Essay 'Women And Vampires: Nightmare Or Utopia?'

Rhetorical Analysis (Women and Vampires: Nightmare or Utopia?) In our modern society, the term “vampire” has been stretched among such an enormous range of roles that it becomes almost impossible to accurately describe them. The recent trend of vampires and werewolves has taken a hold over pop culture, drawing mass amounts of attention over a huge audience. As I read the title of the essay, I feared I was in for a lecture on Twilight and the feminine roles in the stories. However, the author, Judith E. Johnson, instead presents an in depth variety of sub-texts and archetypes within vampire novels in such a way that shows the ideology that female authors insert into vampire novels. With her examples of authors and stories, she shows that vampire novels are being transformed from horror stories into a variety of genres including erotic and even comedy. With the many amounts of different genres infused with
I think the most emotionally appealing argument is the arguments on how sexuality is portrayed in vampire novels. The different sexual exchanges seem to resonate with the female audience. In a similar essay, author Joan Gordon says:
“From the feminine viewpoint, then, vampire sexuality as portrayed in fiction, far from being "incomplete," instead compensates for the defects in conventional masculine sexual patterns. To many female readers, "unity and sharing through oral gratification" sounds more positive than negative…” (Gordon 230).
This quote has the two authors in agreement that the sexual give-and-take in the female vampire stories is more desirable than the aggressive manner that many other stories depict. This clearly appeals to the women readers as they can relate, and even agree that the sexual exchanges that the novels represent are more desirable. In the aspect of pathos, Johnson’s argument is strongly upheld on a deep, intimate emotional