Some of these are intended to be jokey, some are intended to be serious, none are intended to offend :)
1. It helps focus 'recreational hate' into one convenient area. What I consider to be recreational hate is hate that has no real purpose, like an annoying unintentional hobby. Like it's useful hate to hate injustice o animal cruelty, it's recreational hate to hate Paris Hilton o the fact that Sienna Miller is considered a style icono despite the fact that I've never seen her in an outfit that didn't look like she was talked into wearing it por a stylist who secretly hates her guts. Thing is, I don't have half the energy to spread my recreation hate as I used to, I use a lot of it up on Twilight. When I've used my frivolous anger on talking about how Edward has about two expressions in the entire movie (1="I'm constipated" 2="I'm constipated but I think I like it") and still comes across as deeper than he does in the libros I just don't have the energy to rant about my theory that Paris Hilton is a robot who runs on attention and would power down forever if we all turned our backs and ignored her.
2. It's brought issues of feminism to the attention of a younger generation. Despite glamorising the relationship in the books, and sadly convincing some young women that being controlled and having no life outside of your boyfriend's wishes is a good thing, it's also got women talking about the problems with the relationship and feminism in general in a big way. I've even come across some women who a few years hace would've dicho they didn't consider themselves feminists who now vehemently say they do. Ironically, the libros re-ignited the feminist inside quite a few women, the outrage at the portrayal of women and their roles in relationships made them realise how important it is that we don't let the feminist movement be something we did, it should be something we're doing. Not past tense.
3. It led to some truly hilarious parodies. My favourite is probably 'the broodening'. In fact, even the book itself, if read as a parody, has some great accidental comedic value. In fact, part of me still suspects Stephanie Meyer did this whole thing to launch a stand up career and in a few years will come out and say "only kidding. Got ya. Can't believe tu people fell for that!"
4. It's become a new way to meet friends. Seriously. Never has disliking something been so socially binding. Especially on something like fanpop where usually tu only socialise with people who have a specific thing in common with tu (be it a band, a TV show, a religion) Thing is, tu can disagree on all kinds of things like that and still have personalities that mesh well. It's an interesting way to realise tu have things in common with people tu may not have realised, and also a great icebreaker, because who can't fill at least five minutos of conversation with things they dislike about Twilight? Except people who like it. But it's also a good way to meet them. The fans of Twilight who can like the book but are also capable of not chasing tu with torches and pitchforks if tu admit tu don't are also good potential friend material.
5. It got people lectura again. No, not just the people who liked it and discovered other libros they like through it. Book sales going up has helped people remember libros actually exist ("oh, right, I remember. They're like magazines, only with DVD length stories. interesting") the book section in my local supermercado used to have only celebrity biographies (god, I hate my local stores) they now have a book section the almost as big as the DVD section. It's the first time I've been able to find Kathy Reichs libros in my area instead of buying them online. Not to mention the people wanting to wash the Twilight taste out of their mouths por lectura a well written book. tu know how when tu eat a comida tu hate tu grab the nearest tasty food/drink as quick as possible? o when tu see someone really grimy tu might be icked into having an extra long ducha, ducha de that night? Twilight is my grimy hobo who inspired me to wash the ick away with all my favourite good books.
6. How the fans and anti-fans treat each other has become one big after school special on being judgmental. From the amount of times I've been called a b***h, moron, loser and even an 'udiot (I assume she slipped when attempting to type 'idiot' but who knows? maybe it's a cool new slang word I'm too much of an udiot to know) to the amount of people who will assume someone is stupid for liking the books, there's a lot to learn about being judgmental from the whole situation. Not that most of the people guilty of it will learn. They'll go on ranting at each other in what to them is a serious war, and to us is an interesting blend of funny and depressing. But hey, at least on this spot, whichever side of the debate tu are on, we can sit here with palomitas de maiz, palomitas de maíz in our neutral little online Switzerland (which is a war reference, not a Twilight reference) and watch.
