By Brian Moylan at Gawker: Please Stop Telling Teen Girls Vampires Are Bad for Them
Vampires are huge. Ratings for fang banging shows are unbelievable and the anticipation for the Twilight sequel is vomit inducing. We’re sick of the undead too, but please stop telling girls that liking vampires will warp them!
Today’s horrible press release is from a PR agency wanting us to do a story about how liking vampires will give teenage girls body image issues. If they want to be like these pale, thin monsters from beyond, they’re going to stop eating and wear white makeup and develop eating disorders and maybe a skin rash. Oh my gosh!
“In a time when it is so easy for young girls to be persuaded by the media, are vampires the wrong image to achieve? I work with several clinical psychologists and behavioral health experts who can discuss the negative impact these shows have on body image.”
Thanks to media of all stripes and our youth- and fitness-obsessed culture, girls already have enough body issues, but we think that vampires are the least of these problems. Sure, this is a stupid pitch, but why is everyone convinced that this fad is so bad and has all these dark psychological underpinnings?
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via BuzzSugar: Vampire Myths: How the Big 3 Stack Up
The release of New Moon is steadily approaching amid a vampire trend that’s hotter than ever. In addition to the Twilight gang, The Vampire Diaries keeps getting better, and True Blood just wrapped its second amazing season. I love all three, and have been thinking lately about how they each regard classic vampire mythology, from garlic, to crucifixes, to vampire transitions. Take a look at how they compare.
True Blood: Vampires definitely burn in the sun, including an incident where one undead character commits “vampire suicide” by stepping into the light.
Twilight: Edward and his vampire brethren don’t burn in the sun, but prefer to stay out of it because they notoriously sparkle.
The Vampire Diaries: Stefan and Damon also burn in the sun, but they can wear special, protective rings to avoid it.
Myth: Aside From Hunger, Vampires Can’t Be Weakened
True Blood: Pure silver can weaken vampires to human-like vulnerability.
Twilight: Only hunger weakens these vampires.
The Vampire Diaries: The herb vervain can keep bloodsuckers at bay.
See More here
Vampires causing body issues? This irritates me. It’s like people not liking Harry Potter (without reading the books) because he’s a wizard. Rather than attacking things that might actually effect body image (like anorexic models and Girls Gone Wild) they’re attacking something that makes teenagers want to read books about characters with high moral values? That’s just a little backward. And it’s really cool to see the vampire myths compared like that. I like seeing how the legend had evolved over time.
Do you think vampires are a bad thing? Why do you think everyone is so upset?
