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She's got the raven-black hair, the tight leather bodice, the pale skin and the fangs. The one thing this sexy vampiress doesn't have is a lust for hot male blood. No, only the blood of an innocent young woman will do. And lucky for her, the nightclubs are full of easily swayed bi-curious beauties.
However, she'd better be careful to make sure that her next victim doesn't have a handsome young boyfriend or older guardian ready to leap in and save the day, or she might end up in an urn...
The Lesbian Vampire is an old, old trope, stretching back to the 19th century novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, which heavily inspired Bram Stoker's rather more famous Dracula. However, it didn't return into the popular consciousness until the 1970s, when Hammer Horror made numerous films in which voluptuous countesses nibbled nubile young women. Since then, the trope has pretty much become the default setting for most female vampires, adding an extra layer of titillation to an already heavily sexualised mythological creature.
This blatant sexualisation sometimes leads to a variation — the bisexual vampire. In this case, the sexy vampire will happily take both men and women to bed, but her primary target for the duration of the story will usually be female.
A variation on the Lesbian Vampire, particularly in pornography and films aimed at the young male demographic, is the female victim who is seduced and converted by a male vampire and — either during the process of her seduction or after being transformed — begins to find women sexually attractive. This is sometimes explained as the vampire warping her mind so that she can become one of his harem, but usually, it is assumed that as soon as a woman joins the ranks of the undead she immediately starts playing for both teams — such is the power of this trope.
This can lead to some dubious sexual politics, for those that want to consider it; the idea that lesbianism or bisexuality is the result of a corruptive and malign influence representative of moral decay. And if a female victim is transformed by a female vampire, there is the implicit suggestion that homosexuals are predatory and waiting to ensnare and 'convert' hapless heterosexuals.
On the other hand, this neatly provides a convenient fantasy outlet. If you're going to be seduced by sexy minions of the night, no one will blame you for enjoying it, right?
And in yet another interpretation of modern media, lesbianism sometimes seems to come as part of the Take A Level In Badass package for young women.
Gay male vampires aren't quite as much of a trope, although Anne Rice and her imitators are doing their best to redress the balance. Still, the primary reason this trope exists is because Most Writers Are Male.
If one were to use Fridge Logic, vampires don't reproduce through sex ( except for when they do ), and any vampire Half Human Hybrid is usually bad news for them. So gender preference is just cosmetic anyways. There's also the fact that as blatantly sexually suggestive as vampirism is, it isn't actually sex, so referring to "straight", "gay" and "bisexual" vampires is shorthand at best, and at worst misleading. In a comedy setting it could even lead to Mistaken For Gay - albeit a very forgivable mistake in the circumstances...
Lesbian Vampire is a Sub Trope of Discount Lesbians. See also: Horny Devils.
Examples
Anime
- Lady Bat of Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, a member of a Quirky Miniboss Squad that themes itself around different sorts of Fetish Fuel, takes this image and wears it proudly — even when it turns out she's actually a he. (Was s/he intruding on the Black Beauty Sisters' territory?)
- In Monster Princess the main cast's vampire is one of these.
- In the first Hellsing anime, a character named Boobanshee/Bubbancy (actually a corruption of a Baobhan sith
 , pronounced roughly the same way in Japanese) tricks the entire Hellsing organization, save Seras and Alucard, into thinking that she is Integra's sister, Laura (a reference to Carmilla). Later, she attempts to drink Integra's blood, and even bites her chest, after which Integra realizes that she has no sister; shortly after Bubbancy is dispatched and Integra refers to her as Countess Karnstein (another Carmilla reference).
Comic Books
Film
- Became a Dead Horse Trope (or possibly an Undead Horse Trope) through overuse in 1970s Hammer horror films, most famously the Ingrid Pitt vehicle The Vampire Lovers. Pitt's character fell in love with a man in the sequel, Lust for a Vampire.
- The three brides of Dracula are sometimes portrayed as being lovers, although in the original book they were purely fixated on Jonathan Harker.
- A bisexual female vampire was the subject of The Hunger.
- Another example is the 1972 Spanish film The Blood-Spattered Bride.
- Vampyros Lesbos, a film with pretentions at artistry. Relatively tame, it is still considered a cult classic and is well known for its music track. The movie's director, Jesús "Jess" Franco, is widely known (in the right circles) for his horror/ sexploitation films.
- Pretty much all the vampires in Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter, a movie that is Exactly What It Says On The Tin. The twist is that the vampires deliberately turn lesbians, due to their marginal position in society. The change doesn't affect their sexuality at all.
- Direct-to-video movie The Sisterhood features a lesbian vampire sorority.
- Rise: Blood Hunter opens with a use of this trope and employs it repeatedly thereafter.
- The medium-core porn movie K-Sex goes one better with a plot<ahem> revolving around alien lesbian vampires.
- Inverted in The Fearless Vampire Killers/ Tanz Der Vampire, in which Count Orlock's son Herbert is Flamboyant Gay and attempts to seduce Alfred.
