Are Vampires Incestuous?

Are Vampires Incestuous?

The lecture on vampires and sexuality brought up some interesting questions about kinship and family systems in the vampire world.  I’ve watched and read a lot of different stuff pertaining to vampires.  And after vampires are “made” or “sired,” they sometimes refer to their lineage in family terms such as “mother” or “father” or (and grandparents are the vampires who made the vampires who made them).  I guess it’s fitting to consider the other vampire as a parent because they are introducing new life.

Yet, despite this idea of lineage, there is often a sexual relationship between vampires and the one who “made” them.  So if these vampires consider each other family, are they engaging in parent/child incest?  Or is it like having an affair with your stepparent?  They are not technically biologically related, though they are related by blood according to the processes of siring a vampire.  So how powerful are those blood ties and that constructed kinship?  Apparently not so powerful that they trump biology.  But isn’t vampirism is all about rebirth into an undead life?

So are all vampires just super-incestuous?  Interesting, because incest is considered to be a perversion.  And vampires are frequently portrayed as sexual deviants according to mainstream standards.  Maybe the whole kinship/incest thing is a subtle nod to those portrayals.  Or maybe it is just like sleeping with your step-something.

Tags: biology, blood, family, incest, kinship, lineage, perversions, sex, vampires

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 9:53 pm and is filed under Jaslee Carayol, Major Problems in the History of American Sexuality, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.