The Curious Case of the Confederate Vampire Trope

Them good old boys were drinking whiskey and A+ blood bags.
True Blood Confederate Vampire Bill

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay that explores the persistent media phenomenon of the confederate vampire.


You know what they say, two confederate vampires is a coincidence, but three’s a trend.

Okay, so nobody is saying that. But to bum a quote from a kids’ show: if I had a nickel for every confederate vampire, I’d have three nickels … which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened thrice.

While I do think we’ve moved further away from the “everything teen girls like is less-than” mentality that defined the early 2000s, it would be foolish to say that we’ve fully outgrown the prejudice. (Lindsay Ellis’ “Dear Stephenie Meyer” is a great watch that addresses this). Emotion-driven commercial fiction aimed at young girls is an easy target for vitriol. So it makes sense that the more nuanced, good-faith discussions around this kind of media would fly under the radar for so long. Or, more realistically, take so long to reach non-Black, non-American folks.

The video essay below goes in deep on why vampire fiction and romanticized “Lost Cause” propaganda keep meeting in dark alleys: where it started, how it gets rationalized, and why it’s dangerous.

If you want more writing/etc. on this topic, I wholeheartedly recommend this article by Stitch for TeenVogue. This succinct tweet by writer/filmmaker Camryn Garrett is also worth a peek for the ensuing thread (a resounding “oh hey, that IS a thing”).

Watch “Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires?”


Who made this?

This video essay investigating the suspicious abundance of confederate vampires is by Princess Weekes, who is serving up nuanced and profanity-riddled video essays on pop culture, race, feminism, and other social issues on their YouTube channel. You may also know Weekes from her appearances on PBS’ “It’s Lit” and the Netflix Geeked podcast. You can also follow her over on Twitter here.

More videos like this

  • For more of Princess Weekes’ work, here’s her look at why Don’t Worry Darling wants (and can’t have) what The Stepford Wives has.
  • And here’s her super incisive and in-depth essay, “The Magical Negroes of Stephen King.”
  • And here’s her look at the “pastel progressivism” of Bridgerton.
  • Here’s Yhara zayd’s always recommendable essay on The Hunger Games character Rue, whose on-screen portrayal by Black actress Amandla Stenberg caused some racist reactions in the fandom. The essayist uses this embarrassing (but not surprising) reaction as a springboard to discuss other instances where film adaptations altered characters’ race (and when, exactly, fandoms chose to give a shit).
Meg Shields: Based in the Pacific North West, Meg enjoys long scrambles on cliff faces and cozying up with a good piece of 1960s eurotrash. As a senior contributor at FSR, Meg's objective is to spread the good word about the best of sleaze, genre, and practical effects.