Wirkus

 Vampires: Books by L.J. Smith, Stephanie Meyer, and Melissa de la Cruz //Twilight// and //New Moon// movies //Vampire Diaries// TV show













"What Would Johnson Say?"-February 14, 2010

Johnson focused on the patriarchy system and its four core values, which are male dominance, male identification, male centeredness, and the obsession with control. I think that for all vampire stories, shows, and movies, the patriarchy system is present in some way or another.

To start off, Johnson said, "Patriarchy is male dominanted in that positions of authority are reserved for men" (5). This value is seen very easily in //The// //Blue Bloods// series. Even though vampires in general are considered very powerful, the men are usually described as more powerful, especially when it comes to their jobs in the human world. The most powerful vampires were the ones that held government positions and owners of huge businesses, such as a television network. Not only are these powerful vampires big wigs in the human world, but they are some of the most important in the vampire world because most of “The New York Blood Committee” is made up of these important male vampires, and very few female vampires. Also, another main part of this series that supports male dominance is that the Regis, who is the leader of the vampires, is always a male throughout the series, which shows that only men can hold postitions with that much power. Another story or movie where male dominance is portrayed is in //The Twilight Saga//. First, this is seen by how Edward’s father, Carlisle, is a doctor. Doctors are very powerful because they constantly have people’s lives in their hands. Also, just the fact that Edward is a vampire and Bella is a human makes him superior due to his supernatural powers that he possesses. Lastly, male dominance can be seen in //New Moon// because the Volturi, which are the most powerful vampires that make sure that all vampires follow the rules, is headed by three male vampires, therefore further proving that only men are capable of having power. Even though there may be some instances in the books and movies where female vampires have some power, and therefore challenge male dominance, they are not as significant as the instances that support male dominance.

The next value that is supported by vampires is male identification, which is that "Patriarchal societies are male identified in that core cultural ideas are what is considered good, desirable, preferable, or normal are associated with how we think about men and masculinity" (Johnson 6). Male identification also deals with emotions and qualities that are usually associated with each gender (Johnson 7). This idea of qualities being associated with different types of people can be applied to vampires because of how what is considered normal in a vampire society is that they drink human blood, are beautiful/handsome, and want power/control. When vampires don’t drink human blood and instead drink animal blood, they are considered weak and less worthy of power. For example, in //The Vampire Diaries//, Stefan chooses not to drink human blood anymore, but his brother Damon still feeds off humans, and therefore he often makes jokes about Stefan's diet and makes the effort to remind Stefan that he is weaker because of his choice. Damon thinks that being a vampire, particularly a male vampire, means that he must be in control all the time, self-sufficient, forceful, tough, competitive, and most of all emotionless. Since Stefan is compassionate towards humans and caring, Damon sees him as less of a male vampire. Through the different series of vampire tales, vampires who don’t feed on humans are becoming more and more frequent, which shows that maybe the idea about vampires is changing, but in every vampire story there is at least one vampire who is ruthless and kills humans in order to feed, which usually makes them the enemy.

Male centeredness, which is the idea that men are the focus and the center of attention, is the next core value of patriarchy (Johnson 10). One quote Johnson added about women in relation to male centeredness that could relate to vampires is, "With rare exceptions, woman are potrayed as along for the ride, fussing over their support work of domestic labor and maintaining love relationships, providing something for men to fight over, or being foils that reflect or amplify men's heroic struggles with the human condition (10). For starters, when it comes to //Twilight//, even though Bella is one of the main characters, there is more focus on her relationship with Edward, and perhaps even more emphasis on Edward. Then, when //New Moon// came out, the main focus was who Bella should pick, Edward or Jacob, which puts more emphasis on the guys than her. Some people might say that Bella does have power since she is after all the one who gets the final say in the end, but this is just furthering her participation in the patriarchal system because of how she is just something for men to fight over and that her main concern is to maintain realtionships, just as Johnson said. Also, just look how many posters, t-shirts, and other items there are just for Bella, and then compare that to the number of items that say either Team Jacob or Team Edward. This proves how women are just along for the ride and the center of attention is on men. Just like //The Twilight Saga//, //The// //Vampire Diaries// is almost the same exact way. Even though Elena is one of the main characters, readers, and even Elena, always have their focus on Stefan, making him the center of attention. Eventually, the series is about which Salvatore brother Elena is going to pick in the end. Also, through these two series, readers are easily able to pick up on the competition between the two main male characters in the stories. In both of these series, the two competing are very different. To compare, Stephan is most like Edward because of how they are so serious all the time and always trying to be protective of the one they love. On the other hand, Jacob is like Damon because of how they both are very funny and start out as more of the friend type instead of her boyfriend. This type of competition puts all of the pressure on the girl because how is she supposed to pick between two completely different types of guys when she likes both of them for different reasons? Johnson's quote, "Men generally don't put other men at the center of their attention because they are in competition with one another and because they are too busy looking for someone to put them at the center" supports this idea of competition because throughout the competition each man is trying to convince her that he is the right one for her by telling/showing her what he is like and what the other man is missing, putting the focus on himself and wanting the female to also put him at the center (Johnson 13). 

Lastly, obsession with control, which is exactly what it sounds like, is perhaps the most visible in all vampires. Vampires are known for this because they have control over everyone and everything, except perhaps self-control. They control everyone because of how they are able to take anyone they want as a victim so that they can feed. Also, the leaders of each group of vampires in the stories want to have absolute control over all the vampires and make sure that everyone follows all the laws they make up. Obsession with control is probably best illustrated in //The// //Vampire Diaries// and //Night World//. In //The Vampire Diaries//, all vampires are able to control people’s minds and make them do and think anything they please, or to perhaps make them forget something. This illustrates control because just by talking to someone, vampires can influence the person to do anything and say anything. In //Night World//, control is shown by the leaders of Night World because they have two laws, which are that a member of Night World cannot tell a human about Night World and cannot fall in love with a human. If a Night World member were to break one of these rules, they and the human are sentenced to death, and there are absolutely no exceptions. Johnson explains this idea of obsession with control when he said, "Men maintain their privilege by controlling women and anyone else who might threaten it" (9). This quote supports what I said about vampires because of how it doesn't matter who the person is who seems threatening to the vampire, they will get rid of that person to keep themselves safe.

Through these examples, Johnson would easily agree that even vampires participate in the patriarchy system. Sure, there are females present in each series, and there are even female vampires who have a considerable amount of power, but they are never the favorite or most important of the series, it is always a male. It is like when Johnson said, "These women's power, however has nothing to do with whether women in general are subordinated under patriarchy. It also doesn't mean that putting more women in positions of authority will by itself do much for women unless we also change the patriarchal character of the systems in which they operate" (8). Therefore, even though vampires have supernatural powers, there are not above the system, and they might even participate more in the patriarchy system than human beings do.

Works Cited de la Cruz, Melissa. //Blue Bloods//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. Johnson, Allan. //The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy//. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple Press, 1997. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //Twilight//. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //New Moon//. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Print Smith, L.J. //Night World//. New York, NY: Simon Pulse, 1996. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print.

“What Would Parsons Say?”-Feb. 21, 2010

I think that instead of saying that the female characters in vampire stories are like princesses, Parsons would say that it is usually the human that is most like the princess. Through these different vampire stories, //The Twilight Saga, The Blue Bloods Series,// and //The Vampire Diaries,// most of the time the storyline involves a human and vampire falling in love. This shows that like fairy tales, vampire stories support Parsons' quote, "A primary goal of gender construction in patriarchal culture is to prepare young girls for romantic love and heterosexual practices" because all of these series have a love component in them (136). There are many ways in which Parsons’ viewpoints of traditional fairytales are supported in each of these series.

