By Lindsay Pelliccia
After listening to The Big Hit Show’s recent Twilight deep dive I found myself wanting to reexamine what I, and much of the internet, have been calling the “Twilight Renaissance”. The “Twilight Renaissance” is a phenomenon that has come about in recent years as a response to the hatred the series received when it first came out. I first read Twilight in 2014 when I was in middle school. Initially, I read the first book out of spite for one of my teachers who disgraced the series constantly. At first, I didn’t get the draw the series seemed to have. The storyline seemed to me to be rather bland. In the end, I only made it two books into the five-book long series. It wasn’t until about four years later in 2018 that I first watched the movies. I had seen the first three but hadn’t paid much attention to them. When I watched the whole saga in all of its early 2000s glory I was hooked. While I am not entirely sure what led to my sudden interest in the franchise, I know for a fact it was due in part to the hilarity of the whole thing. I found myself laughing at Edward’s lines in particular (one of my favorites being “hold on tight spider monkey”). When I recognized how innately funny the characters, storyline, and writing was I finally understood what everyone saw in Edward and Bella’s story.
Though I didn’t love the series for its love story or the vampire lore I still loved it nonetheless. In fact, I am writing this on a laptop that has an Alice Cullen sticker on it. Yet, I have never truly been able to love the series without vehemently reassuring myself that I only enjoyed it because of its stupidity. After listening to Alex Pappademas’, the host of The Big Hit Show, ideas in the first episode titled “A Warm Hug of Problematic Love” I began to understand that I felt this way because of Twilight’s negative connotations. As an avid One Direction, Taylor Swift, and Harry Styles fan I have received my fair share of negative and unprovoked opinions. People laugh when I tell them that I am still hoping for a One Direction reunion. There was a time when I tried to hide my love for the British boy band out of sheer embarrassment. I didn’t want my peers or teachers to think less of me because I was obsessed with Niall Horan or would listen to the band’s 2014 album Midnight Memories on repeat.
This shame and worry of being perceived as stupid follows many different fanbases, most of which are largely comprised of young girls. With Taylor Swift’s re-recordings of her older albums like Fearless and Red, we have seen much of the hatred the “swiftie” fan base received throughout the early 2010s reemerge. I was a huge fan of Taylor Swift when I was young. I thought her 2010 album Speak Now was the greatest musical feat to ever be produced (in some ways I still think this holds true). Though around the same time Harry Styles and Swift were seen together in Central Park and the media really started to shame Swift for her love life, my interest in her began to wane. I believe that mainstream media’s obsession with critiquing Swift and her fan base turned me onto anti-Taylor Swift sentiments. I found myself calling her dating history into question and wondering why she always went from boyfriend to boyfriend. Looking back I am incredibly ashamed of my actions and words. I started to listen to Swift again when her eighth studio album Folklore came out. I was upset with One Direction’s failure of a 10th anniversary and found solace in Swift’s storytelling skills. Something in me changed and I began to recognize the hatred I had felt for Swift was never really my own.
The internalized misogyny I possessed during this time left me jaded. This is not very surprising seeing as middle school me was looking for whatever sort of guidance I could get. Therefore, whatever the media told me about Swift instantly became gospel. After recognizing my misplaced feelings towards Swift I began to reexamine my other opinions. I asked myself why I had felt stupid for being enamored with One Direction or why, in recent years, did I have to give an excuse as to why I liked Twilight? The answer was fairly simple; society tends to demonize things that young girls enjoy. That is why I find the “Twilight Renaissance” to be so incredible. While Twilight is undeniably flawed, this cultural shift is very important.
In the past few years many Twilight fans, both new and old, have started to revisit the beloved series. While Pappademas is correct in saying that the series saw a renewed interest during periods of quarantine, love for Twilight has never died, it has simply changed. For years on social media platforms like Tumblr, Twilight fans have been discussing their love and hatred for the series. Important points such as the maltreatment of the Quileute tribe, Jasper’s background, how skin color is treated in the series, and Edward’s harmful tendencies have put Stephanie Meyer in some hot water. Yet, this is for good reason. The Twilight saga includes a multitude of problematic and harmful anecdotes that should not be ignored. That is why contemporary Twilight fans have found it necessary to critique Meyer. Yet, what is just as important as viewing the series with a more critical eye is the fact that the Twilight fanbase is critiquing it for the right reasons.
