So as I pulled up MSN today, an article INSTANTLY caught my eye: 'Why Do We Love Vampire?'. Being the anti-vampire person I am, I just HAD to read it to try to understand why our society is currently obsessed with those living dead, sex-addicted, oversized mosquitoes. Here are some snippets I took away from the article in case any of YOU are curious as well. . .
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. . .Vampires and sex have been inexorably intertwined since Bram Stoker's iconic sexual predator Count Dracula took a little nip of Mina and Lucy back in 1897. And well before Robert Pattinson (Twilight's Edward Cullen) or Stephen Moyer and Skarsgård (True Blood's vampire duo of Bill Compton and Eric Northman) set the female heart aflutter, a young, virile Frank Langella did the same thing with his sly portrayal of the count in John Badham's 1979 big-screen adaptation of the story. So did an oddly sexy, bespectacled Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Dracula, and Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt when they bared their fangs in the movie version of Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire in 1994. But there's something about the modern-day vampire that's even more alluring than any of these. It's not just that they're sexy. It's that every girl wants to have sex with them.

In some ways, these new vamps have been defanged—a few wear condoms and others sparkle in the sun like Abercrombie & Fitch models (OK, that's just the Twilight vampires). But these changes in the vampire myth also have helped to humanize the characters, turning them into modern-day Romeos for all the angsty Juliets in the tweenage world. True Blood's Ball says that his vampires are part of a "story of people trying to assimilate, trying to find a way in the world. The notion that a group like the vampire is feared and misunderstood, that they're outsiders, it's really very interesting." The hypersexuality, coupled with the potential for danger, makes some of the most unlikely women yearn for the vampire embrace.

But the current vampire obsession isn't all about the fangs. It may be an excellent balm for bigger issues, says Donovan Gwinner, assistant professor of English at Aurora University. In Gwinner's class "Got Blood? Vampires in Literature, Film and Popular Culture," students were required to read several vampire-related books, including Stoker's Dracula and popular literature by Rice, Harris, and Stephenie Meyer. "We talked a lot about how things suck," jokes Gwinner. "But in times of economic contraction, fear of job loss, and war, the vampire myth really speaks to people. What's so bad about being powerful, almost immortal, always in control, and incredibly desirable?"

Very little, as contemporary writers of vampire fiction can attest. The imagery has always been sledgehammer-subtle, says Laurell K. Hamilton, bestselling author of the "Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter" series. "It's fang, penetration, ecstasy," she says. "Our readers know that vampire sex is somehow going to be the very best sex a woman has ever had."

And why shouldn't it be? After all, "they've generally had centuries to practice," says author Charlaine Harris. Plus, her bloodsuckers are out, proud, and mainstreaming with humans due to a blood substitute they can buy at the corner store. But their appeal, she believes, is eternal youth. "We're obsessed with staying young," she says. "And vampires never worry about Social Security or knee replacements. That's almost irresistible to us.". . .

. . . While she has creative license to take her vampires any place she wants, she admits that there is a little pressure to keep at least some of them sexy, rather than portraying them solely as killing machines.

. . .But it's that potential for death that gives vampires a lot of their sexual edge. "It's kind of like autoerotic asphyxia, except that's real," says Katherine Ramsland, professor of psychology at DeSales University. "In terms of fantasy, the vampire mystique is 90 percent sexual. It's a metaphor for dangerous sex. Because if it goes wrong, you're gone." For her book, Piercing the Darkness, Ramsland spent several years researching the rabid vampire fan, those folks who actually act out the Dracula fantasy. Many are professionals (lawyers, stockbrokers, politicians); some are simply lost. What struck Ramsland as rather odd was that most women wanted to be the victim rather than the hunter. "I think it's kind of weird to be the impaled one, the seduced one," she says. "There were so many women who wanted to lose control. And I thought women had come a little further than that."

If message boards, chat rooms, and fan clubs are any indication, the whole seduction, lose-control routine is a huge part of the fantasy. "I think a lot of women wouldn't mind someone else taking control of things for a while," says Melissa Lowery, 34, editor and co-owner of popular fan site true-blood.net. In the last 30 days, the site has had more than 140,000 unique visitors. And after wading through 3,700 comments, Lowery has noted at least one theme that keeps popping up: "Even if a vampire is your lover and gentle and kind, he still has the power to rip someone's leg off," she says. "Sometimes I think women just want to be protected, and that's not so bad.". . .

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Just from reading that article, I think I've picked up on a main reason I dont like vampires: It's all about SEX with them! I am an EXTREMELY modest individual and thoughts pertaining to that are NOT in the front of my mind. Aside from that, the only other known causes of my vampire hate are:
My fear of blood
My discomfort of anything that SUCKS blood (mosquitos, leeches, etc.)
And the fact that I shun anything extremely popluar in our society. . .guess it's my way of being an individual or something?

Anyway, no offense vampire fans, but really, the obsessions going a bit TOO far in my opinion. Peeps just need to chill out. . .where the WEREWOLF love? XD!

BYE!!!