Enough with the 'Twilight' fan-bashing media antics already

August 19, 6:48 PMTwilight ExaminerAmanda Bell

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That's it. Somebody has to say it. Enough with the passive aggressive Twilight fan-bashing already.

Today, an article by the Frisky's Nikki Dowling has effectively taken a place as the 1,037,394th (rough estimate, naturally) article writer to take a stab at fans of the Twilight series and their interest in becoming an active community.

For months, it has been a running gag. Media outlets post snippets of information about the Twilight series, its cast, the studio involved, and the fans, but they do so under the auspices of irritation. An air of accomplishment accompanies their snarky remarks about fans of the series.

Today's article is a prime example of that incessant patronization.

Instead of simply parlaying information about a recent collaboration made between the Twilight film studio (Summit Entertainment) and one of the most prominent Twilight convention companies (Creation Entertainment), the writer has chosen to open her article with this title: "'Twilight' Sells Out More Than We Thought Possible."

To add insult to the injurious sentiments carried by the article (in essence, a suggestion that the collaboration is a "ridic" marketing decision), the writer proceeds to characterize Twilight fans in a derogatory light.

She makes a haughty list of deleterious assumptions about the nature of the Twilight fan community, which, amongst other things, contains the following "predictions."

• Everyone there will be under 15 and female, with massive amounts of tween estrogen surging through their bodies.
• The panel discussions will attempt to cover topics like the technical aspects of how the movie was filmed, but will quickly disintegrate when girls start yelling out things like, “What does Robert look like in person?” and “Jacob is way hotter!” The panelists will give up and sit quietly, waiting for the shouting to subside. It’s OK; they probably didn’t even work on the movie anyway.
• The parents of several fans will have to declare bankruptcy after their kids place exorbitant bids on items that someone who knew Robert might have possibly touched. Once.

Clearly, this not the first of this sort of overgeneralization that has been made, but it is certainly the most recent.

While most of the reputable entertainment outlets in the business of presenting Twilight media are not quite as guilty of this, many other staff writers feel the need to pander, condescend, and to otherwise insult those who they hope most will read their articles and traffic their sites - the fans.

So, unfortunately, it has to be said. Twilight fans are not stupid. They are not a definite sub-class or counterculture. They are a diverse group of people, including highly intellectual men and women, who prefer the series for one reason or another - albeit at times, yes, the beauty of the actors and actresses is a part of it. They don't need to be tormented by the vicious tongues of writers who disagree with their opinions, and they certainly do not need to be categorized as infantile, insatiable, and unreasonable. Instead, perhaps a little respect can be shown by writers by presenting fans with unadulterated information and facts - sans the misbegotten humor ploys.

Not only is the negativity unnecessary, but it is also quite reflective of writers themselves. By observing a social trend such as the fan community for the Twilight series and assimilating to a normative treatment of that group, one nears the line of sheer discrimination, and one's own integrity as a writer and as a person becomes jeopardized.

So, perhaps a bit of the same, stooping medicine is in order to heal these wounds: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."

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