Effie!  

• Interviewer:  I know it’s often compared to “Twilight,’’ but in “The Hunger Games,’’ the stakes are much higher.
• Elizabeth Banks:  What are the stakes in “Twilight’’? Like, “I don’t know... should I marry this werewolf?’’

thecommonraven:

Nobody hates Twilight like Robert Pattinson hates Twilight.

oceanaroll:

gingerhaze:

Twilight jokes seem kind of cheap at this point because they are just too easy, but I couldn’t help it.

Only reblogging for Charlisle.

Charlisle

Hi Tumblr I expect all of you to attend my awesome event. K? K

Favorite Twilight & Eclipse Commentary Moments

i-aint-bovvered:

Fact: nobody hates their life more than Robert Pattinson.

I like how the Twilight films manage to have an absolutely insatiable, enormous cult following even though the films are basically just huge mockeries of themselves. 

esmeweatherwax:

iamwhoiamandidontgiveadamn:

mirandaadria:

thenakedfemme:

holybat:

mirandaadria:

This. This so much. My God. Honestly, I have agreed with and appreciated all of the posts you have made regarding the piss-poor storytelling of this series. This one in particular, however, is one of the PRIME examples why these books are nothing more than misogynistic, closed-minded, juvenile drivel. So Bella, your man leaves you, and your only solution is to kill yourself? When my child is old enough to read, I will make damn sure he/she never touches these books.

^ I was thinking something similar. Such a great female role model.

lol but maybe she was depressed

maybe she couldn’t handle it

i’m just saying because i would do the same thing

no i’m not saying it’s right or that i’m proud of it

but books are made to make you realize there’s more than one response to every situation.

SUICIDE IS NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER THE RIGHT OPTION. No book should ever glorify death as a way to escape your problems, especially something as petty as a verbally and physically abusive ex-boyfriend leaving town.

Ever been left by someone who is abusive?  I have.

While I was being abused they convinced me they were the ONLY Person who could or would ever love me because I was such a piece of shit. 

Then he left me for someone else.

And I was left, alone, with the very real belief that all his abuse was right. That I was stupid, and worthless, and ugly and fat and a whore and NO ONE but him would ever see how good I could be, and NO ONE would love me.

2.5 years of abuse has a way of sinking in after a while.  Ya know?  Kinda hard not to internalize that kinda shit.

I chased and chased and chased.  And I got him back.  And now I wonder what the fuck I was thinking, but now we have a kid together and at least the worst of the abuse has stopped.

And sometimes, for people in real deep emotional pain, suicide does seem like the answer. 

DONT SHAME PEOPLE WHO COMMIT OR HAVE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.  They are in enough pain without your sanctimonious bullshit.

(For the record:  Twilight is a steaming load of shit.  It just so happens that this dissection is too.)

Um, basically what you said. There is nothing “petty” about abusive exes yanno.

This discussion reminds me of the WSJ article claiming that YA books today are “dark” and bad for children, which of course pisses everyone off who has benefited from the work of YA fiction getting to the core of very real problems that children and teens face every day. To the poster who shamed people who attempt suicide (for any reason, who cares about your shitty standard of what “petty” is): you are totally in the wrong for doing that, and shame on YOU. 

The difference between Twilight and YA books that explore teen suicide as a way to give those teens a voice is a very significant one. Twilight doesn’t shame Bella for her suicide, which is a good thing, but neither does it glorify her suicide - it more normalizes it. If Twilight framed Bella’s suicide attempt in a way to bring out the horrible terror and sadness of this devastating act, in order to point to teen readers in order to say you are the victim, I appreciate you, I love you (in that beautiful way books have of speaking to you) like so many wonderful YA novels about suicide have done, that would be different.

But Twilight does not frame Bella as the victim of mental illness, the victim of heavy and disturbing longterm abuse, which is the victim she is. Twilight frames Bella as the “victim” of true love. We aren’t supposed to feel sorry for Bella because she is sick and abused, we’re supposed to feel sorry for her because the love of her life is supposedly dead, and we are therefore supposed to sympathize with her and UNDERSTAND her decision to kill herself as opposed to facing life without Edward.

It’s so, so different to sympathize with a character, a victim, and appreciate them and love them and NOT shame them for suicide attempts, because of an understanding of illness and abuse, and instead support them with a strong hope for them to get better, to recover, to live. 

The understanding that Twilight gives young girls is not this type of understanding. Young girls sympathize with her because her life is ruined without her abuser. I do not shame Bella for her suicide attempt, but I shame - I SHAME - Stephanie Meyer for presenting suicide in such a way that young readers will think, “Poor Bella! I hope Edward comes and saves her! I hope she is fixed by his presence and they live happily ever after!” instead of making them think, “poor Bella, a girl who cares literally about nothing else in her life besides her abuser, who is willing to throw her life away dozens of times just to be with someone who continually abuses her, who is mentally ill and a victim - I hope someone in her life steps up to help her, that she is treated, and that she can someday recover from the horrible effect this man has had on her life.”

Harry Potter v. Twilight 

magulartheimpalor:

Ok, so I responded to this comment on FB:

And Harry Potter, doesn’t even have any other ethnic people in it. I’ve only noticed one asian girl. My niece who is half Hatian hates Harry Potter, she calls it the rich white kid movie! Haha! Atleast Twilight has diversity.

With this:

I’m not going to sit here and defend the racial politics of Harry Potter, because you have a point - the characters are mostly white. For books that put such a heavy emphasis on systemic oppression, she doesn’t necessarily deal with the actual real-world issues of oppression. (The nonfantasy kind, that is.) She seems to operate her books in a kind of color-blind utopia.

As far as rich kids, I would have to disagree there. Her treatment of the Weasleys being working-poor is actually something I really enjoyed about the books because it paralleled my life pretty well. (I don’t remember the exact link off the top of my head but Markreadsharrypotter has a cool run down of her treatment of the Weasleys and Harry Potter experiencing class privilege in one world then lacking it in another.)

Ok, as far as Twilight being racially inclusive, I have to totally disagree. She Others the Native Americans as violent, dangerous, and overly sexual. And it’s been a while since I read the books, but I remember every vampire being white and a white aesthetic being heralded as absolute beauty. (There’s a fantastic Latoya Peterson penned article on this, actually. I’m going to just link it because I might end up repeating what she says. http://www.racialicious.com/2009/11/26/running-with-the-wolves-a-racialicious-reading-of-the-twilight-saga/)

I can’t believe I just got a Harry Potter v. Twilight fight.

Could HP have been more racially diverse? Definitely, but it also could have been a lot less diverse. The most problematic part is that all of the mainmainmain characters - Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Dumbledore, Hagrid - are white, which is certainly a huge issue, but there are characters of other ethnicities: Cho, Angelina, Lee, Kingsley, etc etc. The books could have used a lot more diversity, but at least, in my opinion, these characters don’t seem to be tokenized in many ways at all; they are all characters with their own personalities. Twilight, though, is another fucking manner. See article above.

As for it being a “rich” white kid movie? (It saddens me it’s referred to as only a movie.) Harry has money, but didn’t have absolutely any growing up, and he tries to use it as little as possible, or use it for good. The Weasleys are poor. Hermione isn’t poor but she’s definitely not rich. Hagrid has no money. One of the biggest themes of HP is how it is atrocious and disgusting of the wealthy class to live needlessly luxurious lives at the expense of the poor/middle class. 

Yeah, HP could be improved in some ways but there’s no way in hell I’d say it’s anything but beneficial for children to read. Twilight is on the complete opposite end of that spectrum.

It seriously disturbs me how much American youth love the horrible, sexist, damaging franchise that is Twilight.