‘modern’ lesbian vampire tale to emerge in popular culture dates  back to Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1872 novella Carmilla. The novella is rife with blatant sensuality and lust between vampire Carmilla (also known as Countess Mircalla Karnstein) and her victims, especially the narrator, Laura. Le Fanu has been credited with creating the original template for the idea of the lesbian vampire in modern culture. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, perhaps the most famous of all vampire novels, is thought to have been heavily inspired by Carmilla. The novella has also been the inspiration for a legion of films, short stories and books, all the way up to 2009’s Lesbian Vampire Killers. However, the first true piece of ‘modern’ writing to engage the theme of the lesbian vampire may have actually been Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s late 1700’s poem “Christabel” – which features a beautiful, pale, “blue-veined” witch-like woman named Geraldine who puts a spell on the title character after they disrobe together. In the poem, Geraldine cannot enter Christabel’s home without being assisted inside.

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