Four Perfectly Valid Reasons To Hate The Twilight Franchise: A Response

One article on TwilightBlog that has gotten quite a bit of criticism (and support by some) is something Stefania G wrote a few months back as an opinion piece.  It is entitled "Four Perfectly Valid Reasons To Hate The Twilight Franchise" and if you haven't read it yet (or commented) I definitely recommend heading over there and seeing what it's all about.  She has read the comments, and has this to say in reply:

I appreciate that so many people have bothered to read my article on four reasons to hate Twilight. Due to the amount of uproar and confusion witnessed in the comments I feel I ought to clarify a few things. Firstly, many readers seem to misunderstand the fact that I am quite seriously a fan of Twilight. Though I may find things wrong with the books and movies I do enjoy them and am proud to be a fan of the series. My goal in writing that article was to illuminate and acknowledge some aspects of Twilight-dom that are unappealing, even to a fan, in opposition to all the hate-filled diatribes from those who do not appreciate Twilight – or perhaps worse still, sickeningly sweet words of adoration for the series that do not acknowledge any of its faults. Further, the article was originally written for a completely different blog, so that may account for some of the lack of ability to translate to the readers of TWILIGHTBLOG.NET.

As for the matter of whether “haters” counts as a reason to hate the Twilight franchise, I have this to say: “For the child is father of the man” (Wordsworth). While my statement (and that quote) may originally seem confusing they both come down to the same point: you cannot have one without the other. Without Twilight, and the hysteria it produces, there would be no haters. I don’t simply mean people who dislike Twilight or are indifferent to it, I mean the fact that there is an entire counter-culture to Twilight fans. Not many things can prove to be such a unifying force for people to aim their snark towards. I would have to say Twilight is somewhere between George W. Bush and Justin Beiber. I thought that was an interesting phenomenon and worth commenting on.

Lastly, and most importantly, I feel that most readers have missed the tongue-in-cheek tone of my article. By naming myself a fan in the very first line, and then in very clear language admitting I was being “obnoxious” and “self-righteous” by calling myself a “real fan,” I was hoping it was clear that I was making just as much fun of myself as I was anyone else. Whether or not you can identify with any of the groups in Twilight culture does not make a difference to your legitimacy as a fan. I am a mom. I am still in my twenties. I could easily be a Twi-hard, Twi-mom, or even a hater…or all of them. But at the end of the day, the point is that I do enjoy Twilight, and if you are reading this, then I am happy to say that apparently you do as well.