INTRODUCTION
On September 10, 2009, the pilot episode of The Vampire Diaries aired on The CW, and by the completion of season one, the show had become The CW’s most-watched series on the network with 3.6 million average viewers. Any teenager during the show’s run from 2009-2017 would be hard-pressed not to have seen an episode, or at least not to have heard of the proverbial Team Stefan-vs-Team Damon debate. The show, based on the book series of the same name by L. J. Smith, is set in Mystic Falls, a town with a rich history of supernatural inhabitants, and follows Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev), a teenage girl who lost both of her parents in a car accident, as she attracts the attention of two vampire brothers, Damon and Stefan Salvator (Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley, respectively) and deals with the supernatural dangers that follow. The series, which spans eight seasons, goes through a large array of character arcs and main villains, but the one constant throughout the series is the characters’ devotion to alcohol—namely, bourbon.
Despite the series centering around teenagers for a teenage audience, the series showcases an exorbitant amount of alcohol in each episode, and the most consistent, heaviest drinkers are none other than the Salvator brothers, who are the primary love interests on the show. While excessive drinking is often portrayed in teen shows, often in the context of wild high school parties, The Vampire Diaries takes this to an extreme. The Salvator men are frequently shown drinking bourbon out of crystal glasses, and their alcohol use is so commonplace that in nearly every scene set indoors (that doesn’t take place inside the high school) features at least one of the brothers sipping on bourbon while going about his daily tasks. The drinking is so excessive that even in scenes set early in the morning, the Salvator brothers are pouring themselves a glass of bourbon as the other characters pour milk into their cereal.
In a show aimed at teenagers, this massive amount of drinking is concerning—particularly because the characters on the show seem unconcerned at best and enthusiastically supportive of alcohol dependency at worst...but only when the men, who are tortured souls, are the ones drinking. It is impossible to miss the overlap between the hot male characters with emotional baggage and the characters who drink excessively throughout the show’s run. Alcohol consumption is a staple character trait for the men on this show, whereas the female character arcs often center working through their emotional baggage and not using substances to process the trauma they experience throughout the series. By doing so, The Vampire Diaries crafts a concerning image of masculinity: men are tall, dark, and handsome, emotionally distant, and use alcohol to process emotions and cope with trauma and grief. The implications of such a portrayal is troubling and speaks to larger cultural issues about how toxic masculinity is intrinsically related to alcohol abuse or dependency.
MASCULINITY & ALCOHOL ABUSE
Before critically discussing The Vampire Diaries and its portrayal of masculinity, it is essential to first define the various facets of toxic masculinity, especially as it manifests in men suffering from mental illness or processing trauma—which many of the male characters on the show deal with during the duration of the series. In a study exploring the performance of masculinity among college men with depression, J. L. Oliffe, et al. identified three types of masculinities: the angry man, the solitary man, and the risk-reliant man.
“The angry man identity described men who expressed anger, at least in part, to dissipate depression invoked pain and emotional distress. The solitary man category included men who self-isolated, fearing that others would recognize and judge them as harboring depression. Risk-reliant men employed strategies including alcohol and other drug overuse rather than relinquish control by engaging with professional health care providers and services” (Oliffe, et al. 77)
Oliffe et al.’s observations will provide a critical lens for the discussions of masculinity and alcohol abuse in this paper, with particular emphasis on the risk-reliant man; however, this paper will expand this definition and explore the abuse of alcohol that the angry man and solitary man archetypes also exhibit on The Vampire Diaries.
The only main male character who rejects these types of masculinity—and consequentially, does not have a tendency for alcohol abuse—is Matt Donovan. As the all-American golden boy of Mystic Falls, Matt stands apart from the miserable and violent supernatural men who make up the rest of the main cast, and, because he’s the “nice guy” archetype, he does not use drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism. By representing a very different form of masculinity, Matt serves as a foil for the broody and sexy Salvator brothers (among other supernatural bad boys), who represent masculine personas much closer to those outlined by Oliffe et al.
