thedeadparrot

Warning: not entirely coherent rant directed at other internet forums ahead.

I stumbled across a recent discussion on /r/books about hating on Twilight on reddit (which is a shitty place in general. don’t go there if you don’t enjoy watching white guys circlejerk each other about how awesome they are).

This conversations is mostly tossing out old arguments about how the writing is terrible and how the fanbase is terrible, blah blah blah, and I’ve been thinking about that lately, about how many people trot out the "but think of the children and the TwiMoms!" argument.

Personally, I feel like Twilight is objectively bad in terms of quality(though I've only seen the movies and have not read any of the books) and that it does sort of try to frame Edward’s seriously creepy as shit behavior as being rilly, rilly in luv u gaiz! Seriously, that shit is creepy and not okay.

However, I think that the fact that it is so creepy and not okay is a crowbar that Twilight haters (many of them male) can use to bludgeon people who don’t care about or even defend Twilight. This also ties into the whole line of thinking about ‘I hate it because it’s popular with teenage girls! Teenage girls are stupid!’ (Like how people whine about Dan Brown, but with extra misogyny!)

Apparently, teenage girls are too stupid to realize that Edward doesn’t exist and that guys who, I dunno, take the engine out of your vehicle because they don’t approve of your friends, are kinda abusive. And of course, teenage boys don’t get any harmful messages about sex or girls from popular culture from their movies, music, or television shows. Not from anything like Superbad, 300, the ever so popular Manic Pixie Dream Girl (warning: tvtropes). It would be so difficult to rail against those things (along with other harmful messages to teenage girls) and the culture that perpetuates them! And besides, isn’t that moment where the white guys kill the evil, sort of flaming, brown guys in 300 really awesome? C’mon, you have to admit that the cinematography is great!

I am really sick of this double standard where things that are popular amongst girls (in ways that dudes don’t expect or aren’t used to) are held up to a higher standard than things that are popular amongst boys (because boys will be boys, amirite?). I don’t see long ass lectures about why it’s creepy to try to center a plot around getting girls drunk in order to have sex with them outside feminist/progressive spaces, and yet everyone wants to call Twilight out on its shit everywhere?

I don’t know if it’s concern trolling or something else, but these days, I generally roll my eyes when people start trotting out the ‘but it’s BAD FOR YOU’ line of reasoning for having such a hateboner Twilight. Mostly, I hear, ‘but I FIND TEENAGE GIRLS LIKING THINGS UPSETTING’ instead.

Seriously, dudes, just let it go. We know it’s shitty and sexist and fucked up. If your internet feminist activism begins and ends with Twilight, I am seriously going to question your motives for hating on it.

I've spent the last few days (a) helping my dad paint the deck and back porch, (b) playing too much Kingdom Hearts 2 and (c) obsessing over Queer as Folk (UK), which isn't the most amazing show ever, but it is incredibly good. Stuart and Vince are made of awesome, and they love each other SO MUCH it's kinda pathetic. Actually, take the 'kinda' out of that last sentence.

Man, big fandoms spoil you for the small ones. I mean, there's some truly excellent QAF UK fic out there, but then you run out and your standards start lowering and all of a sudden you're reading a series where everyone giggles and cries a lot and the pairing marries each other in a big do and there's a match-maker Mary Sue who calls Stuart 'Stuey' and then a crossover with QAF US happens.

Yeah, that one was slightly addictive. *cough*

And I should be reading papers, especially since I'm moving into my summer house on Sunday.

Also, new BSG tonight. w00t!

dear fnl,

lay off the melodrama pills plz.

love,
me


dear jkr,

the wankolypse was totally worth it. plus grindeldore was totally already otp.

hugs and kisses,
me


dear alonzo church,

i'm sad that turing's always stealing your thunder. but lambda is really sweet, i must say.

love,
me


dear don,

you're totally right. shahrukh khan does do sociopath well.

lots of love,
me


dear sga fandom,

why has no one written an au where rodney's a girl, and john's gay, but then some ancient machine turns her into a guy, and john has a sexual identity crisis because he totally gets a crush on her, even when she gets her body back?

disappointed,
me

- Soylent Green? Is people.

- AUs and crossovers are like the best things ever.

- The SGA fandom is on crack.

- Shahrukh Khan is so badass, he can make flaming rickshaws cool.

- That the House fandom needs more insane AUs. Like House as a tech support person/sysadmin!
( Read more... )
Or on Broadway!
( Read more... )
Also, of course, the dreaded High School AU.
( Read more... )

- I should be reading 1984 right now. And doing work.

- And maybe eating.

Dear people who like to say that market forces will prevent companies from being evil,

Please stop using economics to back up your idoicy, because A) You're probably applying it incorrectly and B) You're making economics look bad. And seeing as I'm trying to get a degree in it, I have a vested interest in not making it look bad.

kthnxbai,
me

(Does thedeadparrot have to smack some bitches? I think she does.)

Clive Owen is hot.



Just thought I'd throw that out there.