Recently, on Twitter, I mentioned to somebody that the above scene from Bram Stoker’s Dracula is my favorite in the entire film. They mentioned that they have heard from a lot of other women saying exactly the same thing. So it has got me wondering what exactly is it about this scene that turns many female horror fans on?
Dracula, in this film, may have the outward appearance and general manners of a gentleman, but inside he is a beast hungry for blood. He will do anything to get what he wants and kill those that stand in his way. This is the depiction of how I like my vampires to be; brutal yet alluring. One moment they are saying ‘How do you do?’, and the next they have you bent over a table having their way with you. You may not quite want him to be doing that to you but my goodness it’s nice! He doesn’t sparkle dammit and he’s not overly emotional! He acts on instincts that cannot be denied and is a creature before anything else.
The ‘rape’ of Lucy on the cold stone bench is not depicted in the book Dracula. In it Mina just sees Dracula bending over Lucy and sucking some blood from her, not him boinking the hell out of her! Despite that it’s inclusion into the film as part of Dracula’s cruel treatment of Lucy really works well and makes sense. He is having his way with her, and quite efficiently by the looks of it, in order to get what he wants in the long run; power over those that seek to stand in his way of possessing Mina. Lucy seems to be enjoying herself yet in pain at the same time, which would of course happen if you are a virginal Victorian lady. I wouldn’t imagine feeling all warm and fuzzy having some strange creature screwing my brains out and biting my neck! But despite the pain her real desires are being met and her subconscious desires, hinted at earlier in the film, are being made into a reality.
Bloofer Lady feels that the reason why so many female horror fans find this scene so very hot is because it taps into our carnal desires. Ruthless vampires are pretty damn hot, and being screwed by one played by Gary Oldman under the stars and having your fantasies fulfilled is pretty peachy-keen! Combine the two and you have the above scene! Personally, I get the vapors while watching it and I have no doubts that others do as well! Watch the scene below and enjoy yourself!
Bloofer Lady
Remember to enter this peachy-keen contest for a chance to win Peter Straub’s new book A Dark Matter. http://www.horrorcrypt.com/archives/3205
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Uh huh. I agree.
Interestingly, I’ve never thought of this scene as ‘rape’ (as you rightly put in inverted commas!) for precisely the reasons you’ve given here – Dracula might be ‘forcing’ himself onto Lucy, by dint of fact that he’s bigger/stronger than her, but it’s made clear in the film that these are her desires! Great post
Thanks!
She really looks like she wants it doesn’t she?LOL
Just looks like some good ol’ fashion doggystyle to me.
LOL Technically, wouldn’t she have to be on her knees for that?
I hate to be the GUY in this thread making broad, sweeping generalizations about female sexuality but I wrote an article a while back for a friend’s blog about contemporary vampirism and how it has scrubbed all the naughty away from the gothic horror subtext (not entirely true, actually). I think Dracula, in context, was written during a time of great sexual repression and kinky notions of domination and submission were treated as deeply aberrant behavior. You just didn’t do that. Heaven forbid you even THINK of being taken and forced! But that’s the nature of art. Dracula, through Stoker’s subtle suggestion and Coppola’s overt animalistic fucking, taps into this part of the brain that is far more easily stimulated than people think.
These days, we’re all culturally conditioned to accept that 50/50 pull in the bedroom as part of the post-sexual revolution feminism and that’s perfectly cool. Female self actualization is a really important thing but in the process we threw the baby out with the bath water and once again, notions of force and surrender stayed underground but for entirely different reasons. Read Control Tower or Savage Love and constantly recurring themes are feminist identified women looking to a sex advice columnist for advice because their personal beliefs stand in direct contrast of their sexual needs.
Right about now I’m realizing that my analysis has sucked the sexy right out of this topic but at the bottom line, people respond to that scene because that kind of rough stuff is freakin’ hot and what I’m getting at is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. D/s doesn’t have to be this hyper-kinky leather clad component of the BDSM culture, you know?
A lot of men are scared to be forcefull with women in the bedroom though. Trust me when I say that. I have had many partners who would refuse to do what I wanted because they felt it wasn’t right. What I’m getting at is that I think that many women find this scene hot because there are many men out there that won’t do this kind of thing because they are mentally conditioned to think that women don’t like to be forced. The only man who ever did the above kind of thing to me happened to be a professional dom.LOL And no, I didn’t haven’t to pay for it.
Did you see what she was wearing? She was just asking for it.
You must log in to post a comment.