Good Vampires Don't Eat: Anorexic Logic in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series

This paper argues that the convergence of post-feminist and Victorian values in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novels perpetuate a logic of anorexia. Drawing on a selection of fan fiction in which young female authors rewrite Bella's character as anorexic, this paper further argues that through fan fiction, young authors gain agency in making explicit the anorexic logic that is central to the canon texts and to mainstream girlhood as a whole; however, as each author negotiates her conflicting position as critic and subject of post-feminist culture, her narrative epitomizes the complex and contradictory nature of anorexic ideology itself.