- Unsubtly, the upcoming Lesbian Vampire Killers. Though the title could stand to be more clear on whether the film is about lesbians who kill vampires or the killers of lesbian vampires. Or lesbian vampires who kill people. (This is why everyone should speak Latin.)
- It's about the killers of Lesbian Vampires. It's actually a pretty silly movie, too.
- Bordello of Blood. This editor no longer remembers the names of any of the characters, but he does remember the boss female vampire standing above the bound heroine discussing how she was about to take her for a "test drive". She escapes. Then, after you think the story's over, the heroine did get turned into a vampire - the vampire didn't bite her on the neck but on the inner thigh instead.
- The 1932 German film Vampyr, loosely based on Carmilla and another Le Fanu story, features possibly the least attractive lesbian vampire ever: an old woman who lives in a coffin and preys on a teenager. Quite a bit of the film is Mind Screw hallucination.
- The 1936 film Dracula's Daughter, which is a sequel to the very famous 1931 Dracula movie, features much lesbian subtext from the titular character. One of its tag lines was even "Save the women of London from Dracula's Daughter!".
- The Deliberately Monochrome movie Nadja (1994) has a scene where a female vampire slides her hand into the panties of a woman who's having her period and licks off the result.
- Embrace of the Vampire, "starring" Alyssa Milano, has a lesbian vampire scene.
- Countess Bathory in the sadly overlooked Daughters Of Darkness.
Literature
- As mentioned previously, the novella Carmilla was about a female vampire who preyed on young women by biting their breasts as they slept. It was published in 1872, making this trope Older Than Radio.
- Inverted in Interview With The Vampire, in which a man is seduced and transformed by a male vampire.
- In fact, Lestat claims that before the twentieth century, he was exclusively attracted to men, since he didn't consider women to be very interesting.
- Tina in the Betsy The Vampire Queen books by Mary Janice Davidson is technically bisexual, and as such has emotional sway over both men and women (but not over gay men). However, she prefers women, which causes Betsy a bit of trouble early on.
- There are several in the Anita Blake series, though of course they're usually evil, depraved, and want to rape Anita so that the author can work out her "Ewwwwwwww... but hm" feelings about bisexuality.
- Many Discworld fans are of the opinion that there's more to Maladicta's camaderie with Polly Perks than Terry Pratchett is letting on. This may be because she's a vampiress and a Sweet Polly Oliver.
- Ivy Tamwood from The Hollows novels is a rare heroic version. She still has a penchant for dressing in tight black leather.
- Her on and off again ex Skimmer is a more typical example of this troupe especially after her multiple Villainous Breakdowns.
- Especially if you consider that Ivy is, in fact, bisexual.
- Another inversion, the male bisexual vampire, is present in Henry Fitzroy of the Blood Books universe. As well as Vicki Nelson, he also often feeds off gay street kid and (former) male prostitute Tony, who eventually gets his own spin-off series. This element appears to be missing from the TV series.
- No love for Christabel? ... well, obviously not for her, but the Lesbian Vampire is considered one way of interpreting Coleridge's poem with the lamia-like Geraldine.
- In Carmilla rewrite The Moth Diaries, the antagonist Ernessa is either one of these or a lesbian of the common or garden variety. Either way, she and her 'victim' Lucy are surprised in bed by the diarist, also in love with Lucy.
- This troper wouldn't call it a rewrite. Don't be put off.
- The Dresden Files. According to Thomas Raith in the novella Backup, most of the White Court vampires of the House of Raith aren't particular about what gender they feed on. Since Raiths feed off of lust, especially lust generated through sex with their prey, this essentially means that most of the Raiths (including his sister Lara, who feeds on a woman in Backup) are practicing bisexuals.
- Red Court vamp Bianca also seemed to favor feeding off of women, and went kind of nuts after accidentally draining her favorite snack/lover to death.
- Inverted example: The titular character in The Vampire Tapestry usually selects male victims, and sometimes has sex with them as well. He insists that this is solely for purposes of secrecy, as closeted gay men tend to conceal their trysts with care; he'd rather not engage in the sex part at all, but does so if it's necessary to hold a potential victim's interest long enough to reach a good body-dump site. Whether or not he's in denial is unclear, but the female psychiatrist to whom he unloads initially assumes that his tales of vampirism are a metaphor for gay self-loathing.
Live Action TV
- In the Charmed episode "Bite Me", Paige temporarily becomes a member of a lesbian vampire coven (which includes a gay male vampire).
- On Smallville, Lana Lang reluctantly joined a sorority of lesbian vampires in "Thirst".
- Buffy The Vampire Slayer actually had vampires of all genders and tastes, but when Willow faced her vampire Evil Twin in "Dopplegängland", the latter hit on her. She later reported, speaking of the twin in alarm, "I'm so evil and... skanky. And I think I'm kind of gay." (actually, bisexual would have been more accurate). In later seasons, Willow actually did get a girlfriend or two, one of which eventually led to a Freak Out, so this was really good foreshadowing.
- Actually in Buffy it seems to be implied that all vampires are to some extent bisexual, probably due to the whole vampirism thing is historically a big damn metaphor for sexual predation. There's especially a sire-offspring thing - note Darla and Drusilla in season 2 of Angel. And then there's Spike's "Angel and me have never been intimate. Except that one—" bit.
