It was around 11:15 at night. Almost time for the long awaited film to begin, but still early enough to get in a few more conversations. I decided to change up my location, so I switched from the very front of the theatre to the second to last row. That is where I found a group of some of the most effervescent, fun loving, and articulate high school girls I have ever met! There were almost ten of them, and ask I spoke to the group about my project, I began to feel like a camp counselor. About 10 seconds into my shpiel, a girl towards the center of the row jumped up and screamed, “I’ll do it! I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” She made her way across all of the other’s girls laps, and ended right in front of me.
Before I could even ask a question, this girl began to explain that she does not love Twilight for its literary style. She said that it was “unsophisticated,” and that she was drawn to it only because of the raw emotion. When I asked her to give me an example of what she would consider to be “sophisticated,” she answered with certainty, “Harry Potter, The Alchemist, and The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.” This girl really knew what she was talking about.
Back in camp counselor mode, I found myself trying to give each girl a chance to speak. I could no longer hear my own thoughts as they unleashed a steady downpour of Twilight insights. One told me that the exchange she most hoped to hear in the movie was one between Emmet and Bella.
Emmet: Fall down again, Bella?
Bella: No. I punched a werewolf in the face.
I told this girl that she was definitely not alone; I had heard calls for that line all over the internet. All of the girls exclaimed that, of course, the most important scene in the movie would be the Tent Scene. Again, another fan desire that I had heard before.
Coming back to the enthusiastic girl who had travelled across the row in front of me, she began to explain the subtleties in how girls and women identify with Bella. She said that Bella is not a real character. Stephenie Meyer specifically wrote Bella so that any girl could place herself in Bella’s shoes. As a a result, fans were not identifying with Bella’s personality traits, but inserting their own identities into the story. Still, she said, one could could relate to Bella’s experiences. This explanation was intriguing because it suggested that fans were not identifying with Bella as she experienced true love and friendship but rather that fans were actually living their own experience. The difference is subtle, but real.
This same girl then described to me the paradox of Kristen Stewart. Like many of the fans at the theatre, she felt that Stewart was a bad actress. She explained that Stewart is “both overdramatic and blank at the same time.” This statement reflected her sense that Stewart tried too hard to express Bella’s emotion, but in doing so, fell flat. I asked if it was possible that Stewart was purposely blank, attempting to mimic Meyer’s creation of a universal character. She replied in the negative, saying that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson just don’t work well together.
Soon, the girls were telling me all about the Twilight merchandise they had. They don’t like to buy posters and jewelry in the store. Instead, they prefer to make their own Twilight merchandise together, adding creative touches along the way. I laughed out loud when they told me about a particular “Team Werewolf” shirt that they had created. It featured Jacob Black and Professor Lupin, tying Twilight and Harry Potter into a tight knot. They then expounded upon a theory of theirs that Jacob Black, Sirius Black, and Professor Lupin were all somehow related. The word “love child” was mentioned, but I didn’t quite catch the whole story. As my mom suggested, maybe Black is just a popular last name in the werewolf community?
Once we were on the topic of Harry Potter, the girls began to complain about the changing nature of Twilight fandom. One said, “At first, it was all Harry Potter fans. Now, it’s crazy, stupid blondes.” They’re ditzy and only obsessed with Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. That is a complaint that I’ve heard often from Twilight fans. With the release of the Twilight movies, the fandom has grown to incorporate different types of people than were previously involved.
Finally, one girl told me that in fact, she’s not the most obsessed Twilight fan. Yes, she did re-read the saga in order to prepare for each movie. And yes, she does create her own Twilight clothing. But for her, (at this point the other girls nodded their heads in agreement) Twilight was about hanging out with friends and having fun at midnight premiers. “Can I give you a hug?” she asked. “Of course!” I responded. Twilight fans are awesome.
Stay tuned—even more to come.
Student L
Twilight Anthropology 