Much fuss has been made of Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s relationship with the Mormon Church and its financial backing of Proposition 8 in California and Question 1 in Maine, stripping those states of legal same-sex marriage.
But a line from the film adaptation of her book New Moon is raising even more eyebrows. In the film Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) attempts to explain the fact that he is a werewolf to Bella (Kristen Stewart) by saying, “It’s not a lifestyle choice, Bella. I was born this way.”
The scene goes down differently in the book, and the line, presumably written by New Moon’s screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, draws obvious parallels to the oft-used script for coming out.
The line hasn’t gone unnoticed in the press. The Contra Costa Times called the exchange “cute” while the Dallas Voice literally refers to it as Black’s “coming out scene.”
An article for Examiner.com points to numerous bisexual and homoerotic undertones throughout the film, while the sci-fi website The Geek Files suggests the film’s wolf pack is really just an extended metaphor for being gay.
From London's Times Online: "The rest of New Moon concerns Bella's growing relationship with local beefcake Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). The latter though, in another telegraphed allegory, is struggling with his sexual orientation and eventually rejects Bella for a foursome of local rowdies in cut-off denim shorts and baby-oiled torsos. 'It's not a lifestyle choice, Bella! I was born this way!' he says, before fleeing into the woods with the beefy boys — they are also werewolves.”
Twihards seem to have mixed response to the line. While many seem oddly titillated at the thought that the werewolf subplot might just be a metaphor for being gay, others are insulted the line even appears in the film.
“It’s ridiculous people are even discussing this line,” a commenter posted on the movie review website RottenTomatoes.com. “It’s clear Jacob isn’t gay and people are spending way too much time reading into this line.”
The number of people commenting on this comment? One hundred thirty four — and that’s just in the first hour after it was posted.
Meyer and Lautner have yet to comment on the line in an interview, and the former, at least, has granted only one in-depth sit-down since the film’s release, amounting to half an hour with Oprah Winfrey.
So the line’s true intentions, like Meyer’s, may well continue to be a mystery.
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