- Parodied in "Lesbian Vampire Lovers of Lust", an episode of the comedy series Doctor Terrible's House of Horrible.
- Bianca in the TV adaptation of The Dresden Files. Well, OK, Bisexual Vampire.
- It's arguably there as Subtext in the books as well - she's very close to her female assistant and when Harry is inadvertantly responsible for Bianca killing her, she decides to rob Harry of his girlfriend as payback.
- Farscape had a very, very well disguised example of this trope, the word "vampire" is never even said. The Wolaxian arachnid who enters the ship to get one of the girls... I mean their personality traits. The homoerotic part is very short though.
- Blade the TV series. The heroine is engaged in blatant Les Yay soon after she's turned into a vampire, despite not showing any previous inclination towards girls.
- Xena Warrior Princess's usual Les Yay turned up the volume in an episode titled "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" which featured Gabrielle dancing with some fanged female followers of Bacchus at a Bronze Age disco, one of whom bites her before she leaves, becoming a bacchae herself, then biting Xena later in the episode, which appears to be very enjoyable for both women. Xena then kills Bacchus and they revert to being human again.
- Doctor Who fandom is quick to point out that Camilla (the name's a giveaway) in "State of Decay" seems very interested in Romana.
- Queen Sophie-Anne of True Blood. Technically, she's bisexual, but she hasn't enjoyed sex with men since the Eisenhower administration.
Tabletop Games
Theatre
Video Games
- In The World Of Darkness computer game Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, male vampires are only able to seduce women to feed on, while female vampires can seduce both women and men.
- Not entirely true as there is one male "blood doll" who can only be seduced by a male vampire.
- Then there is also the matter of Velvet Velour who apparently has no trouble professing her love for the protagonist even if the latter is female. Also, there is Jeanette whose famous sex scene doesn't... change any regardless of the PC's gender. Lastly, there is Heather the Ghoul, who doesn't mind whether you are male or female in her affection for you.
- Well, as a ghoul she's not so much homo- or hetero- as she is you-sexual.
- Unusually, in Metal Gear Solid 2, the bisexual vampire (aptly named Vamp) is male. Even more unusually, his romance with the Marine Scott Dolph is presented as sympathetic, and virtuous rather than squicky. (There's even a bonus non-canon story dedicated to their relationship on the Updated Rerelease.)
- In Frontier, Asellus is turned into one of the Mystics, a race who are basically a shade of vampire. Her sire, Orlouge, is a Horny Devil par excellence, and later Asellus ends up in a relationship with one of his "princesses." Unusually, Asellus is the protagonist of her short.
- There's a possible alternate take to this, considering that Asellus became a half-Mystic by receiving Orlouge's blood after he carelessly killed her, it's possible that she has inherited his power as the Charm Lord as well. In fact, it's quite likely since her "Mystic" ending has her become the new Charm Lord after she offs him. All of the Mystics react strongly to her, Ildon following after her in defiance of his lord, Zozma getting involved with her dilemma at all (though he may have been looking for an excuse to take a shot at Orlouge), Rei becoming willing to return to Facinaturu and face Orlouge, and White Rose expressing love for her and sacrificing herself to save her from the Labyrinth. The Charm Lords seem to induce a forced love or lust in other Mystics, probably of either gender. Asellus herself appears to be immune to Orlouge's Charm, either due to her human half, her sharing of his power, or probably both.
- Although Succubi rather than vampires, Morrigan and Lilith would count. One of Capcom's official character arts has them naked in each other's embrace. Horny Devils indeed.
- Apparently Carmilla succeeded in the Castlevania universe, as Laura is her servant in a couple of them.
- Also, Carmilla is a Cat Girl — for reasons obvious to anyone who has even passing familiarity with the original story — and Laura is what appears to be a bunnygirl, for no obvious reason except the Fetish Fuel.
- While they are actually oni, the supernatural girls of Akai Ito and Aoi Shiro invoke this image due to them drawing power from drinking the blood of the main heroines.
Webcomics
Web Original
- At the Super Hero School Whateley Academy in the webfiction Whateley Universe, there's a girl who's really a mostly demon creature. She uses the Genre Savvy codename Carmilla. She has fangs and pale skin and a nearly irresistible lust aura. She's not technically a vampire, although her core paradigm may be what all vampires in history are based on, since she's actually one of the Great Old Ones: she's directly related to both Shub-Niggurath and Cthulhu. She's mostly lesbian, and has turned a couple straight women, along with picking up a couple superpowered lesbians and even two hermaphrodites. (She's flexible.)
Real Life
- Erzsébeth Báthory, the "Blood Countess", is a disturbing real-life example, if all (or even some) of the legends surrounding her are to be believed. She is said to have had "trysts" with her lesbian aunt, but there are so many myths and legends about her activities that this is just another one on the pile.
- Tracey Avril Wigginton and her lover(s) killed a man and drank his (and each other's) blood. So Yeah.
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