To start off, Parsons would say that in //The Twilight Saga// Bella follows the typical princess character since "Fairy tales in the patriarchal tradition portray women as weak, submissive, dependent, and self-sacrificing, which men are powerful, active, and dominant," which is exactly how Bella and Edward are portrayed (137). Like a princess compared to her prince, Bella is very weak compared to her vampire boyfriend Edward. Obviously he has physical strength, but he is also very strong mentally because he is able to give up the girl he loves in order to protect her from other vampires. Unlike Edward, Bella isn’t able to live without Edward, so she puts herself in harm’s way in order to imagine him. Another thing that Parsons would say about Bella is that she doesn’t have a true voice because she isn’t able to decide for herself if she wants to be a vampire or not. Instead, it is Edward who decides if she becomes a vampire, and obviously he will wait as long as can before he changes her. Therefore, this means that Bella is under Edward's control and can't decide her own future. Parsons would say that this series is not a feminist text based on this point because of how she said, "A feminist text deals with issues of freedom, choice, and expanding the subject positions available to women and men" and obviously at this point in the series Bella has neither freedom or choice (139).

For //The Blue Bloods Series,// there are two different characters that Parsons would compare to a princess since there are two different love relationships going on. First, there is the relationship between Schuyler, the vampire, and Oliver, her human conduit. With Oliver being Schuyler’s conduit, he must do anything he can for Schuyler. He always has to be there for her whenever she needs him and for whatever type of relationship she wants. Oliver is helpless in these books because he is in love with Schuyler and isn’t able to do anything about it because she only wants him as her best friend and nothing more. This demonstrates that even though Oliver is dependent on Schuyler because his job is to watch over her, he can’t change that or the fact that she isn’t fully dependent on him due to being a vampire. Also, the fact that Schuyler loves Jack, who is one of the most powerful vampires around, and that she can’t bring herself to tell Oliver that she loves someone else, shows that even a vampire can be vulnerable about expressing an emotion such as love. Parsons would say that both Oliver and Schuyler are comparable to princesses because they both are inferior to someone else who holds more power, which is supported by the Parsons' quote, "In traditional tales, the male hero is in a position of power, and the power is often excerised to dominate others" (140). Even if they don't physically use their power to dominate others, both Schuyler and Jack cause the inferior character (Oliver for Schuyler and Schuyler for Jack) to not openly express their emotions until the superior character expresses how they feel first.

Lastly, the relationships in //The Vampire Diaries// television show that would represent a prince and princess one would be between Katherine and Damon/Stefan. For these relationships Katherine was the vampire, and Damon and Stefan were the helpless humans. Katherine used her vampire powers to make sure that she would be able to have a love relationship with both of the brothers, which makes them completely vulnerable to whatever she wanted. The brothers didn’t have any choice or voice when it came to anything about Katherine, all they knew was that they thought they were in love with her. Unlike Stefan who finally came to his senses about Katherine, Damon was still under her spell and even killed many people in order to get his love back. Parsons' quote, "A concern of feminist text is who is positioned to excerise power and with what consequences" goes well with these relationships because the vampire has complete power and doesn't look at the consequences of her actions at all because if she would have, she would have chosen only one of the brothers so that she was at being fair to both of them, instead of dating both at the same time (140).

Even though there were many ways in which these vampire stories would support what Parsons says about the storylines of traditional fairy tales, there are a couple of parts in the vampire stories that challenge Parsons’ ideas. First, in almost all of these stories, the adversary of the two characters in love has a great deal of power and is usually very beautiful. This goes against Parsons' belief that, "a powerful female is most often ugly, if not evil" if a female is considered the adversary in each of the vampire series (138). For instance, in //The Twilight Saga//, the adversaries throughout the series are all vampires and most are evil, but all are beautiful. Also, in //The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Struggle,// the adversary is Katherine, who is also a beautiful vampire and extremely powerful due to her age. Another way in which Parsons’ ideas would be challenged through //The Blue Bloods Series// is by how the “princess” of the vampire stories usually develops as the story goes along. Even though Oliver might not have a very strong voice, he learns to use the voice he have does have as the story goes along. For example, in //The Van Alen Legacy,// even though Oliver loves Schuyler, he decides to let her go and be with Jack because he knows that Jack will be able to protect her better than he can. This example would make //The Blue Bloods// series look less like a traditional text because of how it goes more along the lines of when Parsons said, "The goal of agency is self-discovery and personal development rather than domination over others, and human interdependency, rather than competition, is stressed" because of how Oliver is doing exactly that, he is letting the competition go for the moment and just focusing on Schuyler's safety (140). Another example of this would be in //The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle// when Elena's character develops from a self-centered girl to a person who is willing to sacrifice herself so that others, specifically Damon and Stefan, will live.

While looking at these vampire stories and the relationships between vampires and humans, Parsons would probably say that they are more traditional due to the humans’ characters and how most of the humans don’t have their own voice. But, if Parsons were to look at the gender roles, she would probably say that these stories for the most part are feminist because of how it doesn’t matter what gender the human is in regards to their role in the stories.

Works Cited:

de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Masquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Revelations//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Parsons, Linda. "Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender-Appropriate Behavior" Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // Twilight //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // New Moon //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Print. Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print.

"What Would Do Rozario Say?"-Feb. 28, 2010

I think that Do Rozario would say that for most vampire stories, they have components that relate to both the Walt’s Princess and the Team Disney Princess due to the different types of relationships that occur throughout the stories. The two series that she would most likely comment on are //The Vampire Diaries// and //Blue Bloods//.

The way that //The Vampire Diaries// goes along with Walt’s princess is through the //femme fatale.// Through the different books in this series, the adversary who wants control and power always goes after Stefan and Damon by using Elena. The adversary knows that both Stefan and Damon love Elena, and that Elena wants to be with Stefan, well at least so far in the series she has chosen Stefan, so each adversary uses that to their advantage. This goes with how Do Rozario said, “What the female fatale really wants, however, is to rule the kingdom herself, so it is when the princess is on the brink of womanhood and has found her lover that the femme fatale moves from simply victimizing the princess to actively seeking her destruction” (43). Even though, in this series it is usually Damon and Stefan who are considered the “princesses,” and the adversary isn’t necessarily a female, the concept of the //femme fatale// still applies because of how the adversaries wait until Damon and Stefan are in love because then they have some leverage against them, giving them a better chance of gaining control of Mystic Falls. The one adversary that does go after Elena, making her the princess is Katherine. The only reason why Katherine seeks Elena’s destruction is because she saw that Stefan was in love with Elena and not her anymore, which made her furious because she believed that Stefan would never love anyone else besides her. Another thing that goes along with this Katherine and Elena relationship is the fact that Elena looks almost exactly like Katherine, which is why Stefan was attracted to her in the first place. This supports the idea of Do Rozario’s that, “The queen’s jealousy is actually directed at a younger version of herself, now ready to succeed her” (39). In this case, Katherine does feel threatened that Elena, her younger version, will take over her spot in Stefan’s heart, so she will do anything just to make sure Stefan loves only her.

There is one main way in which //The Vampire Diaries// represents the Team Disney Princess, which is the fact that for the most part, Elena trusts her own judgment about Damon, instead of listening to what her friends and Stefan say about him. Do Rozario would say that this is what she meant when she talked about growing up and, “increasing reliance on their own judgment rather than their fathers” (50). Even though it isn’t her father that Elena is going against, it is her friends, which is sometimes even harder to go against, especially in today’s world. Elena believes that even though Damon is a “bad boy”, she believes that somewhere deep down there is a humane person who has emotions, and that she will be able to reach that part of him and bring it out for others to also see.

