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VAMPIRES HAVE INVADED
the campus, and it's going
to take more than holy
water and garlic to stop them.
"I really feel as though nobody
would understand if I just came out
and told them the truth," says Ohio
State U. senior Greg Dearing, a self-
proclaimed vampire. "I mean, how
do you tell your friends that you
have a taste for blood? Until now,
it's something I've kept a secret."
Thanks in part to novels by
Anne Rice and Margaret Carter,
movies and role-playing games, the
fascination with and study of vam-
pires is quickly becoming a major
part of pop culture on campus.
"It's all around us -- you can't
escape it," says Sharon Evanich, a
grad student studying folklore at
Southwestern U. in Texas. "They
have vampire bars in San Francisco,
Chicago and Atlanta. You can't
swing a dead cat without hitting a
vampire."
Evanich has participated in
bloodsports - she watched a vam-
pire enthusiast partake of her mortal
blood. "It was very melodramatic,"
she says. "I pricked my finger and
bled into his chalice. He made a big
production out of drinking it."
English and folklore professors
also note the soaring popularity of
vampire culture portrayed in Gothic
literature and history.
"[Vampires in novels] used to be
nothing but a bunch of bloodsuck-
ing psychos, but now authors are
starting to give them more human
lit's Talk
Ahmnt hix
111Th)
characteristics," says David Van
Becker, professor emeritus of Eng-
lish at San Jose State U.
"I have to beat [the students]
away with a stick!" says Elizabeth
Miller, whose literature class at
Canada's Memorial U. covers his-
toric vampire works from John Poli-
dori to Bram Stoker. "There is a
revived interest in the Gothic, vam-
pires in particular."
Students feed their interest in
S''iMma OME STUENTS AREN'T
putting up with putting
out. In a world where
phone sex and cybersex are at your
vampires outside of class, too. Vam- fingertips, there's a new college vir-
pire: The Masquerade, created in gin on campus, and it's not the shy,
1991 by White Wolf Inc., is a role- religious prude of the past.
playing game students play in either Debbie Yuan, a graduate of Colum-
a dice-based or live-action version. bia U., says she's enjoying the simplicities
The Camarilla, an international oflifeasacollegevirgin.
Masquerade enthusiasts club based
in Salt Lake City, reports that 50 to
70 percent of its current 3,000-plus
membership is composed of college
students.
"It's a great way to get out "I'm not a religious person, so my
some frustrations, and it's a chal- decision has nothing to do with reli-
lenge for me. It forces me to be gion," Yuan says. "It's just about fam-
creative," says Michael Nicholsen, ily values and the way I was raised."
a junior at Ohio's Hiram College David Chamberlin, special assis-
who organizes Masquerade games tant to the vice president of the
on campus. Family Research Council, insists
But beyond the books and that the number of students who are
games, how about a live interview saving sex for marriage is growing.
with a vampire? However, according to Koray
"1 first started drinking blood Tanfer, a senior research scientist at
when I was a kid and would cut my the Batelle Memorial Institute,
finger," Dearing says. "When I was which conducts sex studies and sur-
a freshman in college, I met a girl veys, sex among college-aged adults is
[who was] into the same thing. not decreasing. He says the fear of
"I am what I am. I don't turn STDs hasn't curtailed sex or the risky
into a bat, but I can go out in the behavior associated with casual sex.
daylight. I like the taste of blood. Esther Chen, a law student and
And I do believe in vampires." UCLA graduate, says her decision to
save sex for marriage is more about
David Fong, Ohio State 1./Photo by the breach of trust and the heartache
John Cox, Eastern llinois U. that go along with premarital sex.
"There are times people think I
don't have a life because I haven't
done it," she says, but as a law stu-
dent, a bass guitarist and vice presi-
dent of the Christian legal society,
Chen begs to differ.
Stephon Payne, a senior at Tem-
ple U. in Pennsylvania, says he and
his fiancee have a stronger relation-
ship because of their decision to
abstain from sex.
"Instead of 'bumping and grind-
ing,' we took the route of getting to
know each other," he says. "[But] we
do have urges to sex each other up."
But what about those who have
had sex? Is there such a thing as a
born-again virgin?
Chamberlin says yes: "We call it
a clean slate. Students are learning
the hard way that sex without mar-
riage is empty."
Payne and his fiancee had
both had sex with other people
before they began dating but are
waiting until they're married to
have sex again.
Hugs, kisses and cuddles are as far
as he and his fiancee go, he says, and
finding substitutes for sex isn't difficult.
"We do other things together,
and we're still sharing each other,"
Payne says. "Sex isn't the ultimate
thing to give in a relationship."
Kia Morgan, Norfolk State U./Photo by
Jay Clendenin, San Jose State U.
October 1995 * U. Magazine 15