Carmilla discussion/thought

I found Carmilla very interesting, explaining its influence on the vampire culture proceeding it. However, I am torn between whether I think it is empowering to women or criticizing women as sexual beings. The concept of being a vampire, as we have discussed, is seductive and sexual but mainly pertains to men. Carmilla focuses on a women vampire, who is attracted to and feeds off of the female characters. The vampire represents beauty and attractiveness, but as a dangerous entity. Laura on the other hand represents the virginal, obedient daughter who is curious about the Carmilla. The essay I feel criticizes what happens to women if they should dare to be overtly sexual in general, and especially towards women with lesbian tendencies. Having been written so long ago, I do feel that it is making a social commentary about the role of women, rather than just bringing up the issue of lesbian sexuality. The work could be seen as shining a light on the fact that women do have sexual preferences other than striaght heterosexual roles. Also ,women are portrayed as being sexual which generally could be a good thing although takes on a negative context in the work. I like the idea of the seductive sexualized female vampire, which could potentially be empowering to women, except that I think the author is trying to deter women from being to sexual because back then women had strict social constructions on how to behave. The author is trying to abstain women from doing anything "bad" or taboo, because in the end the vampire does and Laura lives. The work could also be a message to men that attractive sexual women are dangerous and have potential to castrate a male by seducing him; therefore, switching power roles.