incredibly fucked up how the theatre des vampires launders post-liberation france's familiarity with the public sexual humiliation of women into silent consent for their onstage murders. in this essay I will (no seriously keep reading) 
it's common knowledge that french women who collaborated with occupying nazi forces had their hair ritually shorn after the war. practically that perceived allegiance could mean a lot of things, but the tenor was usually sexual. it was known as "collaboration horizontale".
anna's onstage circumstances are obviously different, but there is a well worn track in the mind of the parisian theatergoer for a lone woman with no one to help her, publicly humiliated, her denigration as a scene to be watched, not stopped or interfered with.
but what did the figure of the tondue (these shorn women) MEAN in post-war paris? france has been depicted as a woman since the revolution, and the passive "feminine" collaboration of the tondue - on their backs, betraying the national body by allowing german penetration -
easily and obviously became a visual metaphor for vichy compromise. the government's role in the nazi anti-semitic project is softened, made passive, the entire vichy era rendered as an aberrant and feminine moment of weakness.
in watching the vampires' performance, french viewers are treated to a ritualized re-living of the national body being acted upon by a powerful, irresistible (and blond!) masculine force. what is it to be loved by death? painless, and without moral consequence.
there is something ugly, callous, and contemptuous in armand and santiago's ability to massage these feelings into AUDIENCE passivity. they know what these people were complicit in. they know they don't want to feel that inside themselves. let them externalize it, like children.
wwii was a unique event in history, but the displacement of responsibility, the willingness to scapegoat, and the eagerness to drink the backwash of moral failure as entertainment? to someone as old as armand, that's just humanity. to santiago? who knows. he seems unsurprised.
this isn’t a punishment, the vampires don’t care about the ethical honesty of their meals. but you’re all rats who will sell one another out for a tin of sardines. go on, it feels so good. it’s such a relief. pretend your country only ever collaborated on its back.
hey also if anyone reading this can think of a SINGLE PLACE I could pitch this in article form, hmu. I have so much more to say lol
okay guys we're good here vis a vis publications, no need to retweet, close up shop! 🩷
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