Pappademas discusses the vitriol that the series faced at the hands of both the media and general society. People thought that the love these young girls had for the books and movies was due to a profound obsession with Edward Cullen. While this is true in part, the series provides its reader and viewers with a sort of fantasy. When consuming Twilight it is easy to see oneself in Bella. She is a young girl who is awkward and interested in things that her peers aren’t. Yet, she ends up engrossed in the lives of vampires and werewolves. Who wouldn’t want to experience a similar sort of foray into the supernatural? Media like Twilight, Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, and an infinite number of other titles appeal to young people as a means of escape. I know for me I enjoyed the Maze Runner series, Harry Potter, and Star Wars for this exact reason. Being an adolescent, especially a middle and high schooler, is very difficult. It seems as if you know nothing yet also know everything. It is a confusing time. Therefore, Twilight and other similar forms of entertainment are perfectly tailored to kids who are struggling to understand their own reality and how they themselves fit into it. But why does Twilight receive so much criticism as opposed to Harry Potter or Star Wars? As stated above, fanbases like Star Wars and Harry Potter are not composed of young women and instead by both boys and girls as well as adult men. In my opinion, this makes these series seem more credible and in turn more intellectually stimulating.
Yet, if you examine both Harry Potter and Star Wars with a critical eye there are a host of issues with both series. That is why it is even more clear as to why Twilight receives the hate that it does. Because Twilight, in its most basic sense, is a romance that was enjoyed by young women who were vocal about their love for the series, it was criticized. For some reason, adult men find it necessary to comment on the interests of young women. Whether it be Taylor Swift, One Direction, or Twilight, everything that young women embrace with full force is demonized. One question I like to ask those who take issue with these things is why are professional sports any different? I would say that I was just as emotional at the One Direction concert I attended as my father was when the Eagles won the Super Bowl. So why aren’t football fans criticized for their emotional attachment to their favorite teams or their love for the game? The answer is simple; the Patriarchy and it’s standards. With a social system that is grounded in the authority of men, it is not surprising that things like Twilight that garner a large women audience are disregarded as being stupid or inconsequential. Yet, what I find to be more interesting is why do men appear to be so threatened by Twilight? I believe it is in part due to the power that the Twilight fanbase had.
The series was skyrocketed into the public consciousness by these women fans. Furthermore, I think the idea that women could like a book for its male protagonist threatened the collective male ego. The same thing happened to the many boy bands that have graced the “Top 100” charts in years past and are presently happening with stars like Timmothée Chalamet and Harry Styles. The fanbase of Twilight appreciated Edward for many reasons, but in my mind, we loved him most for his personality. By this I mean, he saw Bella and appreciated her in her entirety. One Direction’s music has the same sort of empathetic quality to it. Many songs detail how the subject of the song should be loved for both her good and bad qualities. Edward speaks to the Twilight fanbase because he encapsulates the desire to be understood and cherished, something that isn’t often given to women in the media. Because Twilight emerged in the midst of the early 2000s which were known in part for the media’s criticism of stars like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, it should be no surprise that Twilight became so big. Fans clung to Edward’s love for Bella despite her clear imperfections, something that news outlets depicted as being virtually impossible.
So why is the “Twilight Renaissance” so important? In summary, there are two reasons. The first is the new and more nuanced lens that Twilight’s current audience is viewing the series through. It is bringing new life to a well-loved but innately problematic series of films and books. The second is the fact that the young women who were criticized for liking Twilight when they were young are reclaiming their love for the series. Yet, perhaps, more importantly, a new fanbase has emerged who can proclaim their love for Twilight without shame. In my mind, this “Twilight Renaissance” provides hope for the coming generations of young women. Perhaps in the future, we as a society will no longer see media’s worth as being connected to the approval of men and instead will start to critique the media we consume in a productive and healthy way.