tHaT iS tHe LaMeSt!!!11!!1!!! The Detriment of Blog Comment Wars

I know that at least some of us are hesitant about the move from paper to wireless, but I have found at least one positive result from the switch: the wonderful world of blogging!

With the advent of the internet has come a new phenomenon that has created an unprecedented space for people – average, everyday people – to express their own thoughts and opinions about whatever they please. Whereas traditionally this sort of expression was reserved for newspapers, scholastic journals and the like, now you can find any number of sites that provide tons of different perspectives from anyone with access to a computer and the web. It’s pretty insane, and it’s very cool to experience.

Anyone can create one of these blogs, and they can literally write about anything. I’ve seen blogs that are more like online journals (à la LiveJournal and Xanga), blogs that help friends keep up with one another (I myself started a blog about my senior year as a way to keep my friends in the loop about my life), and blogs about food (serious eats), humor (Lamebook, textsfromlastnight, FML), random acts of awesome (1000 Awesome Things), and any number of ideas you might want to explore.

Most recently, I’ve been reading opinion pieces on blogs about cultural phenomena like Star Wars and Twilight. And while these blogs are great because they allow people who previously might never have been heard of to get their own ideas out there, the backlash is starting to make me a little wary.

How many times has this happened to you:

You’re aimlessly surfing the web when you stumble across a random post that seems like it might be interesting. You read the the post and it’s as you suspected – awesome! You love the idea, the way it’s written, and that you found it on a blog that you can now follow. You scroll down to the comments to see what other people think about it, and to your dismay you find a raging flame war.

It’s the most frustrating feeling in the inter-world, finding that people have reverted to childish antics and hurling curses, insults, and whatever they possibly can to denigrate the opposing party. Let’s look at Twilight. (Am I sensing a theme in my blogs here?) A lot of bloggers have risen up in protest of Meyer and her vampire saga, offering criticism based on what they feel is wrong with the novels. These writers have garnered a generous number of supporters, generally referred to as Antis (anti-whatever they dislike, in this case anti-Twilight), who express similar thoughts on the subject in the comment section. They tend to be logical and well-composed, but they’re also incredibly condescending and group all Twilight fans together into some kind of subhuman entity, making sweeping generalizations that they’re all brainless and that their thoughts and opinions don’t count. These Antis are met with a passionate defense from “twi-hards” and “Cullenists” who claim that Antis are just jealous of Meyer for her writing ability and newfound wealth, Bella for getting a gorgeous guy, and Edward for being hot. They accuse Antis of thinking too much and fabricating a problem where there isn’t one.

Both sides make statements like this: We’re entitled to our own opinion, and if you don’t like it, then SHUT UP!

I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure flaming someone else into silence is the best way to talk about a book. I like the internet because it promotes discussion and encourages people with different perspectives to offer their opinions and insights – I wasn’t aware that it’s just another place to find people who agree with you and hate on everyone else. I’m not so hot on Twilight, either, but I’m certainly not attacking anyone who disagrees with me. I much prefer to have a debate about why I don’t like it and to read what someone might say to defend the series than call someone an idiot because they’ve expressed an interest in a book that I don’t like.

Luckily, a lot of bloggers recognize this, and they warn in their posts not to flame. They monitor the comments, or they shut down the section altogether when discussion gets out of hand. This is encouraging, but it doesn’t stop people from trying shut each other down.

I’m happy to see that people are passionate about topics and about what they believe, but I’ve got serious doubts about the effects of flaming. The internet is an opportunity to have your voice heard, but that’s not going to last long if people keep burning each other so often and so thoroughly. I can only hope that these wars will go the way of dial-up connections and fade into obsolescence before people are shut down so many times that they just don’t express their opinions in the first place. Then the potential of the internet for sharing ideas will be completely lost.

The Vamp Fic Heroine: A Plea to Stephenie Meyer

Dear Stephenie Meyer,

I’m a big fan of teen lit. As a future teacher, I like to see that an entire genre is dedicated to this amorphous, weird, awkward, but important time in a person’s life. Because of this, I’m very careful about what I plan to recommend for my students. And so I have to ask you about Young Adult Fiction’s newest icon: Miss Isabella Swan, alias Bella.