The other series that Do Rozario would comment on is //Blue Bloods//. Just like //The Vampire Diaries//, the adversaries make their biggest moves when the vampires are in their early stages, which is when they are teenagers. In this case, it really isn’t about the victim finding love first but about seeking the destruction of vampires when they are on the brink of being a full vampire. All of the deaths in the beginning are of teenage vampires that are caused by the Silver Bloods, which are vampires who fully consume other vampires. This is because in the teenage years, the vampires are very vulnerable since they are just discovering who they truly are, and they don’t know how to fully control their powers or know their full history yet. Another thing Do Rozario would say is supported in this series is that, “where male power is reduced or erased, the greatest tension is created between women” (42). This can be seen with Jack, Mimi, and Schuyler. Since Jack is bonded to Mimi, he knows that he is in a pickle because even though he wants to be with Schuyler, he knows that there would be severe consequences, which includes death, if he didn’t bond with Mimi. This bond reduces Jack’s power, and causes Mimi and Schuyler to hate and despise each other because both of them want Jack to themselves. Also, Mimi hates Schuyler because if Jack does happen to break the bond, then she will be forced to find and destroy him because that is the law, and she doesn’t want to have to do that to him because she loves him.

//Blue Bloods// also reinforces the idea of “disapproving fathers and handsome, forbidden ‘bad boys’” with the Team Disney Princess because of how Schuyler’s grandfather tells her not to be involved with Jack since it would just lead to trouble for both of them due to the bond (Do Rozario 49). Jack isn’t necessarily a “bad boy”, but he is absolutely forbidden because of how he is bonded to Mimi already. Throughout the series so far, Schuyler knows that she should just forget about Jack, but she isn’t able to because there is such a strong connection between them. Since Schulyer isn't able to leave Jack, she must do what Do Rozario said about the princesses, which is that “daughters then must face the disappointment of their fathers and the consequences of their bad judgment” (50). Even though she doesn’t have to do the part about the fathers because of how her grandfather died early on in the series, she will have to accept the consequences of running away with Jack, even though it necessarily isn’t a bad judgment because they both love each other.

Even though there were many ways in which Do Rozario would say that both of these series support what she said about both Walt’s Princess and Team Disney’s Princess, there was one way in which vampires would challenge the princess ideology and that is when Do Rozario said, “The emphasis is not on ties of blood, but on the social covenants between women” (41). For //The Vampire Diaries//, even though Elena’s mother and father died, it is her aunt and uncle who raise her, which is still a blood relative. As for //Blue Bloods//, Schuyler’s mother is in a coma and it was first her grandmother, then grandfather, and finally her “uncle” who raise her. This disproves the idea of social covenants between women because in each of these series they do have blood relatives that take care of them.

Vampire series try to be more modern, which cause them to be like the Team Disney stories, but at the same time, they keep some elements that pertain to Walt’s stories. This demonstrates that vampire stories combine the two different types of Disney writing, mixing tradition and modern ideas together. Works Cited: Cruz, Melissa de la. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. Cruz, Melissa de la. //Maquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print Cruz, Melissa de la. //Revelations//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print. Cruz, Melissa de la. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Do Rozario, Rebecca-Anne. “The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, the Function of the Disney Princess” from //Women’s Studies in Communication.// Print. (supposed to be indented) Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print.

“What Would Hager Say?”-March 7, 2010 Female characters in the series //Night World//, specifically the book //Huntress//, followed the same path of //The Powerpuff Girls// in a couple of different ways. Hager described //The Powerpuff Girls// as “redefining girlhood and heroism” by how they are simultaneously little girls in school and superheroes in the city (63). In //Huntress//, the main character is a female who is extremely independent and strong-willed, which goes against the norms of traditional gender roles.

To start off, //Huntress// is about a vampire named Jez whose parents were killed by vampires, which causes her to grow up and hunt down humans who killed other humans, mainly gangs. In a sense, she was being both lawful and lawless because of how she was only killing humans who have killed someone else, but still she was being lawless since she was killing humans. This goes back to what Hager said about //The Powerpuff Girls//, “This diva complementarity of the lawful and lawless is very much at work in the construction of their emblematic personalities” (70). The reason why this explanation of //The Powerpuff Girls// relates to Jez because her past experiences have formed her into the person and vampire she is. Later on in the book, Jez finds out that she is actually only half-vampire, which causes her to stop hunting humans, and to instead hunt vampires. She had this change of heart because even though she is half-vampire, she realizes how vulnerable humans are, and therefore must be protected from the Night World. Just like when Hager said, “The girls’ seeming contradictory positions work together to position them as diva citizens in that they suggest new definitions of girl and superhero,” Jez is both a human and vampire which means that she has new definitions of girl and vampire (70). Being both a human and vampire allows Jez to have an advantage because she is able to be a normal human girl who goes to school during the day, but by night she is a vampire hunter. This is a new definition for girl and vampire or vampire hunter because normally vampires aren’t vampire hunters, and previously girls aren’t viewed as being strong physically or mentally, and throughout this entire book, Jez is seen as a leader of others and decides for herself what she wants to do.

Also, just like how Hager said, “The mystery of Chemical X makes possible the girls’ diva citizenship because it enables them to unexpectedly exceed the conventional limits of their identities as little girls by being little girl superheroes,” the blood in Jez that is vampire allows her to exceed her limits of being a human girl (68). Without being part vampire, she never would have known about vampires in the first place, which means that she would have never become the vampire hunter she did. Also, she wouldn’t have had the experience of being a vampire to help her learn how to hunt other vampires. The vampire blood allows her to be as strong emotionally and mentally as anyone else, and causes her to go beyond the realm of what girls normally do and worry about. Jez is a role model for any girl who would want someone to look up to who is independent and goes against normal gender roles.

The last thing that Hager would say about Jez is that like //The Powerpuff Girls//, she is “making a new version of cool for girls by being simultaneously cute as little girls and cool as physically violent superheroes” (64). Sure, Jez may not be a superhero, but she is pretty close because she is defending the entire human race from vampires. Jez is physically violent when killing vampires, which was previously considered boy’s cool, and she combines this with the previous girl’s cool, which is that she is very beautiful. This shows that she can be beautiful and still physically strong and violent when necessary, redefining what being a girl means.

Jez is like //The Powerpuff Girls// in a couple of ways, but she is different in the fact that while she is defending humans, she kills, whereas //The Powerpuff Girls// usually only beat up the criminal and put them in jail. In this sense, //The Powerpuff Girls// are more lawful than Jez, but Jez knows that if she wouldn’t kill the vampires, then they would continue to kill humans. Hager would say that the world depends on both //The Powerpuff Girls// and Jez because their goal in life is to keep innocent humans safe, even if sometimes they go against the law to get it done.

Works Cited Hager, Lisa. “Saving the World Before Bedtime”: The Powerpuff Girls, Citizenship, and the Little Girl Superhero, from //Children’s Literature Association// journal. Print. (supposed to be indented) Smith, L.J. //Huntress//. New York, NY: Simon Pulse, 1997. Print.

“What Would Hassel Say?”-March 7, 2010

Even though there were a couple of vampire series that involved C-R, the one that had multiple female characters go through it where there were definite signs of the C-R process is //Blue Bloods//. Hassel defined the C-R process as, “involves an epiphany; the new consciousness involves significant transformation; and the C-R participant categorically rejects the old way of thinking” (7).

