Witches and Vampires- Then vs. Now. How the Media glorified these "evil creatures"

So  I had to write a paper for class about how the witches, vampire and werewolves have changed over centuries. How media has portrayed them to be human and good rather then evil. I think its a pretty good informative paper. Read if you dare. I know its lengthy but hey that just means I put thought into it :) HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Occults such as witches, dark magic, vampires, and werewolves have been a popular since the 15^th century, but the way they have been perceived from generation to generation has changed drastically. Back in the day these mystical creatures were associated with the devil and punished severely for the crimes they “committed.” Nowadays the entertainment world has glamorized and sexualized these creatures turning them into a fad for the young generation. The simple reason behind the obsession is the idea of immortality. Previous generations shunned what they did not understand and associated the unknown with the presence of evil, while now the unknown is appealing to us and makes us crave it more. 

During the Middle Ages, the Pagan religion created a link between Paganism and Satanism, assuming that any type of herbal healing was the practice of witchcraft. This assumption was born from the idea that evil created disease and poverty and if one could heal than they had to be calling upon the devil for power. This explanation was used to explain human misfortunes, usually blaming the women in the community. They were often poor, frail, old, unattractive, and widowed women, shunned away from society. The church made its followers believe that these women practiced witchcraft in the forests at night, had the ability to fly, plotted against the church and its people, and had sex with the devil. “Witches” were killed at the stake, usually burned alive, often times accused of heresy. The Bible pronouncement “Thou shall not suffer a witch to live” became very popular as the witch-hunts began in Germany. They soon reached America mainly in Salem, Connecticut where about 150 people were accused and 31 executed.

Vampires were more common in folk stories, but historical evidence of vampires merely focuses on examples of sudden death, usually of a citizen or livestock in unexplainable manners. Vampires were also blamed for mysterious diseases like Tuberculosis, which discolored the skin into a pale white color. Pagan stories explain that vampires were believed to be the spawn of a witch or products of dead witches. Werewolves were servants to the Devil and cursed by witches. Sometimes witches had the ability to transform into a wolf on a full moon. Similar to the witch-hunts, many countries participated in werewolf trials and burnings.

After the witch/werewolf hunts, witches appeared into fairy tales introducing the theme of good witch versus bad witch. In stories such as “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” the witches were portrayed as ugly old hags with pointed noses and brooms. They would cast spells, fly, and make potions. In the 20^th century this concept was examined further in “The Wizard of Oz” introducing the good witch as beautiful and pure, using her magic for the good of others. This central theme applied to vampires as well. The 1897 novel “Dracula” transformed the image of the vampire from a repulsive human-like parasite that fed on mankind, to that of a mysterious, intelligent, wealthy, seductive, almost immortal creature that was vulnerable to the beauty and innocence of a woman. He was a tragic hero that longed for forbidden sex and possessed eternal life, while suffering from his blood-thirsty curse.  

In the 21^st century Hollywood adapted the trend of witches and vampires. The comedy “Bewitched” was followed with teen shows like “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Charmed.” These shows focused on powerful and good witches that protected the lives of innocent mortals. They used spells, fought demons, conjured potions, but also lived a human life, having boyfriends, going to school, etc. They were a huge deviation from the previous image of witches as they were young, skinny, beautiful, and personable.  The hit show “Buffy the vampire slayer” featured both vampires and witches. Buffy was a strong independent girl that fought the evil vampires, while her friend Willow practiced “harmless witchcraft” involving incantations, spell books, and the summoning of spirits. This was the first show that introduced a vampire with humanity—Buffy’s young and attractive love interest, conveniently named Angel. The show was popular with a lot of religious folks because it never presented evil in a good light but rather worked against evil and made the person that committed the crime suffer the consequence.

The trend of vampires and witches fizzled out a bit until the rise of the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” series.  Harry Potter is a fictional story set in the wizarding world about a wizard who fights against the evil Lord. The series mainstreamed witchcraft and sorcery all over the world, translating the books and movies into 67 languages. Twilight on the other hand, introduced a new breed of vampire. As past vampires could only feel rage this new breed felt romantic love, could have sex, sparkled in the sunlight, fell in love and developed humanity because of it. This opened up the door to primetime shows like “True Blood” and “The Vampire Diaries.” In “The Vampire Diaries” the original witch created vampires and put a curse on werewolves, which ties back into the “history” of all these creatures. It mixes in past references with the new breed of vampires and witches to create a modern show that appeals to our generation.

The image of witches, vampires, and werewolves changed for the sake of entertainment. In the past people believed witches to be monsters and were scared of them, nowadays the monsters are more real; serial killers, terrorists, rapists, dictators. As a society, we enjoy seeing women that are powerful and independent and occasionally sexually dangerous, because it is intriguing, and we enjoy seeing men with a lot of power give up who they are because of love for a mortal.  These new “superheroes” are merely a projection of our imagination and provide us with some escape from everyday life problems. These characters are good-looking, eternally young, and have the ability to love; something we as a generation wish was possible.

Pop-culture has even found a way to make something as disgusting as sucking someone’s blood sexually appealing. Yes, it is a little disturbing, but a huge difference from the witch-hunts, werewolf hunts, and executions of innocent people. Although many shows still have the elements of witch-hunters and vampire-hunters today, we as humans get sucked into this alternate world and begin identifying with the vampires, witches and werewolves- definitely something we wouldn’t encounter 200 years ago. As the media glamorized and sexualized these creatures, the ideologies that were believed back in the day have been long forgotten. Today, we look for witches, vampires, and werewolves to solve our problems—and even though we know it’s all pretend, sometimes we really wish it wasn’t.