The hunger has been inside me for some time now. As many others have pounced on the numerous opportunities to write about the undead bloodsuckers dominating popular culture, I have lurked in the shadows, reluctant to bite into more than rodent-sized tidbits of commentary. But after media overexposure on the trend, I cannot contain the urge to reveal myself any longer.

I am a male vampire lover.

There is more of my kind around than you might think, but we’ve been pushed to the fringes these last few years since the vampire trend re-exploded and became co-opted by tween girls and trashy romance novels. But I was a vamp-lover when they were evil monsters unstoppable aside from a well-placed stake or poor SPF protection. I ate up vampire stories before they were cool again and when it was still OK to be a guy into the undead.

Things changed in 2005 when Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” saga introduced the world to Edward Cullen, a pathos-ridden, marble-skinned and bronze-haired vampire Adonis who sparkles in the sunlight. Cullen managed to charm the pants off female readers and while they may have been up at night thinking about him, it wasn’t out of fear (it’s best to forget that Cullen is actually a dirty century-old man in a boy’s body who likes to seduce teen girls).

Meyer’s books are loaded with metaphors for adolescence and romance, but not much horror and definitely not a lot of male-oriented content.

Of course, vampires as metaphors aren’t anything new. They are both darkness and sex personified. Depending on the work of fiction, they can easily be used as representations of addiction, loneliness, homosexuality, fear of mortality, discrimination and so on. They can even become the likable, yet quirky, grandpas and numbers-obsessed math teachers of our lives. Yet vampires as leading men in “girly books” and “chick flicks” are new, and it’s a horrifying thought for most dudes who love the genre. When Meyer enjoyed massive success, she launched the current vampire wave that primarily targets women and pushes genre lovers like me to the shadows.

But it wasn’t always this way. For much of my life, vampires were fodder for creature features that appealed to both sexes.

The Saturday afternoon monster marathons and late-night freaky fests starring bloodletting baddies appealed to both my brothers and sister. We also planned our own gender-inclusive “Monster Squad” with Thomas G. Aylesworth’s 1972 hand-me-down book, “Monsters from the Movies,” as a guidebook. Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” was a well-worn terrifying favorite passed to me from a girlfriend. “The Lost Boys” was a pretty awesome ’80s-rific rock ‘n’ roll vampire flick that had gory heart-eating and hottie “Tiger Beat” heartthrobs (a Kiefer and two Coreys). Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” remained pretty faithful to the source material and was heavy on horror, blood, romance, sex and female vampire nudity.

Even Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles” series that began with the 1976 novel, “Interview With The Vampire” didn’t completely transform the vampire genre from guy-friendly into no-boys-allowed. Rice did amp up the sex appeal of the bloodsuckers and the 1994 movie version of “Interview” reminded the world of the blond, fey, self-loathing but beautiful vampire anti-hero character she created that persists today.

Still, Rice didn’t exclude males from the vampire club like “Twilight” has. Plus, after the “Interview” movie went back into the coffin, “Blade” popped up as a male-targeted undead-buttkicking flick. And TV’s “Buffy” never lost the action that kept the men from tuning in. Heck, Buffy even successfully made the transition into the fanboy arena of comic books.

So what’s a bloodsucking-loving boy to do in this female-focused world of vamps?

Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire novel “The Strain” sucks in a good way, and 2008’s Swedish vampire movie, “Let The Right One In,” was a horror-drama that didn’t skew towards a female audience.

However, the best hope may be HBO’s “True Blood.” The show, based on Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, is violent, sexy, funny, absurd and a helluva lot of fun. The romance between Southern gentleman vampire Bill and local yokel waitress-telepath Sookie is engaging, but the supporting characters that include a demon, changeling, vampire-blood dealing transvestite and a hierarchy of vampire leaders is what makes the show great. Admittedly, the frequent nudity helps draw men in, but “True Blood” is a successful show equally geared for men and women, and is remarkably adult in themes and plotlines.

Despite, these rays of sunshine, the current vampire trend looks to remain dominated by the tropes of trashy romance and young-adult, tween-girl lit. But I cannot remain in the shadows any longer: I am a guy who loves vampires, and it drives a stake right through my heart that there isn’t enough undead pop-culture fare to feed a hungry male audience.

Entertainment columnist Aaron Sagers writes weekly about all things pop-culture. He can be reached at [email protected].