There were three female characters that went through this phase. First, there was Allegra Van Alen, an archangel who voluntarily left heaven to go down to earth with the banished angels. The epiphany that she had was that she fell in love with her human familiar while on earth. The transformation included actually marrying the human, and eventually having a daughter with him, which expressed their love for each other. Finally, Allegra rejected the old way of thinking, which is that she was already blood-bonded to Michael, the other archangel who followed her to earth. Being blood-bonded meant that she couldn’t marry anyone else besides him, but obviously she went against this. Also, the other Blue Blood law was that Blue Bloods couldn’t marry their human familiar, which she also did. Therefore, Allegra decided to follow her heart, not the laws, which meant that she rejected everything that she formerly believed in in regards to being a Blue Blood.

The next female character that demonstrated C-R was Bliss. Bliss was one of the new vampires, which meant that she was just starting to regain past memories and learning how to use her powers. Since the beginning of her transformation, she was having difficulties due to her blackouts and nightmares of a man in white. This man in white wanted her to obey whatever he said, and later on in the series, she found out that her blackouts were caused by him because he would take over her body and leave her in the dark. Bliss’ epiphany came when she found out that she was actually the Silver Blood and had killed her boyfriend, unknowingly. While seeing her boyfriend in her mind, who was giving her advice on how to defeat the man, she had her epiphany. She then had this new consciousness of being able to stay conscious, instead of being blocked out, when the man took over her mind/body. This allowed her to be able to know what was going on when the man was in control, which helped her figure out a way to defeat him. This would be considered the significant transformation because she was trying to be able to figure out how to resist what he wanted and defy him. Finally, she rejected the old way of thinking when she didn't listen to him when he told her to kill Schuyler, which proved that she will never listen to him again. Therefore, instead of doing what others wanted of her, she decided to finally act the way she thought she should based on the type of person she believed she was.

Finally, the last character that goes through the C-R process was Schuyler. Even though there are a couple of different times Schuyler went through the C-R process, the one that was probably the most important was when she decided to fight the Silver Bloods. Schuyler was probably most like Susan from //Monsters vs. Aliens// for a couple of reasons. First off, just like Susan when she didn’t want to accept what happened to her by saying, “I don’t belong here,” Schuyler didn’t want to accept the fact that she was a vampire at first (Hassel 7). During the first Blue Blood meeting, she didn't believe anything that the elders said, and she just left after the meeting thinking the whole thing was a joke. Another way Schuyler was like Susan was how both had their “C-R take place in multiple scenes of intimate, supportive discussion with a group of like-minded individuals” (Hassel 8). Susan had her monster friends, and Schuyler had Oliver, Bliss, and most of the time Jack, to help her go through the C-R process. Schuyler’s process began when she found out vampires were being killed by Silver Bloods. This was the point when her epiphany happened, which caused her to decide to learn more about the Silver Bloods, how to use her powers in the best ways possible, and how to fight if she ever encountered a Silver Blood. This learning process would be part of her transformation into a strong vampire with a new sense of consciousness of what it means to be a Blue Blood. Since she decided to fight the Silver Bloods, she rejected the idea that all the Silver Bloods were destroyed in the past, which is what the Regis of the Blue Blood community said happened. This meant she was rejecting the Blue Blood society in order to keep the people she loved safe.

Each of these three characters followed Susan’s experience in their own way. Susan had a gender epiphany, Allegra had an epiphany about true love, Bliss had an epiphany about what her true meaning in life was, and Schuyler had an epiphany about what her destination was to be in relation to the Silver Bloods. They all had a raising in their consciousness that allowed them to change their thinking completely on a topic, which showed that they found their own voice and independent identity, therefore deciding to act solely upon that.

Works Cited: de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Masquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Revelations//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Hassel, Holly. “Susan Murphy, Ginormica, and Gloria Steinem: Feminist Consciousness-Raising as Science Fiction in //Monsters vs. Aliens//” forthcoming in //To Infinity and Beyond: Science Fiction in Children’s Film and Television.// Print. (supposed to be indented)

“What Would Brumberg Say”-March 21, 2010

Since vampires cannot reproduce, Brumberg would guess that there would be no mentioning of menstruation in any vampire stories, and for the most part she would be correct. Amost every single vampire story takes the time to explain that vampires cannot reproduce themselves, but yet in //The// //Blue Bloods// series and //The Twilight Saga//, there are pregnancies that change the lives of some vampires.

//The Twilight Saga// is the only vampire story to directly come out and talk about menstruating, but it is very brief. The only reason why menstruation is involved at all is because Bella is feeling very sick during her honeymoon, and she happens to see a box of tampons in her suitcase. This causes the light bulb to go off because she remembered that she was supposed to get her period during her honeymoon, but obviously she did not, which leads her to the conclusion that she is probably pregnant. Throughout Edward and Bella’s honeymoon, they didn’t even think about the chance of Bella getting pregnant because they were under the assumption that vampires can’t have babies, but they overlooked the fact that Bella is still human and capable of becoming pregnant. Through this episode, Brumberg would say that this goes against "the American viewpoint of menstruation as always pertaining to hygiene instead of sexuality" because of how even though it may have started with a box of tampons, which is hygiene, it lead to the fact that Bella’s body has matured and is capable of reproduction, which links menstruation and fertility (np). Therefore, Bella’s pregnancy challenges all aspects of the idea that vampires can’t reproduce.

The next series, //Blue Bloods//, doesn’t directly talk about menstruation, but it does talk about how vampires have children. Since, menstruation isn’t involved, this means that the vampires in this series aren’t capable of creating a new life, they have children a different way. The way that vampires are born is that before they die, some of their blood is put into a vial, which allows them to be reborn since their spirit is in their blood. Then, when the vampire society decides to bring the resting vampire back to life, "the woman vampire is implanted with the seed of an immortal consciousness through vitro fertilization" (de la Cruz). All of the vampires are born this way, well with the exception of Schuyler, who is a half-blood. Since Schuyler’s mother, Allegra, was married to a Red Blood (human), she was somehow able to get pregnant with a child who was a new spirit and life, not a recycled one like other vampires. Brumberg would be very judgmental of Allegra’s ability to reproduce because of how it totally "separates menstruation and fertility" (np). Therefore, with the exception of Schuyler, all the other Blue Bloods' spirits are the original 400 that were kicked out of heaven and forced to live their life forever among humans as vampires.

Even though menarche and menstruation isn’t talked about in //Blue Bloods,// vampire life could be compared to menarche and menstruation in a couple of ways. To start off, menarche could be related to the first signs of being a vampire, such as craving raw meat and having blackouts. Just like some girls who just starting having their periods, these new vampires don’t know exactly what is happening to them. Vampire societies are comparable to Brumberg saying, “In every ethnic group, mothers seemed reluctant to talk, although the reasons differed” (np). The reason why vampires support this statement is because of how families didn’t tell their children that they were vampires until they had their first Blue Blood Committee, where they found out what they truly are. The reason why the vampires didn’t talk was because it was against the law, the new vampires were to figure it out on their own, and the Blue Blood Committee was there to answer further questions. Therefore, this reason also supports Brumberg when she said, “Many mothers simply waited until they saw proof of menarche before they ventured any explanation or offered words of advice,” because the Committee would have been considered the proof for the vampire parents (np). Another similarity that goes with menstruation is how new vampires view their bodies, not just physically but mentally as well. One way the experiences were similar were due to the fact that girls and vampires compare themselves to others and “worry about their own pace of development” as illustrated through Margaret (np). Obviously, the older the vampire, the more experience they have had being a vampire and the better they are at using their powers, which makes the new vampires more nervous since they aren’t able to do anything yet, causing them to wonder if they ever will be able to. Also, throughout the series, the vampires swap stories about what they are going through to find out if it is normal, which is what girls do about menstruation. For example, since Bliss is having blackouts and nightmares, she asks Schuyler if she is having the same problems, but when Schuyler says no, Bliss starts to worry and decides to go see the doctor to figure out what is wrong with her. Similar to how Brumberg said, “American girls and their mothers typically think about the external body—what shows and what doesn’t—rather than about the emotional and social meaning of the maturational process,” vampires also notice their external bodies (np). They know that they can continuously eat and never gain a pound, and they also know that they are very beautiful, which cause some of them to flaunt their looks. Another thing is that they worry about what shows because they have to be careful so that nobody accidentally finds out what they really are. One specific example of this is by how Mimi has the doctor prescribe her lotion that will cover up her blue veins, which are her previous lives showing up in her blood. On the other hand, this statement of Brumberg is also proven false by vampires because they do think about the social and emotional meaning of becoming a vampire due to their lives changing dramatically during the transition from human to vampire, since they will be gaining access to their past memories and new powers to help them along the way.

