We Ride at (Breaking) Dawn: Why are Vampires Back on Trend?
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When I was growing up I lived and died by David Boreanz’s glistening abs: In 1997 David starred as Angel, the angsty vampire-with-a-soul destined to brood eternally for Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy, on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In the three seasons Angel spent as Buffy’s beau I was never not aware of just how cursed Angel was: cursed by gypsies to live for eternity with a soul, cursed by his past identity as rapist and pillager to never experience true happiness (penetration) with his one true love (Buffy), and cursed by The WB’s wardrobe department to never be draped in anything less than silk cut to the navel. I simply could not look away.
There were two things about their relationship that appealed to my teenaged self. The angst of wanting to have sex with someone but not being able to, and the absolute devotion they held for one another. They literally went to hell and back for the relationship. That’s ultimately what I took away from their love story; love is a sacrifice. If you don’t bleed for it, it isn’t worth it. Their relationship would mark the first of many human girl/vampire man relationships to dominate the pop culture landscape - and my libido - in an era of entertainment I’m calling the Fang Banger Era: From the years 1997-2009 vampires were inescapable.
The first tidal wave of content came in the form of supernatural young adult and adult adult romances like L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries (1991), Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark (2001), Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight (2005), and Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy (2007)—all of which would be turned into successful TV and movie franchises by the latter half of the aughts. Suddenly the undead weren’t just for geeks and horror junkies. Vampires were figures worshipped and romanticised by a group far more fanatic and powerful: teenage girls.
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The Fang Banger Era wasn’t just about vampires — it was an encapsulation of the 2000s obsession with blood, specifically teen girls’ blood. At the same time vampires hit the mainstream, purity culture took over American discourse. Evangelical Christians, desperate for a way to save the souls (and hymens) of American girls after the 1980s AIDs epidemic, created True Love Waits, a program that encouraged teens to abstain from all forms of sexual activity before marriage. The Bush family continued the mission by spending three presidential terms slowly dismantling the idea of separation of church and state. When the last Bush left office in 2009, funding for abstinence-only education reached over $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars.
“Vampires, particularly those existing in the teen girl landscape, were espousing almost the exact same messaging as the purity movement. The teen vampire craze was built on ideas of angst, sex, and blood in the same way that the True Love Waits movement was.”
While I was never a “save myself for Jesus” girlie, I was very much aware that I didn’t want to be labelled a slut, but lusting after the undead was a horniness I could control. Vampires offered a space for teen girls to engage in acts of passion and rabidity without facing real world repercussions. Not to mention that the vampiric men we attached these strong feelings to were presented as guardians of female morality. They were safe to love and lust over because they were morally bound to put our well-being first.
Vampires, particularly those existing in the teen girl landscape, were espousing almost the exact same messaging as the purity movement. The teen vampire craze was built on ideas of angst, sex, and blood in the same way that the True Love Waits movement was. There was always a consequence for the women who gave into their desire: Buffy banged Angel and created an apocalypse; Bella banged Edward and lost her human body. In that way both vampires and conservatives ran on one central message: engage in carnality and be damned to hell. When vampires finally fell out of favour in the 2010s, I did not expect them to find new fandoms with gen z but suddenly, vampires are hot again. Olivia Rodrigo, the new teenage dream, led her sophomore album release with a single about a vampire bleeding her dry. TikTok has created a whole online community devoted to Twilight and vampire fandoms, from dramatic beauty trends like “vampire facials” to documenting elaborate vacations to Forks, Washington.
The energy surrounding the new Fang Banger Era is almost counter-cultural in its mission. VICE suggests the renewed interest is only driven by an ironic nostalgia - people interact with the content so they can tear it down. I’m not so sure if that’s true: There is a certain restraint to vampire culture that I think appeals to gen z. They are the generation that doesn’t party and has even less sex. In a world where the goal is to be the most viral and unapologetic version of themselves, there is something appealing about content that does the opposite. Here is a safe space to not act on passion; not just for any moral quandaries, but out of respect for your own boundaries.
Pain feels equally important to this conversation: Gen z is also the generation that uses trauma as a means to bond. “Trauma is Trendy” reads a New York Post headline on the subject. One study out of Tennessee called it an “alternative hedonism.” A way for the generation to “find fulfilment outside of material consumption.” Instead of falling prey to the capitalistic traps millennials use to feel something, gen z replaces online shopping with therapy speak and trading diagnoses. Fang bangers aren’t just humans who have sex with vampires; they let vampires drink their blood to enjoy the sex. Blood sacrifice is required in order to access emotion. A transaction in pain. Not too far removed from indulging in a trauma dump. It reminds me of what I originally loved about the Buffy/Angel dynamic: Love required a pound of flesh (usually the woman’s) but that’s how you knew it was real. My Y2K upbringing had me interpreting that as a physical offering — virginity in exchange for love — but gen z opens the vein a bit differently.
Words: Ryanne Probst