1. It helps focus 'recreational hate' into one convenient area. What I consider to be recreational hate is hate that has no real purpose, like an annoying unintentional hobby. Like it's useful hate to hate injustice o animal cruelty, it's recreational hate to hate Paris Hilton o the fact that Sienna Miller is considered a style icono despite the fact that I've never seen her in an outfit that didn't look like she was talked into wearing it por a stylist who secretly hates her guts. Thing is, I don't have half the energy to spread my recreation hate as I used to, I use a lot of it up on Twilight. When I've used my frivolous anger on talking about how Edward has about two expressions in the entire movie (1="I'm constipated" 2="I'm constipated but I think I like it") and still comes across as deeper than he does in the libros I just don't have the energy to rant about my theory that Paris Hilton is a robot who runs on attention and would power down forever if we all turned our backs and ignored her.
2. It's brought issues of feminism to the attention of a younger generation. Despite glamorising the relationship in the books, and sadly convincing some young women that being controlled and having no life outside of your boyfriend's wishes is a good thing, it's also got women talking about the problems with the relationship and feminism in general in a big way. I've even come across some women who a few years hace would've dicho they didn't consider themselves feminists who now vehemently say they do. Ironically, the libros re-ignited the feminist inside quite a few women, the outrage at the portrayal of women and their roles in relationships made them realise how important it is that we don't let the feminist movement be something we did, it should be something we're doing. Not past tense.
3. It led to some truly hilarious parodies. My favourite is probably 'the broodening'. In fact, even the book itself, if read as a parody, has some great accidental comedic value. In fact, part of me still suspects Stephanie Meyer did this whole thing to launch a stand up career and in a few years will come out and say "only kidding. Got ya. Can't believe tu people fell for that!"
4. It's become a new way to meet friends. Seriously. Never has disliking something been so socially binding. Especially on something like fanpop where usually tu only socialise with people who have a specific thing in common with tu (be it a band, a TV show, a religion) Thing is, tu can disagree on all kinds of things like that and still have personalities that mesh well. It's an interesting way to realise tu have things in common with people tu may not have realised, and also a great icebreaker, because who can't fill at least five minutos of conversation with things they dislike about Twilight? Except people who like it. But it's also a good way to meet them. The fans of Twilight who can like the book but are also capable of not chasing tu with torches and pitchforks if tu admit tu don't are also good potential friend material.
5. It got people lectura again. No, not just the people who liked it and discovered other libros they like through it. Book sales going up has helped people remember libros actually exist ("oh, right, I remember. They're like magazines, only with DVD length stories. interesting") the book section in my local supermercado used to have only celebrity biographies (god, I hate my local stores) they now have a book section the almost as big as the DVD section. It's the first time I've been able to find Kathy Reichs libros in my area instead of buying them online. Not to mention the people wanting to wash the Twilight taste out of their mouths por lectura a well written book. tu know how when tu eat a comida tu hate tu grab the nearest tasty food/drink as quick as possible? o when tu see someone really grimy tu might be icked into having an extra long ducha, ducha de that night? Twilight is my grimy hobo who inspired me to wash the ick away with all my favourite good books.
6. How the fans and anti-fans treat each other has become one big after school special on being judgmental. From the amount of times I've been called a b***h, moron, loser and even an 'udiot (I assume she slipped when attempting to type 'idiot' but who knows? maybe it's a cool new slang word I'm too much of an udiot to know) to the amount of people who will assume someone is stupid for liking the books, there's a lot to learn about being judgmental from the whole situation. Not that most of the people guilty of it will learn. They'll go on ranting at each other in what to them is a serious war, and to us is an interesting blend of funny and depressing. But hey, at least on this spot, whichever side of the debate tu are on, we can sit here with palomitas de maiz, palomitas de maíz in our neutral little online Switzerland (which is a war reference, not a Twilight reference) and watch.