Even though there are many ways menstruation and vampires are related, there were a couple of differences between them. Brumberg said that when it came to menstruating, “reading was always regarded as a better option than learning from peers, because girl talk implied a coarser, rougher way of life associated with the working class and the poor,” but it wasn’t necessarily true for the vampires (np). More often than not, during the Blue Blood Committee meetings they would learn about themselves as vampires by having someone older talk to them and by doing demonstrations to practice their powers. Usually the only time they would read is to learn about the Blue Blood history. Therefore, the vampires learn about what it means to be a vampire by talking with other vampires, not by reading. The other difference applies to //The// //Vampire Diaries// series because unlike what Brumberg said about "menarche being more of an economic ritual than a social one", becoming a vampire in this series is a social one (np). In this series, a human must have vampire blood in them when they die, and in order to become a "full" vampire, the person must drink human blood within twenty-four hours or they will die. This makes it a social experience because there is no blood the person can just go out and buy, instead they must take a human and drink their blood, connecting their minds and souls to each other.

Brumberg seemed to believe that "in America, menstruation refers to hygiene, not sexuality" (np). But through these three vampire series, she would be able to see that just like menstruating; being a vampire involves maturing physically, mentally, and emotionally. Another thing that Brumberg would see is that in a vampire society/family, individuals are more likely to be more social in order get their questions answered. The last connection that Brumberg would make is the fact that blood is very important both to menstruation and vampires. For menstruation, the blood means that females are now capable of reproducing, allowing the human race to continue on. For vampires, blood is the key for eternal life. Basically, for both vampires and females menstruating, bloodshed means survival.

Works Cited: Brumberg, Joan. “Sanitizing Puberty: The American Way to Menstruate.” Chapter Two of //The Body Project: an Intimate History of American Girls//. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //Breaking Dawn//. New York, NY: Little Brown and Co, 2008. Print. Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print.

“What Would Heilman and Donaldson Say?”-April 4, 2010 Heilman and Donaldson agree that //The Harry Potter// series have sexist viewpoints in them, but at the same time Rowling is trying to make it more feminist. There are many ways in which these sexist ideas are shown throughout the series, such as the way the female characters are described and their roles in the series. But at the same time there are many ways in which females are strong and empowering. For the most part, the different vampire series do a better jobwith making the books not so sexist, and more feminist, but there are still times when sexism occurs.

To start off, in //The Harry Potter// series, there is an underrepresentation of female characters in the beginning. As Heilman and Donaldson pointed out, “the books are male dominated,” and can be proven with the number of male characters named compared to the number of female characters, which is a significant number (141). For the most part, the total number of females compared to males was pretty equal in all of the vampire series, which demonstrates that the authors are trying to communicate that men and women are equally important in the stories. There were a couple of exceptions however. The first is the fact that there were only male werewolves in //New Moon,// the movie, but in the book there was actually one female werewolf. Even with this one female werewolf in the book, she is almost outnumbered by male werewolves 10:1, which makes it seem like females aren't strong enough or taken seriously to be considered a werewolf. The second, which is also seen in //The Twilight Saga,// is the fact that most of the Volturi is made up of males with a couple of females. In //Blue Bloods//, The New York Blood Committee, which is the head of the vampires in New York, has more males than females on it. Lastly, in all three of the vampire series listed previously, the main characters include two males and one female. All of these examples cause the females in the series to be not as important as the males and gives the impression that females aren't capable of being powerful or strong enough to have more important roles in the series.

The second sexist idea in //Harry Potter// was the personality that goes with the appearance of female characters. Heilman and Donaldson pointed out that in //Harry Potter//, the females that are smart and strong, are usually described as unattractive. I think that for most of the vampire stories, this is not the case. In //The Vampire Diaries//, Elena is the strongest and smartest female character by how she is always the one to initiate the plan of action in order to save her family, friends, or community and follows through with the plan even if she might end up getting seriously hurt. Even though Elena is a very strong and independent person, she also is the most beautiful female character in the series, which goes against Heilman and Donaldson's point about strong and attractive not being compatible in females. One specific example of this is in //The Vampire Diaries: The Return, Shadow Souls// when she decides that she will do anything to save Stefan from the Shi No Shi, even if it means that she might get killed doing it. Also, during her expedition to the Shi No Shi, she, not Damon, is the one to figure out all the clues in order to get the key needed to get Stefan out of the "jail" cell., which shows that females are capable of being smart and do the saving. On the other hand, in the beginning of the series, she can be compared to the Veelas in //The Harry Potter// series because of how she often flaunts her beauty to attract attention (Heilman 152). The fact that Elena's personality changed so much through the series proves that all girls aren't just about their appearance, instead they learn that they must be willing to sacrifice for the people they care about. Another example that goes against the normal thought of beauty is that in //Blue Bloods//, even though Schuyler is a vampire and normally vampires are very beautiful, nobody knows that she is beautiful because she hides under all her layers of clothes. Schuyler doesn't want people to notice her for her beauty, instead she wants them to know who she is as a person and what her values are. Nevertheless, she is beautiful and also one of the strongest female characters in the book, especially as the series goes along because she is willing to risk her life in order to get rid of the Silver Bloods once and for all so that the entire Blue Blood community will be safe again and able to continue on living their lives as normal as vampires are able to.

The next idea goes along the lines of romantic relationships. In //Harry Potter//, “Men determine whether the relationships are on or off” (Heilman 153). When it comes to the love triangle in each of the series (//The Vampire Diaries, TheTwilight Saga, Blue Bloods//), this idea of men determining the relationship is somewhat proven false. The female character is the one to choose who she wants to be with in the end, not the male characters. Even though the males want to be in control of the type of relationship they have with the female, they don’t truly get to decide, but they can sway the female in their direction by the way they act and talk with her. Usually the male characters that don’t get picked as the female’s love choice end up as her best friend. Even though they want more, they settle for friendship in the end because at least it allows them to remain close to the female character. This type of friendship between a male and female character can be seen by Oliver and Schuyler, Jacob and Bella, and as of right now, Damon and Elena. On the other hand, when it comes to the actual romantic relationship between the main male and female characters, the male does determine when the relationship is on or off. In all of them, the female wants to be in a relationship with the main male vampire, but he tries to stay away from her because he wants to keep her safe and is worried about the consequences if they do have a relationship with her. This can be seen in //The Twilight Saga// by how even though Bella does choose Edward, in //New Moon//, he decides to leave her because he wants to keep her safe from the other vampires. Even though Bella disagrees and tries to make him stay, he just leaves her in the woods because he believes that this will be the best for her.

