Bidisha's a paranoid loon:

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Twilight the film has been a massive success, but its audience is dismissed as fangirls, groupies, teenyboppers, airheads. It is sneered at by the same critics who misogynistically savaged Sex and the City and Mamma Mia, two other films made for women, with such blatant transparency.

On the other hand, maybe they just weren't very good.

I don't even read her columns any more, she's worse than any male columnist I know for pigeon-holing her readers based on sex. I loathe girly films. Guess that must make me a man, since clearly sex is the only defining factor in cultural taste.

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Be that as it may, this particular article spoke directly to the point under discussion.

I think there are valid reasons for criticising Twilight, but it is definitely true that the mostly female fans have been dismissed in the way she described. There was even a comic (or similar, I forget) convention fetauring the stars and attened en mass by fans, in which many of the old hands objected and claimed this wasn't real fandom etc. One might have thought spider-man obsessives didn't have much of a finger to point.

Another factor so far unmentioned is the huge female response to the early Beatles, the famous universal scream. I'm sure that too had to do with their youth and clean-cut, not overly masculine image.

Originally Posted by bidisha

Imagine my surprise when director Catherine Hardwicke sliced through Meyer's female masochist poison and produced a defiant articulation of the female gaze and female desire.

masochism isn't a valid expression of female desire.

go sistah. way to stick up for girls.

Originally Posted by contracycle

Another factor so far unmentioned is the huge female response to the early Beatles, the famous universal scream. I'm sure that too had to do with their youth and clean-cut, not overly masculine image.

yeah, ok. but really the only conclusion any of us can draw from that or any of the observations made so far is that human sexuality is more complex than is portrayed by popular culture, whatever your gender.

well, duh.

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I think there are valid reasons for criticising Twilight, but it is definitely true that the mostly female fans have been dismissed in the way she described.

Which could be because they're female, or could be because franchise isn't very good.

In any case, she's fighting a battle that was quietly won years ago. Girls these days are ogling rugby players, writing fanfics and reading gay porn - there's a whole genre of Buffy-esque supernatural fighting/romance stuff of which Twilight is a tiny part. Apart from Twilight, the stuff she's citing is culture that middle aged people will recognise and barely anyone under 30 has even heard of.

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Originally Posted by psyche

yeah, ok. but really the only conclusion any of us can draw from that or any of the observations made so far is that human sexuality is more complex than is portrayed by popular culture, whatever your gender. well, duh.

True enough, but: the case can be made that its not surprising that what I shall delictalely refer to as minority interests doesn't get much of a representation in mass media, but I definaitely agree with the point that female interest is as a whole much less catered for than male.

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Which could be because they're female, or could be because franchise isn't very good.

It could be, but in this case the comments were specifcally about them "not being real fans" and how Twighlight was "ruining" Comic-Con. The male preserve had been invaded and they didn't like it.

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In any case, she's fighting a battle that was quietly won years ago.

Sure, but it shouldn't have to be "quietly". When we're talking about slightly more than half the population we could do with celebrating it a bit more.

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True enough, but: the case can be made that its not surprising that what I shall delictalely refer to as minority interests doesn't get much of a representation in mass media, but I definaitely agree with the point that female interest is as a whole much less catered for than male.

It's much more quietly catered for, certainly. You could go your whole life not knowing about the urban witchcraft romance genre, but it's mahoosive and extremely lucrative.

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It could be, but in this case the comments were specifcally about them "not being real fans" and how Twighlight was "ruining" Comic-Con. The male preserve had been invaded and they didn't like it.

Seems more like obsessives of any sort don't like Sunday enthusiasts. Most Twilight fans aren't hardcore fantasy nerds, and that was what was objected to.

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Sure, but it shouldn't have to be "quietly". When we're talking about slightly more than half the population we could do with celebrating it a bit more.

But we're not talking about slightly more than half the population. Girls don't all like exactly the same stuff. A kid who draws BL doujinshi has got nothing in common with an office lady who reads swashbuckling romances in her spare time.

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