Admit it: ‘Twilight’ wasn’t that bad

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Admit it: ‘Twilight’ wasn’t that bad

10 years later, it’s time to tell the truth

It’s been a decade since Twilight‘s debut, since Twilight apologists and fans have been chased into the shadows like so much human cockroach. But now, 10 years removed, we can finally have our moment in the sun to emerge from the shrouds of darkness to run and yell it from the rooftops:

Twilight wasn’t that bad.

And here’s where so-called literature experts (read: Harry Potter fan-fic writers) will start moaning about how it was “poorly written” (it’s really not), about how it glories abusive relationships (it’s literally fiction), how vampires don’t sparkle (have you ever met one, hmm?). I’m here to hold aloft a torch of reason and illuminate its beauty for all to see.

It was a fun and engrossing story

Not everything needs to be Dostoyevsky, ok? Some things can just be fun and entertaining. Low-brow, lowest common denominator-type art absolutely has its place in our cultural landscape. Sometimes we just need casually enjoyable escapism about a world were six-packed, sexually aggressive vampires and werewolves enter liaisons with seemingly-average humans who end up being “The Chosen One?”

Lots of things sacrifice quality and realism for the sake of an engaging and interesting storyline. Ridley Scott was criticized by historians for having saddle stirrups in Gladiator, Roisin Lanigan of babe questioned the realism of everyone’s inability to recognize Sam from A Cinderella Story under her mask, and Twilight‘s realism has been under fire. Tell me, in a fantasy story, is realism a critical element? A vampire sparkling just couldn’t pass the realism test, but stories about magic rings controlling all lifeforms and flying cars that takes orphans to invisible castles for wizards are all firmly rooted in reality? It’s fantasy, y’all!

It’s been unfairly criticized

Sure it had problematic elements, but abuse scenarios have been blown wildly out of proportion. And here’s the thing: even if it was a wildly horrific description of domestic abuse, doesn’t that have a place in literature and even teen literature? Books are supposed to reflect and depict elements of society and to pretend like describing is the same as glorifying is dangerous. I’m pretty sure every literature course I’ve ever taken has required me to read Lolita at some point or another, but yet we continue to hold it up as contributing something of literary merit. Could it be, I dunno, because it was written by a man? :/

People only make fun of it because girls like it

There is no figure so mocked as the teenage girl. Everything they enjoy, from pumpkin spice lattes to Uggs to Lush bath bombs are all joked about and reviled, even though all of those things are so fun! And the same goes for Twilight. Because it was geared towards and loved by teenage girls, people sought to separate themselves from it. Boys and men mocked it because our society doesn’t respect women, and a selection of other teenage girls mocked it in an effort to be able to say, “I’m not like other girls.” Thankfully, our culture is shifting and women (and girls!) are more united than ever, so hopefully we can start to appreciate Twilight for the fun, frilly piece of lit that it is.

We really need it right now

It’s 2017 — I’d like to say that things are different now, but Twilight came out under the Bush administration and we seem to be right about where that left off. But maybe that’s why we need Twilight now more than ever. We can escape, enjoy ourselves, fantasize and take a break from the constant state of crushing depression that is our modern society. It’s time to take a stand, Twihards. Our time has come.