According to a study published in the Journal of Health and Behavior, this discrepancy in alcohol abuse is because “attributes that reflect undesirable or extremely stereotyped aspects of masculine roles [eg. aggression, inability to express emotion] have been positively associated with heavy and problematic alcohol use, whereas positively-valued masculine attributes [eg. assertiveness, instrumentality] have been unrelated to alcohol consumption and negatively related to alcohol problems among both males and females” (Huselid et al. 349). In this way, Matt, as the embodiment of positive masculine attributes, does not develop alcohol problems; however, it is important to note that while Matt is the healthiest representation of masculinity on the show, he is not a primary love interest for any of the main cast women, and therefore, his behavior is not celebrated or romanticized the way that characters who exhibit negative masculine traits and alcohol abuse are.
THE SALVATOR BROTHERS
Damon and Stefan Salvator are the primary love interests for Elena during the series, and both men also serve as brief love interests for Caroline Forbes, who is one of the three central female leads on the show. Both men embody different types of masculinity and their behavior is often in direct opposition to the others; however, the brother’s uniting activity is drinking bourbon in exorbitant amounts. While it is unclear whether vampirism increases a person’s tolerance for alcohol or the exact effects of alcohol on vampires, the show does attempt to address why the brothers frequently drink bourbon. In season 4, episode 2, Stefan explains to a newly turned Elena that drinking “helps with the [blood] cravings; however, this rhetoric is alarmingly similar to “it helps take the edge off” and still fails to address the concerning alcohol dependence that both brothers have (especially when there are numerous vampires in the show who do not rely on alcohol as a way to keep their cravings under control). That being said, both men do embody different types of masculinity and therefore engage with alcohol for slightly different reasons, although the underlying factor for both brothers is a desire to self-medicate and cope with trauma.
Stefan is best categorized as the solitary man, because a primary part of his character is acting as a martyr in every situation. He views his desire for blood as a source of evil and as a moral failing, and he consistently isolates himself from his friends and family whenever he is faced with a challenge, instead of relying on others for help. Throughout the show, Stefan has a pattern of masking his true feelings or identity from others—and from Elena in particular. Because he spends so much time bottling up his feelings and isolating himself from those that he loves, one of Stefan’s major character arcs involves struggling with drinking in moderation...albeit, Stefan’s struggle is with drinking blood in moderation, not alcohol, but his struggles act as an allegory for people who have an alcohol use disorder. By paralleling these struggles in Stefan’s plot, the show is ironically unaware of the excessive amounts of alcohol that all of the men consume that goes unaddressed by the other characters on the show.
Damon, on the other hand, is the perfect example of the risk-reliant man. He consistently makes impulsive choices and exhibits reckless behavior, including attacking humans in town and frequently getting drunk at the bar. In fact, he is so notorious for drinking that there are multiple moments throughout the series where characters slip poison into Damon’s bourbon when they want to incapacitate him, because it is the one substance that he downs in such obscene quantities. Damon’s drinking is a coping mechanism for his trauma and grief, and instead of raising concerns about this behavior, the show frames him as romantic, tortured, and sympathetic. Indeed, the excessive drinking is merely attributed to his charming bad boy persona, and it is framed in a way that implies his drinking is a way for him to express his sensitivity and vulnerability to Elena and the audience.
Unlike Stefan, who traditionally drank alone or only in the company of his brother, an essential part of Damon’s drinking habits include his drinking buddies and going to the Mystic Grill, which is the town’s local bar. Any time anything bad happened on the show, it was guaranteed that Damon and his revolving door of drinking buddies could be featured at the bar, processing the tough decisions they had to make and the trauma they endured (or, usually, the trauma they inflicted onto others). In fact, drinking is so central to Damon’s character and his relationships with others that when his best friend and primary drinking buddy, Alaric Saltzman, dies, Damon refuses to let anyone sit on the bar stool on his left, because that was Alaric’s designated seat. This dependency on alcohol is further highlighted in season 4 episode 2, when Damon is grieving the loss of his friend and rejects Elena and Stefan’s offer to hold a memorial and instead opts to drink an entire bottle of bourbon by himself on Alaric’s grave.