The main difference between //Harry Potter// and the vampire series is that in //Harry Potter//, women are seen as “the assistants”, but most of the vampire series, with the exception of //The Twilight Saga// up until the last book, have the female and male working together towards a common goal instead of having the female there just to help (Heilman 145). For each of these three series, the female is considered the main character, which means that she isn’t a secondary character presented to help the male character; instead she is in the book to go on her own adventure. The main female characters in //Blue Bloods// and //TheVampire Diaries//, respectively Schuyler and Elena, each determine their own future by acting the way they want and not listening to what they are being told what to do. Schuyler wants to figure out how to stop the Sliver Bloods so that all Blue Blood will be safe. Elena will do anything so that she and Stefan will be able to stay together, and also so that everyone in her town will be safe from the evil forces constantly lurking around. These two characters make difficult decisions and stick to them because they believe that it is the best decision for the common good. On the other hand, throughout //The Twilight Saga// until //Breaking Dawn//, Bella is often seen as weak. Sure, she may know that she wants to be with Edward, but that is her only goal, therefore that is what her life is all about. Since her whole life revolves around Edward, when he leaves she makes dumb choices just so that she will be able to see an image of Edward even though it usually puts her in danger. This shows that she is just an assistant to Edward’s happiness and nothing more, and that all she is focused on is her romance with Edward. Also, it proves the common paternalistic ideology that females aren't able to take care of themselves, which means that men have to be there in order to ensure the female's safety.

Even though these are a couple of examples of how these three vampire series challenge concepts that Heilman and Donaldson applied to //Harry Potter// dealing with feminism, readers still like these series, which means that they must somehow be related to the feelings of plaisir or jouissance. I think that for the most part readers enjoy these books due to feeling plaisir, which is “when familiar cultural and ideological situations are mirrored in literature” (Heilman 140). Even though I pointed out how vampires challenge certain ideological situations, for the most part these series follow somewhat real life situations when it comes to romance. The romance component of these series is probably one of the main reasons why so many teenagers like them since they can apply some of what happens in the series to their own life, therefore setting them on the path of heterosexual romance. Also, these vampire series go along with many ideas that apply to a paternalistic society, which makes it very familiar to readers. The other reason why some readers like vampire books is because of the feeling of jouissance, which is when the book “unsettles the reader, jarring him out of cultural assumption, bringing her to the brink of the abyss” (Heilman 141). Readers get this feeling with the concept of vampires drinking blood because this is definitely not a normal concept in real life situations and makes people feel slightly disturbed, yet fascinated with the concept of immortal life. Therefore, Heilman and Donaldson would say that even though most females in these series are more empowering than the ones in //Harry Potter//, they still have some components in them that are relatable and also some that are disturbing, which causes many readers to enjoy them.

Works Cited de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Masquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Revelations//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Heilman, Elizabeth and Trevor Donaldson. “From Sexist to (Sort of) Feminist: Representations of Gender in the Harry Potter Series,” in //Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter.// Print. (supposed to be indented) Meyer, Stephanie. // Twilight //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // New Moon //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. Eclipse. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2007. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //Breaking Dawn//. New York, NY: Little Brown and Co, 2008. Print. Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2009. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2010. Print.

“What Would Zipes Say?”-April 4, 2010

Zipes has many reasons why he believes //Harry Potter// has become known as a phenomenon, and many of the reasons can apply to //The Twilight Saga//. //The Twilight Saga// has had such a widespread effect on teenagers everywhere, which means that it could be seen as a phenomenon. Also, vampires aren’t too far away from wizards because they both have supernatural powers that give them an advantage in life.

For starters, Zipes says that the word phenomenon means either “some kind of occurrence, change, or fact that is directly perceived and is striking; or used to describe an extraordinary person, someone with exceptional talent, a phenom, whiz kid, or super star” (4). Both of these definitions of phenomenon can be explained through //The Twilight Saga//. The occurrence that happens in //The Twilight Saga// is the constant wondering of when Bella will be turned into a vampire, and what will happen afterwards. Bella turning into a vampire will completely change her life and will be seen as striking to most readers since she will then be immortal. The second definition can most easily be seen through the vampires by how they are so mysterious since nobody knows if they truly exist or not, what they are like if they do exist, or how to know if a person is a vampire or not. Immortality is something that most people want, and since vampires have it, it causes people to want to believe that they do exist. One of the reasons why teenagers read these books is because it gives them an insight of what it would be like to stay young forever.

The next piece of evidence that proves that //The Twilight Saga// could be considered a phenomenon is that it definitely defies rational explanation (Zipes 4). The rational explanation of vampires is that they are blood sucking monsters who kill humans for their blood. In this series, much like the other vampire series I have read, all the vampires don't go along with this explanation. Most of the vampires don't kill or even feed off of humans, instead they decide to feed off of animals. This makes them a little more relateable because at least these vampires are more humane and compassionate towards humans, showing that they do still have consciences and follow certain morals. Also, since they do drink animal blood, they are like humans because most humans eat animal meat, therefore making humans also killers of animals. Since the vampires are more like humans, they also follow many conservative ideologies that humans use, which is one of the reason why these series are so popular. One of the conservative ideas is that the male has to take care of the female and keep her safe, just like Edward does with Bella. This shows that females are incapable of taking care of themselves and that they must have males look over them. Another traditional idea that these books follow is that it is male dominated by how there are many more important male characters than females. For instance, there are two main male characters (Edward and Jacob) and only one female (Bella). One last conservative idea is the fact that these books get girls ready for heterosexual romance, which is usually the main goal of books that are targeted towards girls. //The Twilight Series// does this through the love triangle between Edward, Bella, and Jacob, and the never knowing for certain who Bella is going to pick in the end keeps readers hooked.

//The Twilight Saga// also falls into Zipes saying that “The ordinary become extraordinary, and we are so taken by the phenomenon that we admire, worship, and idolize it without grasping fully why we regard it with so much reverence and awe” (4). Many teenagers now like the series, but before word about the series became widespread many people didn’t know much about it. The series really took off after teenagers heard there was a movie coming out based on the series because they wanted to read the books before watching the movie, and it became even more popular after the movie was released. This shows how a simple story can turn into a phenomenon because of how teenage girls talk about what they like and share with each other their opinions about something, such as a book, which causes other girls to also want to have the same opinion as their friends even if they might not totally agree. The teenage girls typically read the books purely for entertainment, which means they don’t critique the book while reading causing them not to truly know why they like the book. Therefore, teenage girls support the Zipe’s saying that “Since so many others regard it as a phenomenon, therefore it must be a phenomenon” (4).

Just like //Harry Potter//, //The Twilight Saga// is phenomenal because they are ordinary and have become extraordinary (5). Compared to the other vampire stories I have read, //The Twilight Saga// isn’t all that different of a story. Sure, it is a great series to read, but so are the other ones, which makes me think that instead of saying //The Twilight Saga// is a phenomenon, vampires in general are a phenomenon. All the vampire stories that I have read so far go along with Zipe’s saying that “Rowling’s novels are conventional, predictable, and happy endings despite the clever turns of phrases and surprising twists in the intricate plots” (6). Each vampire novel has their own plot, but they all are very conventional in the way they are written because for the most part they stay within the lines of patriarchy and don’t challenge too many ideologies. Even though in each one, there are many ups and downs, readers know that it will all come together in the end and there will be a happy ending. One more thing that makes vampire series and //Harry Potter// alike is the fact that “one story is never enough, especially if it sells well and sits well with audiences” because for every vampire book I read it seems to develop into a series (8). Since so many people are reading vampire novels right now, there are a lot more series to read and there are more books being added to each series because the authors know that vampire readers will buy them. For example, the first two novels of //The Vampire Diaries// series were written in the early 1990s, but since vampires weren’t as popular back then, she didn’t continue to write them. But, after the vampire phenomenon started and teenagers started reading her books and wanting more, she decided to write more books in the series. In conclusion, I believe that //The Twilight Saga// movie was the start of the vampire phenomenon because it gave way to the birth of teenagers wanting to read and learn more about vampires.

