“Embraced” by Consumption: Twilight and the Modern Construction of Gender

Abstract

The cultural impact of the Twilight saga has become inescapable. A Google search of the phrase “ Twilight saga,” for example, results in over 40 million pages containing everything from officially sanctioned merchandise to fan pages to events such as the Twilight Alaska cruise “priced at $1,049 per person, pre-tax, for an inside cabin, plus a $150 ‘ Twilight registration fee.’”¹ Within these pages, there are also an extraordinary number of sites where fans openly express their desire to become vampires and look for “real” vampires who will “embrace” or “turn” them. The people on these sites plead to be a part of something special or different, or want to experience the love that Bella and Edward share. Although the concept seems extreme, it is not surprising that American culture, driven by material consumption, gravitates toward a figure like the vampire, particularly when the most popular reenvisioning of this mythic character looks like Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart. What most people do not see, however, is how these characters illustrate one-dimensional reductions of personality that only allow for individuation through materiality. They embody a new conception of quintessential masculinity and femininity based on the acquisition of material wealth that, in Meyer’s texts, quickly translates to ideas of beauty, as well as social and economic class. The author reveals this by directly depicting consumption as a means to achieve idealized beauty.