Twilight has infiltrated the academy!
Several professors have put together a book of essays looking at the Twilight phenomenon. I came upon the book because I have been following Professor Melissa Click’s feminist analysis of Twilight in my book research. I think she is a rock star and brings great thought and perspective to the conversation.
So thanks to the publisher and the authors, below the prologue of Bitten by Twilight.
Prologue
Our taxi pulled up to the Dallas Sheraton on July 30, 2009, and we jumped out and ran through the lobby, waited impatiently at the registration desk, and then tore through the lobby again, in search of our hotel room. We, the three co-editors of this edited anthology, were late to TwiCon, the “premiere unofficial conference for Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight saga” (PRWeb, 2008). Officially, we were at the fan convention as researchers, attending the convention in order to conduct focus group interviews with fans of the Twilight series, and we foolishly scheduled our first focus group only two hours after our plane touched down. Unofficially, we went to TwiCon to participate in the Twilight fandom.
Between December 2008 and February 2009, the three of us had all been surprised by how engrossed we became in the four Twilight books. We are three feminist thirty-something married mothers who happen to also be professors of communication – not exactly the target audience of Twilight. Nevertheless, we found ourselves swept away by the romance between a mortal teen girl and a sparkly vampire. All the while bemoaning the sappy writing style and too-traditional gender dynamics of the books, we were very much bitten by Twilight.
Throughout our research, we have encountered Twilight fans seeking a diagnosis of sorts; this is especially the case among “Twilight Moms” and other adult fans who love the series even though they acknowledge its flaws. Why, they wondered, were they so taken with these books, so clearly not intended for them? They hoped we would be able to provide them a clear, definitive answer. And in some ways, we suppose we are looking for a diagnosis for ourselves as well.
Back in Dallas, we had a chance to observe the fans who had traveled to the convention, some from a long distance and at great personal expense – there was little else to do as we waited in the registration line that snaked around a gigantic convention hall. According to organizers, TwiCon 2009 was to-date the largest Twilight convention in the United States. Officially, 2,800 people were pre-registered for the convention (Bressler, Gautheir, Grapsy, & Scoggins, 2009); ultimately, over 3,000 fans were in attendance (TwiCon, n.d.).1 Some of what we saw in the convention hall confirmed our expectations. For example, the attendees were almost exclusively female, save the handful of boys and men (one father wore a handmade t-shirt that said “Team Charlie. It’s a Dad Thing”). And many of the fans were groups of teens with one or two adults as chaperones. But other aspects were quite surprising. In equal numbers to the teen girls were groups of adult women – Twilight Moms, even Twilight Grandmas – who had traveled to the convention for a girls’ weekend. We met women who attended with their sisters or life-long best friends, and we even met some fans who had become friends online through the Twilight fandom and now roomed together at the convention. Far from the stereotypes of Twilight fans as “shrieking throngs of manic” teenage girls (Koski, 2009, para. 3), what we saw were women of all ages, classes, shapes and sizes, excited and invested in the same phenomenon. And we were all there in Dallas to celebrate Twilight. We were all in this sparkly vampire thing together.
This desire to connect and bond over Twilight was especially evident in our focus groups. Many of the fans – particularly the adult women – approached the group interview almost as therapy; their observations about Twilight were deep, personal, and thoughtful. They were more than willing – even excited – to speak to us (at odd hours of the morning or evening) to discuss their attraction to Twilight.
As academics, and fans, we see the Twilight fandom as diverse, reflective, and insightful. We are proud to be the producers of this anthology and be among the contributors to this book who take this fandom seriously. Ultimately, we seek to understand the reasons that so many have connected with the powerful messages the books and the films deliver.
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Ew, I just don’t get it. Twilight entertained me, yes, I fell off of the couch and literally rolled on the floor laughing at the sparkle reveal. Beyond that, it’s just insulting….and feels like abuse.
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