Metaphors of True Blood

To vampires, human blood works like alcohol: it can make you feel good, but it can impair your judgement, particularly if you binge or go drinking with friends. True blood is like a non-alcoholic beverage. It doesn't do much except hydrate you.

Vampire blood (a.k.a. V), Lilith's blood and fairy blood are addictive drugs with similarities to Cocaine, Viagra, LSD and Ecstasy.

Staying off blood and on True Blood is a challenge

Vampires and their supporters seek legal protections through the Vampire Rights Amendment (VRA.)

BUT vampires systematically pay lip-service to non-violence towards humans, then violate their rights behind closed doors.

Various citizens of Bon Temps and members of The Fellowship of the Sun show ignorance, fear and hatred towards vamps. It should be noted that vamps are typically dangerous and manipulative, so these reactions are not without basis.

The Governor of Louisiana: declaring that vampires have no rights, instituting curfews, shutting down their businesses and seizing their property, setting up a 'camp' to hold them, complete with lethal medical experiments.

Vampires have the ability to violate consent through physical force and/or mind tricks. They also rarely seem to feel remorse and often enjoy it.

A vampire's lust for blood is entangled with their sexuality.

Negative attitudes towards vamps are intermingled with racist, sexist and homophobic attitudes towards sexuality. Sex with vampires is taboo and the Fellowship of the Sun (which is also anti-gay) frames it as unpure/unholy. Those who look down upon "fang-bangers" show negative attitudes towards sexuality and sexual freedom. The most extreme case of this was the string of women murdered in season one for having sex with vampires.

Vampires are fetishised by both the media and individuals. For example, according to Hustler "everybody should have sex with a vampire at least once before they die." Groupies/chasers who have sex with vampires are called fang bangers. Fangtasia resembles a fetish club where vampires take on a dominant/sadist role during feeding/sex while fang bangers take on a submissive/masochist role. BUT the similarities to BDSM are often superficial as vamps tend to blur (or completely disregard) the line between BDSM/fetish practices and abuse.

True Blood portrays 'baby vamps' as akin to children or teenagers. When she is turned, Jessica Hamby is a teenage virgin. She starts out as moody, rebellious and inexperienced. When she first cries she is surprised by the blood - no one had told her that would happen. This is an obvious parallel to menstruation. She begins to learn about who she is both as a vampire and romantically as she explores her sexuality with her first love, Hoyt. In contrast, the end of this relationship signifies a transition into early adulthood as she becomes more familiar with herself.

Shifters like to get naked together

Hep V is a deadly virus transmitted through infected blood.