When Stocker presented his Dracula to the world, his vampire had “massive” eyebrows, “heavy moustache” over the mouth and “squat fingers”, a description that will undoubtedly bring a pure, rough muscular character to the reader’s mind. In the modern time, the popular vampire show Buffy brings Stocker’s Dracula back in its episode Buffy vs Dracula. In the show, the new Dracula took on a very different physical appearance, which reflects our current perception of Dracula. The new Dracula has no facial hair besides places of absolute necessity, such as the thin eyebrows and long gelled hair, long and thin fingers. The new Dracula has lost many of its strong masculinity cues, which makes him a lot more feminine compare to Stocker’s Dracula. This feminizing trend is due to the romanticizing of the Dracula character. One of key trait of Dracula is his ability to seduce women. In order to be seductive, he must look attractive to charm the ladies. The one described by Stocker just won’t sexually arise women on sight. Our logical reasoning, our resistance to accept the supernatural, creates this barrier. This is the exact problem that Van Housing and his team were facing when trying to identify Dracula. Even today, when we well know the story of Dracula, we expect a handsome vampire to seduce women because when the beautiful vampire is seducing the woman on TV, the audience is also been seduced to buy the story. And we are superficial beings, where magic plays very little part in our life and body image is everything.
I think you are right to highlight Buffy's modern interpretation of Dracula's physical characteristics. Although, as Katherine pointed out in her post, vampires are inherently alluring because they represent taboo desire, this level of intrigue is not enough in modern society. In the twenty-first century, we struggle to envision a womanizer who is not stereotypically handsome. I agree with you that this physical adaptation does point to our culture's obsession with image. This fascination with beauty marks an interesting shift in the manifestation of gothic convention from the 19th century to present day.
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