Works Cited Meyer, Stephanie. // Twilight //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // New Moon //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. Eclipse. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2007. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //Breaking Dawn//. New York, NY: Little Brown and Co, 2008. Print. Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2009. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2010. Print. Zipes, Jack. “The Phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why All the Talk?” from //Sticks and Stones//. Print.

“What Would Inness Say?”-April 25, 2010 Inness would probably start off saying that American Girl Dolls have very little in common with vampires. After reading a couple of vampire series, she would find that they do have quite a lot in common, but there are still some differences.

To start with the comparisons, just like Inness said, “I could buy bookmarks, balloons, buttons, stationery, doll dress patterns, cookbooks, craft books, paper dolls, and theater kits,” vampire series prompt teenage girls to go out and buy extra accessories also (165). Out of the series that I have read so far, //The Twilight Saga// and //The// //Vampire Diaries// are probably the most well known right now, which makes them the ones with the widest variety of merchandise available for teenage girls to purchase. All a person has to do to find tons of vampire merchandise is to walk into a Hot Topic store. There are shirts, key chains, bags, posters, calendars, books, dolls, games, movies and much more. In addition to Hot Topic, girls who want to get more general vampire merchandise would just have to go to any clothing store and they can find some graphic tee that has a saying about vampires on it. This shows how popular vampires are right now, and that people, mostly girls, are able and willing to spend money in order to get more of vampires, therefore the stores are probably making a huge profit off of vampire popularity.

The fact that vampire series are so popular leads to the next comparison which Inness said “The American Girls books are far from alone as a popular twentieth century series aimed at girl readers” (167). The vampire series are what Inness is talking about when saying that there are other series that are aimed at girl readers. Both vampire series and The American Girls books are very popular among girls, but most likely for different reasons. The vampire series are well-liked probably because of the romance involved and the idea of immortality. On the other hand, The American Girls books are popular because of how there are dolls that go along with each book, which puts a face to the story, and because of how the stories are based on some part of history. I believe that one more reason why vampire series are becoming more and more popular is the fact that like The American Girls books, now there are movies and television shows coming out that allow the readers to be able to physically see the characters and compare how they saw the story in their mind and how the producers of the shows saw the story. One reason that both vampire series and The American Girls books have in common is the fact that both use advertising to the max. With so many different items to buy, more girls are being exposed to the series and wanting to read them and buy merchandise.

The last thing that applies to both the vampire series and The American Girls is the politics that Inness talks about. The first type of politics is the politics of advocacy, which is “pleading for and promoting a specific cause, or upholding a particular point of view or course of action as being valid and right” (Inness 172). The next is politics of attack, which is “generated by the authors’ sense of amusement, outrage, or contempt when they encounter something that runs counter to their concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, justice, fair play, decency, or truth” (Inness 173). The last is politics of assent, which “works to affirm ideologies generally prevalent in the society” (Inness 175). Instead of going into detail for each series, for the most part there are general politics of each type that apply to all the vampire series that I have read. First, the main idea for the politics of advocacy is the idea that not all vampires are bad, and that they are a lot like humans besides the fact that they drink blood. This can be seen in all the series because of how all the teenage vampires go to school with their friends, and nobody knows that they are truly vampires because they are very discreet about their eating habits and don’t do anything that is out of the norm for human teenagers. This message promotes the idea that people should remain open minded and willing to accept others for who they are. Also it shows that people should not judge others before they know them because nobody knows what others are going through unless they ask. This happens throughout the different series because in all of them, the main human character accepts the vampires for who they are, and trusts them. One last politics of advocacy is that secrets shouldn't be kept from loved ones because they come out at the worst times, and it would just be better to come clean right away before the other person finds out some other way. For the politics of attack, instead of the authors writing about how all vampires kill humans in order to get the blood they need to live, they either write about them in one of two ways. Either they create characters that drink animal blood instead of human blood, which makes vampires seem more humane because at least no humans are spilling their blood for them. Or the other way is that even if they do drink human blood, they refrain from draining all the blood from the human, which at least allows the human to live. Therefore, for the politics of attack, the “better” vampires are the ones who drink animal blood, the "tolerable" vampires are the ones that don’t kill in order to feed because it causes them to be seen as more compassionate towards humans, while the vampires that kill humans in order to feed are considered heartless and ruthless monsters, which causes many readers not to like those characters. This reinforces the idea that killing is absolutely wrong, showing that even though vampires need blood to survive and the best blood is humans', they should be able to adjust so that they do not use humans for their blood. Using humans for their blood leads to the next promoted idea which is that people should not use others, even if the person doesn't realize that they are being used. Therefore, vampire series are promoting the idea of true friendship and that friends don't use each other. Lastly, the politics of assent can be seen by in a couple of different ways through patriarchy. The fact that in three out of the four different vampire series there is a love triangle, which involves two boys fighting over one girl, supports male dominance and that being competitive is a male characteristic. Another idea of patriachy that is seen throughout most of the series is that the female is incapable of taking care of herself and needs a man to watch over her, keep her safe, and help her when needed. The last idea that is promoted in the the politics of assent is that females should be interested in and start preparing for heterosexual romance. This is the reason why there is always romance in the vampire series, even though when a person normally thinks of vampires, they think of them drinking blood, not being in love.

One thing that both The American Girls collection and two of the vampire series have in common is the fact that they “present the collection as “real” history” (Inness 176). For //Blue Bloods//, they use the idea of Lucifer and his followers being kicked out of heaven as the start of the Blue Bloods on Earth, making the Blue Bloods really fallen angels. Also, they use major events from the past as wars between the Blue Bloods and Silver Bloods, such as the fall of Rome. Another event that is really interesting to me is that in the series the settlers that came to the New World were Blue Bloods trying to escape from the Silver Bloods, and that the disappearances of the settlers at Roanoke was because the Silver Bloods killed them. These are all really interesting twists to how people normally read about history, but they do raise some questions as to what really happened. The other series that deals with the illusion of the history being true is //Night World.// There isn’t as much history as in //Blue Bloods//, but every //Night World// book starts out with saying that Night World isn’t a place; instead it is all around us. This makes readers really question whether or not any of it is real because how is a person supposed to truly know if it is?

While looking over all these vampire series, Inness would say that there is one major difference between vampires and The American Girls, which is the cost. For American Girls, Inness said, “they are also products that are sold with a calculating eye on the upper-middle-class pocketbook” (169). Besides the dolls already being expensive in the first place, there are also many accessories to buy that go with each of them that makes it even more expensive. On the other hand, vampire series are very inexpensive. If a person just wants to read the books, all they have to do is go to the library and borrow the book. Even if they bought the book it is usually at least under $20, which is about a fourth of the cost of an American Girl Doll. This means that vampire series are available for anyone who would like to read them, not just the upper-middle-class.

Therefore, Inness would say that there are many similarities between the American Girls and vampire series. Also, she would say that the politics of advocacy, attack, and assent apply even to vampire series, since they are after all literature.

