The latest Twilight movie New Moon came out this week and EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON EARTH IS TALKING ABOUT IT. Including me, so hey, I’ve got no right to bitch, but seriously, my 80 year old grandmother asked me if I was going to see “that vampire film”. It has an incredible level of media saturation.
Fangirls (there are no “fanboys” of Twilight) are creaming their collective panties over it, while everyone else is standing back and revelling in the smug superiority of not being a Twilight fan. And I admit, I’m as guilty of that as anyone. I really dislike the series, first of all just for the way it portrays vampires, but also for it’s fairly poisonous messages about what it regards to be healthy relationships based on controlling male figures and women who are helpless without a man to tell them what to do.
The big problem I have with that criticism though is that you can pretty much point to ANY of the myriad vampire series on the shelves right now, and see the exact same thing. I was in Borders the other day and they have a whole section set aside for “Vampire Literature”. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was nowhere to be seen, it should go without saying. Surprisingly though, neither was Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, with their decidedly adult content. Instead there were endless trashy authors writing books which have clearly been marketed to teenage girls, all of whom are apparently mad keen on hooking up with a pale haemophiliac.
And that’s understandable. Vampires were sexy long before Stephanie Meyer came along and vomited glitter all over them. But the crux of that matter is this- if you’re criticising Twilight for using vampires as bad metaphors for sex, and having destructive relationships, you’ve got to apply that same level of criticism to all properties which use vampires as part of their cast.
Take for instance HBO’s surprise hit True Blood, which is actually based on a bona fide Vampire Fiction series aimed at girls, the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. Executive producer Alan Ball deliberately fiddled around with many of the elements in the books, creating a funny horror show that appeals to a broad demographic. But a close adaptation of Harris’ novels would have resulted in something much closer to Twilight than many fans of the show would be confortable admitting. Even the central relationship of the show, between telepath Sookie Stackhouse and Vampire Bill Compton is an eerie mirror of Twilight’s Bella and Edward.
Not to mention most geeks are basically being giant hypocrites when they start criticising Twilight out of some knee-jerk reaction to the fact that hordes of screaming girls are going nuts for it. For example, I read comic books. At their best they can be works of art and great literature all rolled into one, and I’m not just talking about the Graphic Novels either. The current run of monthly title Detective Comics featuring Batwoman and The Question have been some I’ve the best drawn and written comics I’ve read. But for every piece of great art there is a hundred examples of crudely muscled men and overly-sexualised women beating the tar out of each other with very little motivation or character development.
Look, I’m not saying Twilight isn’t bad. It’s terrible. But you need to damn it fairly, and make sure you’re not standing in a giant glass house when you do.
Tags: The November Challenge
November 21st, 2009 at 00:05
All vampire stories are horrendous shit. Metaphorically, anyway. I never understood why people found them sexy. THEY SUCK YOUR BLOOD. THAT’S NOT COOL.
I guess I kinda feel about vampires the way many people feel about zombies…
November 23rd, 2009 at 15:32
Whilst I agree with pretty much everything you say in this Stu, I must point out the most annoying thing about these badly written “stories” is that nothing happens. Nothing. The characters sit around and talk about how bad everything could go and all the drama that might happen if certain beings find out blah, blah, blag… But all they do is talk. Nothing actually happens. Ever. I actually like the movies cause they have slightly more action and suspense then Stephanie Meyer even considered. Plus vampires and werewolves.
November 23rd, 2009 at 17:43
See, I’ve always said if you want to watch a trashy film about vampires and werewolves fighting, they already made that movie, and it was called Underworld.