feature image via Tom Craig/Harper’s Bazaar
Our friend and yours Kristen Stewart has graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar‘s September issue, thus marking the third time she’s been the magazine’s cover story. In the accompanying interview, our favorite sulky celesbian opens up about her experiences dating in the public eye, her increasing openness about her sexuality and her evolving views on fame.
Every single day in my Google alerts, I receive at least one questionable tabloid article about how Kristen and former Twilight costar Robert Pattinson are secretly conspiring to get back together (despite having not dated each other for several years and being in apparently happy relationships with other people). Still, the press are obsessed with getting Bella and Edward back together, and what Kristen’s fluid sexuality means for her past, current and future relationships. When asked if she’d ever date men again, Stewart appeared completely open to the possibility. “Yeah, totally. Definitely… Some people aren’t like that. Some people know that they like grilled cheese and they’ll eat it every day for the rest of their lives. I want to try everything. If I have grilled cheese once I’m like, ‘That was cool, what’s next?'”
Lest one dismiss her past relationships with fellow celebrities as being manufactured or discarded as easily as grilled cheese sandwiches of the past, Stewart is happy to clarify. “I’ve been deeply in love with everyone I’ve dated,” she insists. “Did you think I was faking it? I’ve always really embraced a duality. And really, truly, believed in it and never felt confused or struggling. I just didn’t like getting made fun of.”
Stewart has a well-documented history of being uncomfortable with her notoriety, as her relationships, style and sexuality have been painstakingly dissected by the public for most her adult life. “Fame is valued quite ridiculously. So then there’s this idea that you’re beholden in some way, and I resent that. And it comes across like I’m ungrateful or something but, actually, I just find it weird to talk to the general public as a whole. Like, you can relate to a person, you can relate to an individual, but addressing the world at large is something that just perplexes me.”
As a child actor, Kristen was widely dismissed as “a total tomboy,” a label she struggled to feel comfortable with. She was teased in school, “…and it actually really hurt my feelings, like badly. Like, I remember being in the sixth grade [aged 11] and [people would say] ‘Kristen looks like a man. You’re a boy’, or whatever, and I was so offended, horrified and embarrassed. Now I look back on it and I’m like, ‘Girl, be proud of that!'”
When Harper’s asked if the sullen actress feels that she suffers from Resting Bitch Face, she replied in the affirmative. “Completely. I’m really not introverted — I’m just not acting all the time, which is what it would take to look like how people expect famous people to behave.” She also expressed frustration with how often she’s been described as a bitch by journalists, particularly male journalists: “Men cannot say ‘bitch’ anymore, I’m sorry. Say something different. Say, ‘You’re rude,’ say, ‘You’re a dick,’ whatever. Just to say, ‘Oh that bitch.’ You can’t say that because there’s nothing I could say to you, there’s no retort that would be equal to that, therefore it’s demeaning and literally on par with… something homophobic or something racist.”
Stewart also explains her feelings on being a woman in the age of Trump’s America, which are cautiously optimistic. “It’s obviously terrible what’s happening but at the same time, it feels good to be part of a wider female community that is finally standing up for itself. I’ve never felt such a strong sense of community. So it’s brought us together. The catalyst for this is regrettable, obviously, it’s shitty. But at the same time I think that you need something to stir things up in order to get people to come together and define their opinions and force them to be heard.”
The September 2017 issue of Harper’s hits newsstands on August 4.
Mmm, grilled cheese.
Right? Like there are so many different kinds of grilled cheese. Positively foolish to only have it once, one way!
Side note, grilled cheese is the best euphemism and I will use it forever. Move over pie or cake, this is a job for grilled cheese.
Kristin should come to the grilled cheese seminar at camp and see that there are about a million ways to make grilled cheese, and all of them are DELICIOUS.
That was one of my favorite panels
I DIDN’T GET TO GO but we peeked at it from the hallway
THERE WAS A GRILLED CHEESE SEMINAR AT A CAMP?!?!
Now I’m even more jealous that I couldn’t go!
You know who has amazing Grilled Cheese recipes? Heather Hogan.
I mean, that blueberry Harvati grilled cheese at Camp was amazing.
Balsamic Blueberry Grilled Cheese Sandwich
2 slices of bread (I used sourdough)
Plenty of white cheese (I used Havarti, but lots of different cheeses would be good! Mozzarella, Monterey, Swiss, or Sharp White Cheddar would be yummy. I have been meaning to try goat cheese!)
Fresh spinach or arugala
1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tbs. brown sugar
That sounds delicious.
It is. You should try it
The pesto one was also very good
Did I miss something? I thought she came out as gay on SNL few months ago, now she’s fluid and talks about dating men?
Kristen Stewart is a law unto herself. I don’t think we’ll ever get a straight answer out of her … ;)
I mean, I tend to use the word ‘gay’ as shorthand for my queerness…especially around straight people.
HARD SAME
I’m pretty sure that was for comic effect to burn Trump/how I sometimes generalise as the gays to pal but am 100% bi. I think she IDed as bi in an interview shortly after or before SNL, it’s probably in a Vapid Fluff column somewhere!
Yeah I thought that self-description was weird because elsewhere she’d identified as bi. Gay being a synonym for homosexual both technically and in usage…idk, typically when someone says something to me about my being “so gay,” it’s more that they’re noticing my complete distaste for all things man more often than noticing my love of women. I’m a Kinsey 6, though.
That confused me, too. A large part of the bi community doesn’t use “gay” to describe themselves*, so I just assumed that she came out as gay (not bi, pan, or queer) then, but now I’m thinking it’s just a case of the “I’m bi but I don’t like that word because of the stigma attached to it.” >< Kristen we can hang out and be bi together. (Or pan, or queer, or whatever.)
*many of us use "queer" as an umbrella term but not all use "gay" because it implies monosexuality in the current usage.
Yes, and that’s why a lot of lesbians don’t use “queer” as an identifier because it brings to mind sexual fluidity, bi/pan, “unlabeled,” etc. Idk. I mean, if she had called herself a dyke while not being a lesbian, I’d be way angrier, but I still feel like it’s kind of an off-base identifier to use given her other statements.
Most of all it’s appropriation of different sexual minority’s label. Which in this context also encourages homophobia, because what’s one of the most common lesbophobic stereotypes? That lesbians are not real unlike gay men, that they just need to meet “the right guy”.
KS telling millions of people that she’s gay and then talking about dating men definitely encouraged lesbophobic notions, let’s not pretend it isn’t so.
I agree, people don’t realize how hard they make it for lesbians when they do this.
I’m sure Donald Trump is the leading the campaign to get Kristen and Robert back together. We all know how torn up he was about the break up.
In the grilled cheese analogy of my life, men were plain toasted bread and women are grilled cheese. And I can assure you I’m happy to eat grilled cheese every day for the rest of my life ?
There’s a “dipping in tomato soup” joke in here somewhere
Which ties perfectly into Laneia’s soup metaphor
Yesss good callback, I hope KStew reads Y’all Need Help. I mean, she’s clearly doing fine, but everyone needs those graphics and metaphors in their life.
Everyone needs more Laneia in their lives
I kind of love Kristin Stewart. Not her acting (Sorry KStew), but she is kind of a boss person. And if you catch her in the right movie you’re in for a treat! One of her best movies is The Yellow Handkerchief.
Oh, yeah, Kirsten is so sooo gay…
Thanks for reminding us of Heather Hogan’s grilled cheese recipe: mmm, grilled cheese :).
Only grilled cheese I like is pimento cheese on Texas toast. I guess it works as a metaphor for my sexuality too because I’m not fluid at all. It’s all women for me. Nothing against fluidity.