Works Cited: de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Masquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Revelations//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2008. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Inness, Sherrie. “Anti-Barbies: The American Girls collection and Political Ideologies” from //Delinquents and Debutantes//. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // Twilight //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2005. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. // New Moon //. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2006. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. Eclipse. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co, 2007. Print. Meyer, Stephanie. //Breaking Dawn//. New York, NY: Little Brown and Co, 2008. Print. Smith, L.J. // Night World //. New York, NY: Simon Pulse, 1996. Print. Smith, L.J. // The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening and The Struggle. // New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Fury and Dark Reunion.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 1991. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2009. Print. Smith, L.J. //The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow Souls.// New York, NY: HarperTeen, 2010. Print.

What Would Lamb and Brown Say?-May 9, 2010 Through the entire article, Lamb and Brown argued that parents must be involved in their daughter’s life and try to understand why they wear what they do. Lamb and Brown tried to get to the bottom of why girls dress the way they do, and what marketers are doing so that they can make a greater profit off girls. Even though most of the vampire series are devoted to telling a story about love and adventures, there is mentioning of clothes in some of the series, specifically //Blue Bloods//.

//Blue Bloods// probably had the most talk about clothes compared to all the other vampire series. The three main female characters are Mimi, Schuyler, and Bliss, and out of these, the one who is most concerned about clothes and fashion is definitely Mimi. To start off, Mimi uses the idea that dressing “older and more sophisticated is often simply sexy” when deciding what to wear to parties and dances (Lamb 44). She often gets the skimpiest dresses that barely cover her body. For instance, for the Four Hundred Ball, she wore a thin white silk satin dress that showed every curve of her body and had a cutout at her hip, showing her skin. She described it as clothing her and covering, but at the same time not clothing and exposing (de la Cruz 221). Obviously this dress is not for a sixteen year old, and even her “mother” told her that the dress was inappropriate and tried to make her change, but her father approved of it and allowed her to wear it. This disagreement between Mimi’s “parents” proves that “parents won’t agree about what’s okay and what’s too provocative…, but the important thing is that they do engage their daughters and that they talk about how the array of choices creates the illusion of identity” (Lamb 41). Since Mimi’s “father” is Michael the Archangel, he knows the past, and the reason why Mimi is wearing that type of dress is because that was the dress she wore when she bonded to Jack in a previous life, therefore meaning she is now ready to bond to Jack and assume her role as Azrael, angel of death. On the other hand, Mimi’s “mother” doesn’t fully know what happened in Mimi’s past, so she doesn’t understand why her daughter is dressing the way she is, and she doesn’t ask why either. Besides the reason of being ready to renew her bond to Jack, Mimi also dresses this way so that more boys will notice her, therefore giving her power over them, even though she doesn’t need anymore power, which relates to what Lamb and Brown mentioned about girls wanting to get attention from boys (44). The reason she always wanted to be the best one dressed is because of all the attention she got, even if it means going to the extremes to get attention. Another aspect of how Mimi dresses is the fact that she dresses for fashion rather than for practicality (Lamb 17). In //The Van Alen Legacy//, Mimi joins the group of Venators to try to find out what the Silver Bloods are planning. There is a lot of walking, running, jumping, and sneaking around, and yet she decides to wear heels. Wearing heels in this circumstance is completely impractical, even if she is a vampire, and demonstrates how she is so into fashion that she puts it above her comfort and practicality.

The next character where fashion comes into play sometimes is Schuyler. Even though Schuyler is half vampire, she often doesn’t fit the normal vampire stereotype. The other vampires at the school are very fashionable and influence everyone else as to what they should be wearing. Schuyler doesn’t care what others say about how she dresses, which is usually in many of layers of clothes that completely cover her body. These layers can be seen as Schuyler trying “to protect herself” (Lamb 51). She likes to be invisible and doesn’t want anymore attention than necessary, she is just happy to have her few close friends, which is where she believes she belongs. Probably the first time she comes out of her shell is when she goes into modeling and is forced to wear all different types of clothes. During her first modeling job, she and Bliss were only wearing a pair of name brand jeans, and the photos taken were only showing their bare backs and the jeans. A photo of this ended up on a huge billboard in the city, where everyone could see how beautiful Schuyler really is. This gives Schuyler more attention, but she remains the same person and doesn't change her attitude, allowing her to go back to her layers. Another time Schuyler isn't in layers is for the Four Hundred Ball, which she decides to attend at the last minute. She wears such a magnificent dress that even Mimi is envious of her because she is worried Schuyler will be noticed more than she will be. Mimi being jealous of Schuyler shows how “it’s not just boys that check out what the girls are wearing” (Lamb 33). Even after this, Schuyler remains true to herself and doesn’t let the attention change her. Schuyler is not like many girls because she doesn’t worry about fashion, she is more worried about what is happening to the Blue Bloods, how to stop the Silver Bloods, and how to keep her friends safe.

The last girl in //Blue Bloods// that worries about fashion is Bliss. Since she starts as Mimi’s closest friend, she is affected by what Mimi says and does. When she first comes to New York from Texas, she is a total outcast because she wears very extravagant clothes and gaudy jewelry, and travels in a limo. Since the other girls at school talk about how different she looks and how she obviously doesn’t fit in with any of them proves the idea that “other girls are checking out where a girl shops and making comments” (Lamb 33). After she learns from Mimi that it is all about "stealth wealth, meaning that the teenagers shop at Old Navy and have strict allowances," she changes the way she looks and acts (de la Cruz). Bliss changing herself “came from heart-felt rejections of the status quo, or feelings of rejection for being too different, which causes her individual interests to be invisible” (Lamb 34, 52). Just like so many girls do right now, Bliss changes in order to be accepted. This idea of stealth wealth goes against what happens in most areas of our country because normally when a girl is wealthy, she doesn’t wear ordinary clothes, instead she shops at brand name stores that are more expensive, thus flaunting her wealth. The last thing about Bliss is that for the Four Hundred Ball, her father presents her with a green Dior dress and a huge emerald called Lucifer’s Bane, which causes her red hair stand out. The color green is normally “associated with boys due to conveying action and aggressiveness,” and for Bliss she is trying to assert herself as an individual separate from Mimi (Lamb 19). Also, readers find out later on that Bliss has been very aggressive because Lucifer has been controlling her and keeping her in the dark when he would use her body to do evil deeds. So, maybe this green dress was a hint at what she was truly like inside, which goes along with the idea that “girls can’t win if they try to forge their identity with fashion alone,” (Lamb 40). Bliss tries to forge her identity when she changes the way she dresses to fit in with the kids at school, and this green dress is trying to tell her that she can’t win if she continues to dress the way she does. Therefore, Bliss must realize who she truly is and accept it before she will be able to feel like she belongs somewhere.

These examples of how Mimi, Schuyler, and Bliss interact and think about fashion prove a lot of Lamb and Brown’s points that talk about how girls are affected by fashion from the time they are born. Just the fact that in this series the male characters don't pay as much attention to fashion as the female characters, shows that females, but not males, should always be worried about their appearance in regards to fashion. Also, the examples prove how identity and fashion are related, even though fashion doesn’t always correctly represent the true identity of a person.

Works Cited de la Cruz, Melissa. // Blue Bloods //. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2006. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //Masquerade//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2007. Print. de la Cruz, Melissa. //The Van Alen Legacy//. New York, NY: Hyperion Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Lamb, Sharon and Lyn Mikel Brown. “Ch. 1: Pretty in Pink: What Girls Wear,” from //Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes//. (supposed to be indented)