Vampires in Halloween
As October starts to come to an end, a mother goes to her child and asks them what they want to be for halloween. What are common answers to these questions? The child may say a princess, a firefighter, a superhero, or more commonly, a vampire. It is not out of the ordinary for a child to want to dress up as a vampire, in fact I think I also dressed up as a vampire at least once when I was a child. Who doesn't want to be a scary blood sucking vampire? Even adults enjoy dressing up as vampires! Its an easy costume, all you need is a cloak, a pair of fangs, and a black outfit, but is that really what a vampire looks like? According to Bram Stoker's Dracula, that description is not quite fitting. He describes Dracula as "...a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white mustache, and clad in black from head to toe, without a single spec of color about him anywhere." (1).
While people may have taken the "clad in black from head to toe"(1) part into play when creating a costume for Dracula, or any vampire, people tend to add a lot more to make it more appealing. For men, they tend to add a long cloak, with the inside being red, and a large popped out collar. They also pair this with a white long sleeve shirt and a red vest. This conflicts the depiction of Dracula in many ways. First it says he was dressed in all black, therefore adding in red and white already makes the costume inaccurate. Also, Dracula was said to be a tall old man, but a lot of young woman and children still seem to dress up as him.
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| Dracula, as described by Bram Stoker (2) |
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| Boy Dracula Costume (3) |
Women also take it upon themselves to not only dress as vampires, but to dress up as Dracula. One would think that the costume of Dracula would be intended for only men, since Dracula is a man, but that is not stopping anyone in the 20th century. While you may choose to dress up as any character you like, no matter the gender, the only problem here is the inaccurate portrayal of the character. When women dress up as Dracula they tend to put a sexy twist on the costume. This may have to do with the modern day sexualization of the entities of vampires, or even the sexualization that Bram Stoker showed in his book. Either way, this has lead to women dressing us as Dracula while wearing short black dresses, or long black dresses with high slights and low tops. In some cases these costumes include fishnet tights, and almost always some incorporation of the color red.
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| "Sexy Countess Dracula" (4) |
1. Stoker, Bram, et al. Dracula. Norton, 1997.
2. villains.fandom.com
3. halloweencostumes4u.com
4. maskworld.com
I think you are likely right when you say that these costumes have "Dracula" attached to them to make more sales. The Count is *the* vampire, for many, after all, so there's an appeal in something with his name attached.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings about your interpretation of the costumes, though. First, I agree with your point that it is ridiculous that a great majority of women's vampire costumes are "sexy." Not only is it rampant, undue sexualization towards women, but it implies that men's costumes (or men in general) aren't meant to be "sexy." The latter half of that point is less important, to be sure, but it's a common thread in our society that I've come to dislike a great deal.
On the other hand, though, you seem to be upset that the costumes don't represent Stoker's original description. There's no doubt that they don't, sure, but is that such a bad thing? Just as the vampire Dracula looks a bit different from Vlad the Impaler (also named Dracula) whom many argue he was based off, Hollywood has created their own versions of Dracula as well. I think that it's fine that a character takes on new forms and new images, even new behaviors, and that those portrayals are reflected in things like costumes. What do you think? I mean, after all, the costumes aren't listed as "the original" Dracula or "Stoker's" Dracula--it could be any version made in the last 120 years.
I agree that many Halloween costumes now don't accurately portray Dracula himself, but at this point in time many people might not even be aware of the original concept. Also "sexy" costumes seem to sell faster for women so I guess that's just companies' ways of making money, not caring about the story behind the costume I agree with that point. Dracula's name is familiar and well known to many still, so that may be their marketing ploy, just remember that these costume companies don't really care about the accuracy as long as their sales are going through.
ReplyDeleteAlyssa, great job on your post! I felt you chose an interesting topic and I learned a lot. I would agree that Dracula is a very popular costume for people despite them not knowing the true source material. It is interesting how the idea of vampires have dominated pop culture and become cultural icons. The appeal of making "sexy" vampires in a way does reflect the count's power of seduction demonstrated in the novel. Dracula is always something that will be a popular choice of costume for Halloween because of his lasting impact on popular culture.
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