As it is now evidently clear, The Vampire Diaries’s two primary love interests depict a concerning dependency on alcohol, and yet, the show chooses to overlook the reality of this in lieu of celebrating the habit as an endearing, distinctly masculine activity. Indeed, drinking is such a fundamental aspect of the Salvator brothers personalities and relationship with one another that Ian Somerhaulder and Paul Wesley actually launched their own bourbon company and named it Brother’s Bond in reference to the vampire brothers they played on the show. As if to nail home the connection between The Vampire Diaries and the bourbon company, the website also lists a number of drink recipes that are direct references to the show, including “Mystic Charmer” and “Blood Brothers.” Although there is nothing inherently wrong with two adult men creating a bourbon company, it raises a number of concerns that the pair are capitalizing off of their characters who notoriously guzzled bourbon without any consequences on a show meant for teenage audiences.
CONCLUSION
While it would be naïve to assert that there are no teenagers who drink underage, or that there are no teenagers who abuse alcohol, The Vampire Diaries’s glorification of alcohol dependency as it relates to masculinity is troubling nonetheless. Numerous sociological studies already recognize that the connection between manifestations of toxic masculinity and alcohol dependency, and The Vampire Diaries certainly portrays this well, albeit likely unintentionally (Creighton et al. 55). However, what the series fails to do is address the excessive drinking in any meaningful way, and instead, the show romanticizes the characters who abuse alcohol and reward them for their expressions of toxic masculinity. By neglecting to have serious conversations about the characters' excessive drinking, the show effectively normalizes this behavior and fails to provide representation of healthy relationships with alcohol and healthy romantic relationships for its young viewers.
The Vampire Diaries is clearly a work of fiction, and it openly portrays an exaggeration of the teenage experience; however, it is still deeply troubling to watch a show strongly romanticizing alcohol abuse and dependency. As a show targeted at teenagers—particularly teenage girls—it is essential to be critical of the message that the series sends to impressionable viewers about the interconnectivity of masculinity and alcohol abuse. Worse still, the show fails to address the excessive drinking as a cause for concern, and instead writes this behavior off as a natural way for men to process their emotions. By having the two primary love interests ritualistically drink alcohol without addressing that this is cause for concern, the show runs the risk of normalizing this behavior for the young audience and instilling a very warped image about how much alcohol is an acceptable amount for themselves and for their romantic partners.
Masculinity can not and should not be linked to broodiness and alcohol abuse, because we cannot keep raising generations of young men who believe that the only way to express themselves is through risk-seeking behaviors and generations of young women who believe that it is romantic when their partner gets wasted every time he is upset. We do not have to stop having characters with alcohol dependency, but if we continue to feature them on screen, we must also take up the responsibility of addressing alcoholism and alcohol abuse with the seriousness that such a subject requires. Sexy vampires and emotionally damaged bad boys are not inherently a bad thing, but when TV shows fail to address the red flags and toxic behaviors, we run the risk of communicating the wrong messages to the impressionable young people who watch the show.
References
Brother’s Bond Distilling Company. https://brothersbondbourbon.com/
Creighton, G., Oliffe, J., Matthews, J., & Saewyc, E. (2016). “Dulling the Edges”: Young Men’s Use of Alcohol to Deal With Grief Following the Death of a Male Friend. Health Education & Behavior, 43(1), 54–60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48509578
Huselid, R. F., & Cooper, M. L. (1992). Gender Roles as Mediators of Sex Differences in Adolescent Alcohol Use and Abuse. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 33(4), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.2307/2137313
Oliffe, J. L., Galdas, P. M., Han, C. S., & Kelly, M. T. (2013). Faux masculinities among college men who experience depression. Health, 17(1), 75–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26650219
xXSerenitvXx (2012). “The Alcohol Diaries - Raise Your Glass.” Youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7AK7ZYjFSI&ab_channel=xXSerenitvXx [MM7]
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