I just don’t get Twilight. I mean, yeah – I get that it’s about your average girl who finds herself caught in this intense and beautiful romance with some achingly gorgeous vampire who simply cannot resist her for her… smell.

But what it’s really about is a girl who feels like she has no worth, and who subjects herself to an emotionally abusive man.

I don’t understand – are you intentionally instilling this damaging ideal of love and identity? Are you unaware of the impact that this destructive outlook will have on the very impressionable teenage girls for whom you are writing? I can’t bring myself to believe that you are purposefully advocating all of these completely insensible and harmful notions of how a young girl behaves and lives.

But that seems to be the unfortunate truth.

If you’re not sure what I mean, let’s talk about Bella. As a model for young girls to follow and connect with, I’m incredibly disappointed. In her, you’ve romanticized this idea that a girl can follow whatever impulses she feels, and do what she pleases, without regard for consequence.  That she can immerse herself entirely in another person. That being in love with a man is the only part of life worth experiencing.

When Bella and Edward become involved, suddenly it’s as though no other person in the world really exists outside of him. Her entire being is focused toward being with him, thinking about him, feeling incomplete without him.  I understand the effect of love, but this is not it – this is obsession. She is engulfed in him, and she gives herself over completely to him and his whims, leaving no room for herself to grow or even to develop a personality of her own. Her very happiness is contingent on how much of Edward she sees, how happy he seems. This tells the girl who is reading the book, the girl who is at a critical point in her life when it comes to learning how to form healthy relationships with the people around her, that it’s perfectly acceptable to throw herself at a man and forsake any other form of human contact.

For Bella, no one else has a chance. Not her mother, who misses her and worries for her — Bella finds it a burden to even send her emails, because it takes precious time from being with Edward. Not her father, who is sweet and helpless — he keeps her from being alone with Edward. Not her friends, who bore her in comparison with Edward. It’s a never-ending exercise in frustration, having to suffer through her utter disregard for any indication that she’s actually a living person. She doesn’t even seem to have any interests, besides Edward.

A resultant disdain for the ‘normal’ is particularly irritating. She treats her friends as though they are entirely beneath her, concerned with the unimportant parts of life, caught up in the superficial nonsense of it all. I have to ask, what is so wrong with having a balanced life? So they enjoy going to the movies and talking about who’s dating whom. Suddenly they become plebeians unworthy of any attention, because they’re just not dramatic enough – their lives aren’t in constant danger, they don’t encounter mortal peril on a daily basis. Well, they must be empty shells of real human beings. This sends the message that if you take the time to enjoy the little things, you are inferior. How is this supposed to make the girl who likes her friends and her mother feel, when Bella is saying that what’s normal is essentially lame?

And she’s so down on herself. Over and over again, she questions what Edward could possibly see in her. She tells herself that’s she not worthy of him, that he deserves some glam goddess to match his perfect self. Her total self-deprecation, and this indulgence in her own self-pity, worries me. What does that say to the girl who’s already insecure about herself, who needs to validate her self-worth, whose self-esteem is shaky at best? This sends the message that if you’re somewhere in the middle, as most of us are, you’re not going to find real happiness, and if you do find it, you don’t deserve it. It ruins any real chance of a girl finding confidence in herself, and affirming that she is worth something.

And being convinced that she doesn’t deserve him is why she allows his emotional abuse. He treats her like a play-thing, a form of amusement. He finds her human tendencies charming, but if not for that weird smell factor, and the fact that he can’t read her mind (convenient), would he be interested in her at all? I doubt it. And when he just picks up and leaves, he treats her like a pet that he’s giving away because he doesn’t want it anymore. He gives no indication of caring about her, and she thinks it’s acceptable to let him jerk her around. She falls into a haze of despair, convinced that it’s her fault he’s left. Stephenie, you’re letting the teenage woman think that however a guy treats her is okay, that he can be mean and lie and leave her, but that he’ll be welcomed back with open arms. If Bella had a shred of self-respect she would realize that this is no way to be treated.

Outside of all that is the idea that it’s okay, even a virtue, to be manipulative (leading Jacob on), selfish (ditching her friends when someone better comes along), and under-handed (acting as though she’s interested in her friends so that she doesn’t have to be alone, lying about her feelings, and countless other examples).

I don’t know, Stephenie. A heroine that young women can all look up to and learn from? You can do better.

Regretfully Yours,

Megan