Vamp vs. Zombie

While reading this article, that had so many good points that I had never stopped to think about, I thought of a few things that weren't mentioned in the article. The authors argue that in this day and age the vampire is set on a pedestal and idolized while the zombie is the living embodiment of decay and the public's fear of death and instability. While these are both very valid and mostly true points, I think they left out a few things that show the other side of the vampire/zombie genres that don't necessarily agree with their argument. My first argument is that there are some vampire series that don't always portray the vampires exactly as the rest of societies vampires. Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake series goes at least a little against this "norm" of glamorous vampires. While the vampires in her series are out in society, (one of the first series to do so with vampires), and some hold powers, the majority of the vampires in her series are normal people. The appearance of the human does not change when the human morphs into the vampire. They are also not all wealthy, they continue life as normal as if still alive. While this still goes with the authors argument, I think it is worth noting that most of the vampires in this series are also less glamorous and live in homes much more like the vampires of the past, and are kept menacing and not seen as only a sexual object. I think this shows that many authors are still trying to keep with the more dangerous vampires and not only "dangerous because they're desirable". My other argument is that this article does not mention the efforts of the book and movie Warm Bodies. Warm Bodies goes completely against the normal zombie trope, and portrays the zombies more like unfortunate diseased bodies that are able to regain their sentience. The story shows a zombie seeing a girl and somehow his heart starts to re-beat. There is no decomposition, or terror. This would seem to me to be the zombie genre's attempt to romanticize zombie-ism much like vampirism so often is. Other than these two contradictions that popped in my head, I agreed with the article.

Questions:
1.) From my middle school years and on, young girls have been what seems the prime audience for the romantic vampire trope. How do you think this effects self esteem in teen girls (and boys) when they are religiously shown the too-perfect displays by the "vampires" that can obviously not be achieved? (Because immortality)
2.) What are your thoughts on the possibility that the terror behind zombies may be part of their lack of free will and lack of individualism, which is something that goes against many religions that emphasize both free will and individualism, which is ingrained into Western society?