Fifty shades of fandom: the intergenerational permeability of Twilight fan culture

Crossing the Border Between Elitist and Popular Literature: A Comparative Analysis of Goethe’s Bride of Corinth and Meyer’s Twilight Saga

“…Similarly, the subject of the ethical, spiritual vampire crosses the border of trivial and high literature through the idealized vampire Edward in Meyer's popular series. Originally intended for a teen readership, Twilight found a significant fanbase in adult women, which propelled it to international bestseller status (Paris, 2016). In this way, the tale of the spiritual vampire and his love has made an intergenerational impact on global popular culture.…”

“…Accordingly, the two most popular websites for fans the series are TwilightTEENS and TwilightMOMS (Paris, 2016). Research shows that these intergenerational female fans can fashion their own versions of their favorite characters, create and share content (e.g., fantasies) with other women, encourage other users to find sources of sexual inspiration, and transfer that emotional and sexual intensity over into their own relationships (Paris, 2016). Edward's postmodern vampire image (a function of his humanity) has therefore influenced the contemporary gender roles of young and adult women.…”

Nurturing the erotic self: Benefits of women consuming sexually explicit materials

“…2013). Additionally, women’s consumption of technologically-influenced explicit content including online pornography (Döring, 2009; Parry and Penny Light, 2017) and fan fiction (Illouz, 2014; Paris, 2016) has also become an emerging area for inquiry. While the above studies have helped to fill an important gap in the sexuality literature, they have often failed to comprehensively explore the specific benefits explicit materials may provide to female consumers.…”