{"id":1467,"date":"2008-11-24T17:49:41","date_gmt":"2008-11-25T00:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2008-11-24T17:49:41","modified_gmt":"2008-11-25T00:49:41","slug":"hearting-the-twilight-fang-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/?p=1467","title":{"rendered":"Hearting the Twilight Fang-Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“OK,” wheezed the beleaguered usher. “Once the movie starts…no more yelling!!!”<\/p>\n

Naturally, they didn’t listen.<\/p>\n

They screamed when the lights went down. They screamed when the credits floated onscreen, curlicue-laden, gothy font and all. They screamed for Jacob, flowing-tressed heartthrob in the making.<\/p>\n

“Oh, shit,” I whispered to Kelly. “I’m scared of what’s gonna happen when Edward<\/em> shows up.”<\/p>\n

Well, duh. Banshee wails, awesome in their pure, gut-wrenching hysteria.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have a weird relationship with Twilight<\/em>. The sheer junk foodiness of the proceedings made me hate myself a little while I was reading through the saga. I had many winding conversations with people about how the books are, well, Not Good, Exactly, yet boast a fiendishly addictive quality not unlike the lardy, chemical-infused cream filling so favored by Hostess snack foods. In the end, I retain an undeniable affection for the thing. Everyone who’s labeled it fanfic is pretty right on, but in a way, I think that’s its genius and chief appeal: it is the ultimate<\/em> Mary Sue fanfic, no holds barred. The movie does a nice job of distilling that appeal into a swooning ode to romantic breathiness and guys with amazing cheekbones. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s my favorite review<\/a> I’ve read so far, courtesy of pal\/Twilight<\/em> viewing companion Sarah O.<\/p>\n

That’s not really what I want to talk about, though. No, I want to discuss an aspect of The Hype\/Backlash to the Hype that’s been bothering me for a while and reached a fever pitch when I had the chance to view the movie as it’s meant to be viewed: in a theater with a bunch of willing-to-go-with-it friends and a gaggle of excitable 13-year-olds.<\/p>\n

See, I’m bothered by the strong vitriol some folks — particularly those amongst my geeky brethren and sistren — seem to have for Twilight<\/em> fans. Hate on the property all you want — that’s always allowed, certainly, and I probably agree with at least a couple of your points. But there’s this weird, dismissive attitude that comes out whenever Twilight<\/em>‘s legions of teen fang-girls get brought up and it’s kind of pissing me off.<\/p>\n

Look: as geeks, we are passionate about many things. They are not always good. Some of them are downright stupid. We express that passion in different ways — writing, zineing, costuming, buying shit we do not need. The Twilight<\/em> girls…do that stuff, too. They have that same passion. Even if you don’t like the thing they’re passionate about…they’re also geeks. We all have a kinship. Are they easier to make fun of because they’re teenage girls? Because they scream a lot? Because they get starry-eyed over the notion of cute boys who sparkle in the sun?<\/p>\n

I was excited to watch this movie with them because<\/em> of all those things. Even though Twilight<\/em> fandom is not necessarily my fandom (or if it is, it’s in a weird way that’s not as pure as it is for true Bellaheads), I can understand how they feel. I’m thrilled that they feel that way. I loved that they were screaming about seeing their favorite characters from a book<\/em> brought to life.<\/p>\n

So if you’re inclined to hate on them…I don’t know. Just think about it for a minute. Think about the passion you have for your<\/em> stuff. Think about how the Mundanes in your life have, at one point or another, probably made fun of you for that.<\/p>\n

I suppose this is starting to sound a little overly-serious, but one thing I love most deeply about fandom is the ability to connect through our level of commitment to whatever-it-is, even as we disagree with one another over various pressing issues within genre entertainment. Respect the Twilight<\/em>ers, is what I’m saying. They opened a fucking movie. They made Hollywood see that stuff aimed at teenage girls is more than viable. They’ve earned it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“OK,” wheezed the beleaguered usher. “Once the movie starts…no more yelling!!!” Naturally, they didn’t listen. They screamed when the lights went down. They screamed when the credits floated onscreen, curlicue-laden, gothy font and all. They screamed for Jacob, flowing-tressed heartthrob in the making. “Oh, shit,” I whispered to Kelly. “I’m scared of what’s gonna happen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,20,69,27],"tags":[84,85,29],"class_list":["post-1467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bitching","category-books","category-fandom","category-movies","tag-bella","tag-edward-cullen","tag-twilight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.alertnerd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}