When you think of Twilight, most consider it a throwaway movie. It targets a female-dominated audience with magical creatures and a love story full of drama. Your first thoughts might go to glittery vampires and boy-obsessed fans. You may remember that Kristen Stewart doesn't have a brilliant performance as the protagonist Bella Swan, or perhaps the teenagers who turn into wolves. But what may not come to mind are the people those wolf characters are based on and how the movie Twilight led to over-tourism, tribal designs sold as jewelry, and the overall commercialization of their culture that came with the involvement of a great film. series. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The small, isolated Quileute reservation is located in La Push, at the mouth of the Quillayute River in Washington. Once upon a time, before Twilight, this place was quiet. At this time author Stephanie Meyers not only chose a real location for the setting of her book, but also chose to use a real Native American tribe for the werewolf characters. Although the filming of this film never made it to the actual area of ​​the reserve, it has become a tourist destination for thousands of Twilight fans. “The website “A Travel Guide to Forks, Washington” contains information on travel to Forks, accommodations, Twilight locations, products and tours. Tours include stops at real and recreated sites such as the high school, the Swan and Cullen homes, La Push Beach (on the Quileute Indian Reservation).” For the Quileute tribe, this led to a battle over “the rights to their oral histories, ancient signs and mask designs, and even the sacredness of their cemetery.” The original story of the Quileutes in which Qwati transformed the first Quileutes from wolves to humans. Meyer redefined their culture to fit the needs of his book, taking what were considered fearful ideals and rewriting their identity into that of magical werewolves. He said that all Quiluetes could transform into these werewolves, which is completely against their tradition. It also oversexualizes a main character, Jacob, who is part of the Quileute tribe. In her book, Meyer describes Jacob as “rust-colored skin… shirtless, wearing only a pair of old cut-off jeans” (Eclipse, 183, 215). He is portrayed similarly in the film, including multiple shirtless scenes. These are used to quickly change the wolf or show off his tribal tattoo. He is a "hot" Indian, excessively macho and seen with very little money. On the other hand, the Cullen vampire family, are dressed in fancier clothes and live in a gigantic modern mansion. This can easily be seen as racial stereotyping. Whether it was planned or not, Meyer designed his story to make the Native Americans seem poorer than the wealthy, highly educated white vampires. From the popularity of this small Native American tribe also came tourism and the commercialization of their culture. The Quileutes suddenly saw an increase in visitors to the mile-wide reservation they had been forced to relocate to. Some members of the tribe are happy with the influx of customers and their elders remind them that “we know the story is fiction, we know who we are”. It may be great to have economic growth in their area, but where the scams come in is with the sale of Twilight werewolf merchandise. Stores like Hot Topic, Nordstorm and even the website Redbubble have benefited from deals with.