I saw that - but I didn't quite ring true to me. I guess my deal with Twilight is that I think it's a terrible book, and one of the most sexist things I've ever seen, but god knows we all fangirl inappropriate things sometimes. If my mental acuity were judged by my fandoms, I'd look like a moron, and I know it. I figure at least half of what fandom is is fixing terrible stupid no-good canons in the first place.
But I still want Buffy - or Faith! - to take Edward Cullen to the cleaners'.
I'm one of those people for whom Twilight dislike has wrapped around to being a kind of fandom again. I mean, I've read all the books and seen the movies...I've read Twilight fanfiction...the actual nature of my interest in Twilight is really kind of moot at this point, isn't it? And, somehow, sitting around going OH STEPHENIE MEYER NO with other fangirls (and sympathetic fanboys) was OK and fun. I genuinely think the books are fucked up in a way that is probably harmful to teenage girls.
But lately the backlash against Twilight has taken on this...awful, macho, girl-hating tone. Male nerds are saying horrible things about the female fans flooding their conventions. There was a thread on my favorite RPG forum about whether or not a licensed Twilight RPG would be a good idea, and...christ, we had one guy whining about how it would ruin the hobby just like teenage girls ruined anime and manga with their high school dramas and their hot guys. It makes me sick and I want to stand up and defend Twilight despite how terrible and potentially damaging I think it actually is.
I'm kind of depressed that the teenage girls of America latched onto Twilight as their particular squee of choice, but so much of the Twilight hate from the non-fan quarter is based on a loathing of teenage girls having any fandom space at all. Whether or not Twilight is good doesn't even enter into it.
I meant that I think the books are probably genuinely harmful to teenage girls, but damn, I fangirl some stuff that has absolutely awful issues with sexism, so maybe I'm in no position to throw stones here.
Right. this exactly. Hate the text, love the fandom?
I think the thing that sets me off the most is the almost universal assumption that these girls couldn't possibly be doing any sort of transformational work, not even in the space of their own heads. It's what I do when I have terrible/problematic canons - read selectively, read against the grain, and run back to fandom for fix-its. I do it hard enough that I figure I'm really not watching the actual show anymore; I'm looking for fodder for the story in my head, and could care less about the one on the screen/page.
But none of the girls playing with twilight could possibly be doing that, right? Clearly, they are all hysterical, hormonal little sheep with no intellect or agency. Poor kids.
I am very guilty of thinking that myself, much as I hate to admit it, despite having read explicitly transformational fanwork.
Hell, it should even be OK to be a hormonal little sheep sometimes. It's certainly OK for boys to act like that.
With Twilight it sometimes seems like being caught between a sexist rock (the canon) and a sexist hard place (the rest of the world's hysterical reaction to girls being nerdy). *sigh*
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Date: 2009-11-28 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 01:34 am (UTC)But I still want Buffy - or Faith! - to take Edward Cullen to the cleaners'.
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Date: 2009-11-28 09:38 pm (UTC)But lately the backlash against Twilight has taken on this...awful, macho, girl-hating tone. Male nerds are saying horrible things about the female fans flooding their conventions. There was a thread on my favorite RPG forum about whether or not a licensed Twilight RPG would be a good idea, and...christ, we had one guy whining about how it would ruin the hobby just like teenage girls ruined anime and manga with their high school dramas and their hot guys. It makes me sick and I want to stand up and defend Twilight despite how terrible and potentially damaging I think it actually is.
I'm kind of depressed that the teenage girls of America latched onto Twilight as their particular squee of choice, but so much of the Twilight hate from the non-fan quarter is based on a loathing of teenage girls having any fandom space at all. Whether or not Twilight is good doesn't even enter into it.
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Date: 2009-11-28 09:40 pm (UTC)I meant that I think the books are probably genuinely harmful to teenage girls, but damn, I fangirl some stuff that has absolutely awful issues with sexism, so maybe I'm in no position to throw stones here.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 10:52 pm (UTC)I think the thing that sets me off the most is the almost universal assumption that these girls couldn't possibly be doing any sort of transformational work, not even in the space of their own heads. It's what I do when I have terrible/problematic canons - read selectively, read against the grain, and run back to fandom for fix-its. I do it hard enough that I figure I'm really not watching the actual show anymore; I'm looking for fodder for the story in my head, and could care less about the one on the screen/page.
But none of the girls playing with twilight could possibly be doing that, right? Clearly, they are all hysterical, hormonal little sheep with no intellect or agency. Poor kids.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-28 11:46 pm (UTC)Hell, it should even be OK to be a hormonal little sheep sometimes. It's certainly OK for boys to act like that.
With Twilight it sometimes seems like being caught between a sexist rock (the canon) and a sexist hard place (the rest of the world's hysterical reaction to girls being nerdy). *sigh*