Opinions are a weird thing. Everybody has ‘em, everybody expresses ‘em. Yet there’s a unique quality to certain opinions that once voiced, they truly take hold and become the narrative of a said thing. And if there’s one thing it can be hard to rewrite, it’s your own personal narrative.
Take Kristen Stewart, for instance. The 25-year-old has acted for some of the leading filmmakers in the game: David Fincher, Jon Favreau, Ang Lee, Kelly Reichardt, Terrence Malick, Catherine Hardwicke and many more. She has held her own alongside thespians like James Gandolfini, Julianne Moore, Melissa Leo, Jodie Foster, Robert de Niro and that creepy half-human, half-CGI baby in Twilight.
She became the first American actress in history to win France’s version of an Academy Award – the Cesar – and the first even nominated in 25 years. All of this, mind you, has been done by someone younger than the movie Edward Scissorhands. Think about it.
Yet why is it when her name is mentioned in conversation, the most commonly uttered phrase is “ugh, I can’t stand her”? Interesting. When pressed as to exactly “why” people dislike her, respondents have – usually – one of three answers:
- “She’s so ungrateful: she never smiles."
- “She’s emotionless and can’t act.”
- “She cheated on her boyfriend with that other guy or whatever.”
By all means, it’s within your rights to dislike whoever you damn well please. For instance, you could say that Paul Shaffer is nothing but a happy, smiley man and superb piano player: yet all I’ll ever see is a musician who gave me recurring nightmares for a month and has a suspiciously deep collection of smoking jackets. WHAT ARE YOU HIDING BEHIND THOSE GLASSES ANYWAY PHIL?! But if the answer to why people “can’t stand” Kristen Stewart is one of the three above, there’s a quick fire response to keep handy for all K-Stew fans (or Krisbians, as they’re sometimes called).
- “Oh really? She never smiles? Let me point you to something I prepared earlier… “
- “Yes, you’re right: because a one-note performer like, say, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vin Diesel or Sam Worthington was never able to build a loyal and dedicated fanbase as well as an enduring career. Also, let me again point you towards this video of dramatic merit… “
- “If Hollywood can have a convenient blind spot for that time Sean Penn tied Madonna up and physically assaulted her for hours on end, it seems off – nay, hypocritical? – that the Snow White ‘cheating scandal’ keeps getting unearthed every four to five months. Michael Fassbender can be a sensitive thespian who also attacked his ex, yet Kristen Stewart must be publically shamed for her indiscretions? ”
Perhaps the answer to why people hate Kristen Stewart is as simple as she doesn’t – and never has – pandered to the male gaze. When she has a blockbuster to promote and is wheeled out on the red carpet pole dance, she tends to opt for couture that makes her look interesting rather than sexy.
It’s the same strategy that has worked for everyone from Cate Blanchett and Mia Wasikowska, to other women who aren’t Australian: manipulating high-fashion for your own purpose (with that purpose usually to be seen as more than sex on legs).
Her street style is incomparable to the carefully choreographed sidewalk sashays of, say, a Taylor Swift or wild Fanning sister. When she’s off the clock – regardless of the amount of cameras trailing her or physical pressures thrust on a young starlet – she’s rarely seen in anything more than weathered sneakers, ripped jeans, a t-shirt adorned in some slogan while a cigarette is tucked behind her ear or hair is kept in place with a backwards baseball cap. 
Of course, this analysis of the physical isn’t an issue faced by men in Hollywood. Take some of Stewart’s male counterparts, for instance, like Daniel Radcliffe and Zac Efron: they don’t seem to be held in the same public opinion as Stewart. The simple answer is because they have different anatomical bits. There are a few places where sexism is as rife and institutionalised as Hollywood, with maybe the exception of a Bret Easton Ellis podcast.
Source: Roadshow Entertainment
Recently the internet called for blood when it was reported that Stewart could be in serious contention for an Oscar nomination for her acclaimed role in Clouds Of Sils Maria (what she won the Cesar award for, btw). The likelihood of that is considerably less now given a Golden Globes Best Supporting Actress snub, but is by no means out of the realm of possibility given her wins at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards and Boston Online Film Critics Association.
Almost more offensive is the ‘surprise’ surrounding said performance. After all, this is a woman who at 13 played a high school student who loses her ability to speak after she’s raped at a party in the little-seen film Speak. Excluding the occasional kid friendly fair (Catch That Kid, Zathura: A Space Adventure), this is a woman who acted in fifteen art house and indie films before she even stepped on to a Twilight set. Post YA-stardom and box-office bankability, she didn’t jump into a Marvel movie (yet) or comfortable rom-com that would have guaranteed her income and pleased her young fanbase. Instead she sought out difficult, uncomfortable roles: like that of Joan Jett in The Runaways, a young stripper in Welcome To The Rileys or a free-wheelin’ teenage bride in On The Road.
In a year that saw speculation about her sexuality, the noticeably absent from social media Stewart kept her head down and pumped out three films in quick succession: Camp X-Ray (a largely two-person play where she’s a Guantanamo Bay guard who befriends an inmate), Still Alice (the pic that saw Julianne Moore get the Oscar she so deserved) and Clouds Of Sils Maria (as New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane put it: “it is she (Stewart), rather than Binoche, who lingers in your mind when the film is over”).
Just to keep it interesting, 2015 saw her play a stoner in a spy thriller (American Ultra) and a romantic lead in a futuristic sci-fi social commentary (Equals). The argument of “ugh, I can’t stand her” is fine – it’s a free world and if Donald Trump can spit Nazi-rhetoric on a global stage, you’re more than entitled to dislike Kristen Stewart. Yet before you roll out reasons one to three next time, take pause and spare a deeper thought about why that is.
In the nineties it was popular to dislike Fran Drescher because “I can’t stand her voice”. A woman who not only survived being sexually assaulted in a horrific home invasion, overcame cancer, wrote, ran and starred in her own successful sitcom, then remained best-friends with her husband after he came out of the closet and proceeded to write a TV series about that? Yes, she was belittled because of her voice.
Kristen Stewart is discounted because of ‘reasons’. Where’s the next male celebrity to get such a tough deal? And no, Shia Labeouf does NOT count.
