"Twilight" as a sociocultural phenomenon
(Translated from Russian, source: http://dalaukar.livejournal.com/655983.html)
In addition to their entertainment value, popular movie monsters of various time periods had always included a powerful social subtext that reflected the state of the society. For example, the zombie theme that turned ever-present during the past few years, suggests that the humanity is in the stage of active consumerism. A creature that "just wants to eat and can't think worth a damn" is an obvious and undisguised symbol of such society.
A curious segment of moviegoers - or, to be more exact, moviegoer-esses - in this horde of zombie lovers are those attracted to the vampiric love story of "Twilight". One can keep on claiming that members of the gentler sex are attracted to the romance of inter-species relations, but... See for your self, "Twilight" has no manly ment or beautiful women. The male protagonist is a pale red-eyed corpse, the female protagonist is a typical dumb bimbo with a perpetually loose jaw, somewhere in between them is an oiled thug with one and a half facial expressions, and it all happens in some American backwater. Doesn't look like every woman's dream, right? More interesting love stories can easily be found. But this dumb movie is the one that becomes the best-selling cash cow. Why is it so popular? Because while a teenage girl consciously looks at the pretty pictures, her subconscious is reading in the subtext...
A vampire is a clear symbol of a caste society, of aristocratic despotism if you want, which since Stoker turned into an allegory of oligarchs and bureaucrats. That is, by the way, the source of the second, clarifying theme, which never appeared previously - a clash between vampires and werewolves, aristocracy and serfs, bureaucrats and everyday people. If this theme was massively popular, one would be able to speak of a budding revolution. But, unfortunately, it is only popular with teenage girls, and those do not start revolutions. They like vampires in general, and "Twilight" in particular, for the story of the female protagonist, who first vacillates between the "vampire" and the "werewolf", but then cheerfully chooses the eternal prince with a pocket full of life sucked out of others, leaving the oily werewolf thug as a sort of a servant and good friend.
The girls' eyes water throughout the first chapter, as they watch the protagonist marry the "fully and eternally loaded" aristocrat, sublimating their main instinct - no, not of reproduction, but, more likely, free-loading dependency. Same crocodile tears are in their eyes through the next chapters, as the protagonist runs into a load of problems, because she is initially "not the vampire's equal" middle-class, as the vampyric-oligarchic society hesitates before finally fulfilling her dream and turning her into a corpse just like them, at the same time giving her a plot twist baby belonging to two social classes at the same time. Life is good, the goal is accomplished, the walking wallet had been found - that's the subtext of "Twilight", and subconsciously it is damn attractive to a massive crowd of teenage girls with appropriate life goals. For the same reasons, it is despised by a massive crowd of guys, on whose necks such girls like to sit on.
In addition to their entertainment value, popular movie monsters of various time periods had always included a powerful social subtext that reflected the state of the society. For example, the zombie theme that turned ever-present during the past few years, suggests that the humanity is in the stage of active consumerism. A creature that "just wants to eat and can't think worth a damn" is an obvious and undisguised symbol of such society.
A curious segment of moviegoers - or, to be more exact, moviegoer-esses - in this horde of zombie lovers are those attracted to the vampiric love story of "Twilight". One can keep on claiming that members of the gentler sex are attracted to the romance of inter-species relations, but... See for your self, "Twilight" has no manly ment or beautiful women. The male protagonist is a pale red-eyed corpse, the female protagonist is a typical dumb bimbo with a perpetually loose jaw, somewhere in between them is an oiled thug with one and a half facial expressions, and it all happens in some American backwater. Doesn't look like every woman's dream, right? More interesting love stories can easily be found. But this dumb movie is the one that becomes the best-selling cash cow. Why is it so popular? Because while a teenage girl consciously looks at the pretty pictures, her subconscious is reading in the subtext...
A vampire is a clear symbol of a caste society, of aristocratic despotism if you want, which since Stoker turned into an allegory of oligarchs and bureaucrats. That is, by the way, the source of the second, clarifying theme, which never appeared previously - a clash between vampires and werewolves, aristocracy and serfs, bureaucrats and everyday people. If this theme was massively popular, one would be able to speak of a budding revolution. But, unfortunately, it is only popular with teenage girls, and those do not start revolutions. They like vampires in general, and "Twilight" in particular, for the story of the female protagonist, who first vacillates between the "vampire" and the "werewolf", but then cheerfully chooses the eternal prince with a pocket full of life sucked out of others, leaving the oily werewolf thug as a sort of a servant and good friend.
The girls' eyes water throughout the first chapter, as they watch the protagonist marry the "fully and eternally loaded" aristocrat, sublimating their main instinct - no, not of reproduction, but, more likely, free-loading dependency. Same crocodile tears are in their eyes through the next chapters, as the protagonist runs into a load of problems, because she is initially "not the vampire's equal" middle-class, as the vampyric-oligarchic society hesitates before finally fulfilling her dream and turning her into a corpse just like them, at the same time giving her a plot twist baby belonging to two social classes at the same time. Life is good, the goal is accomplished, the walking wallet had been found - that's the subtext of "Twilight", and subconsciously it is damn attractive to a massive crowd of teenage girls with appropriate life goals. For the same reasons, it is despised by a massive crowd of guys, on whose necks such girls like to sit on.