"Trampire:" Why the Public Slut Shaming of Kristen Stewart Matters for Young Women

[cali]

Posted: 09/04/2012 4:54 pm


For the most part, I don't really care about the Robert Pattinson-Kristen Stewart breakup, because I don't know them, I don't like the Twilight movies and after suffering through David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis, I'm very upset with Robert Pattinson. I don't care if Kristen Stewart and Rupert Sanders did it in a car, in a bar, in a house or with a mouse; I don't care if the entire relationship was staged for publicity (as many are now alleging) or if Robsten were this generation's Cheng and Eng, severed by the knife of infidelity. This is because it's not my relationship to care about, and whatever does or does not stay in Robsten's bedroom is none of my beeswax, and it's none of America's either. If the news people need a story to cover, what about the millions of Americans living in poverty or the real violence that happens in our streets every day, the Chicago neighborhoods so dangerous they have been compared to Iraq? They say that if it bleeds it leads, but there's no blood in the Robsten breakup -- just two young people doing the very thing that makes them young: making bad decisions.

Yet Stewart's infidelity continues to be constant news, nearly a month after the split.

Part of the reason that Robsten doesn't matter to me, however, is that I am not a young woman today, and I'm glad that I'm not. For any girl growing up who pays attention to the media, it's a terrifying time to understand what it means to be a girl in society. From Rush Limbaugh, they've learned that they are prostitutes and "sluts" for wanting birth control and healthy reproductive options for women. From Todd Akin, they've learned that their bodies can magically judo chop any unwanted side effects of rape and that women somehow can be "illegitimately" raped. From Paul Ryan, they've learned that rape is just "another method of conception," which should be news to the makers of the Kama Sutra. And then Rape Culture Super-Defender Mike Huckabee chimed in by saying that "rape can create extraordinary people," because young women everywhere desperately needed his opinion on this issue. Thanks, Huck.

Although young girls might not be paying attention to the "War on Women" rampant in the media this year, as women's bodies and reproductive rights continue to be a wedge campaign issue, the Robsten breakup has been everywhere and certainly on their radars and will remain so with the final Twilight installment due this Fall. Since the first premiered in 2008, the Twilight film series has been a massively popular global phenomenon, and the movies have taken in over a billion dollars in the United States alone. Until she was usurped by Scarlett Johansson's hefty paycheck for The Avengers 2, these films and Snow White and the Huntsman made Kristen Stewart the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. Because of this, Stewart and Bella Swan (the vacuous damsel in emotional distress she portrays in Twilight) have come to be symbols of young women today, whether we like it or not. (I'm not personally jazzed about Bella Swan being a symbol for anything.) Stewart's every single red carpet pout, frowny face, lip bite and eye roll has been obsessively overanalyzed by the media, in the same way that women's bodies are in general so open to scrutiny, ridicule and debate in today's society. The media beatings that Sarah Jessica Parker and Hilary Swank take for not fitting the norm of Hollywood glamor highlight the restrictive expectations we have for women today. We are shocked when women don't fit into that narrative, and the scrutiny is especially harsh when every blogger in the world is ready to tear you apart. Like the camera, the media adds 10 pounds.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nico-lang/trampires-why-the-slut-sh_b_1850940.html

[Tigress DEM]

1. Relationships are hard work, made harder when people get in your business.

So for celebrities, it's almost impossible to have a healthy relationship.

All those people out there living vicariously through celebrities "fabulous lives" are addicted to drama in all their affairs and need to put their focus on their own lives.

BUT distraction is a mental health tool of sorts. One can only stare at the insanity that the rethugs have wrought upon our nation for so long without looking for something that is so NOT politics or earth shattering, that we all have our stupid moments.

I play solitaire and watch old sci-fi from DVDs, Netflix or HULU to scrub images of "what could be" if we're unable to prevent this election from being stolen.

Never have gotten into following celebrities break ups except to hope they can get away from everyone and work things out or split without too much damage because I can't forget that they are people too.

[redqueen]

2. Some people would like to believe there is no double standard anymore. There clearly is.

Our girls deserve better.

[apnu]

3. Great read.

I can't stand the Twilight series of books, films and I especially can't stand the fans. And for full disclosure: I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, as well as a large Star Wars nerd and have a horror movie thing too, oh yeah and comic books. I go to conventions, I hang out with 501st people in costume.

But the Twihards are the worst of popculture fandom. And they've ruined anything positive around the Twilight franchise with their public shaming of Kristen Stewart.

And also, what's with the recent rise of fan entitlement? Just because someone is a fan of something doesn't give the fan any rights of access or commentary on the content creators (be they authors, musicians, directors, actors etc). Its fine to comment on the content, but many folks on line go into realms of extrem rudeness by demanding access to these celebrities lives and when those lives don't fit whatever psycho model of life the fan wants, the fan goes online and trashes the celebrity with stunning viciousness.

This Kristen Stewart mess is the best and clearest example of rabid fan entitlement.