Kristen Stewart
By:
April 9, 2013
We suffer from a surfeit of Disney starlets, eager and ready to please (or rebelling in the most photogenic way possible, with paparazzi on standby to document every nip slip). KRISTEN STEWART (born 1990) is the tonic to our affliction. Shy and scowling, she calls herself “selfish” for wanting to keep some parts of her life private, but doesn’t show the slightest inclination to work on that character flaw. She defines her job as being a “professional liar” — however, she refuses to lie on the red carpet by pretending to be happy. After accepting the role of Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga, the most reviled movie series of our time, she made no bones about announcing that she never wants to be a Bond girl. Perhaps that’s because to do so would be to tell the truth in one way (she is a beautiful woman) and to lie in other, untenable ones (she is not willing to bare herself to the demands of Hollywood, nor to make herself subject to the male gaze any more than is absolutely necessary to pursue her chosen career). No wonder she played such a perfect Joan Jett. Every time Stewart steps onto the red carpet with her jaw clenched, she reminds the world that she doesn’t belong to anybody but herself.
***
On his or her birthday, HiLobrow irregularly pays tribute to one of our high-, low-, no-, or hilobrow heroes. Also born this date: Baudelaire, Paul Robeson, Valerie Solanas.
READ MORE about members of the Social Darwikian Generation (1983-92).