Here’s What I Know

I’m very intimidated to start this blog. I’m not a psychologist or a sociologist. I haven’t done any research on twins. Like nothing. I don’t know where to start. I have so much to say and yet no authority to say it.

But then I realized – I can make this my space to learn. This can be where I make mistakes, discoveries, and friends. This is where I can ask questions and hopefully find some answers too. Here, I can figure out what exactly it means to be a twin.

And it’s not like I’m completely in the dark.

One September day, I was born. Three minutes later, my identical twin sister, Joanna, was born. We spent our whole childhoods together – blowing out birthday candles, sleeping in bunk beds, playing video games, going to school, hanging out with our friends – until we went to college. That’s not to say we aren’t any closer than we were (we dearly enjoy our Disney trips), but the distance has given me some new perspective. Making my own friends, spending more time completely alone, and being reminded that people don’t know me as “one of the Harding twins” was really jarring. How do you rationalize life as an “I” when you grew up as a “we?” How does being a twin impact how you navigate society?

I want this blog to not only answer those questions, but reflect on my experiences as a twin and the representation and stereotypes of twins in culture. This last idea is something I particularly want to focus on with this blog.

Here’s what I know about twins in media from solely my exposure to twin characters:

• Twins are most often cast in trickster roles, swapping places and pulling pranks.

• They’ve become icons of horror.

• Or else they’re sexualized and fetishized. Non-white twins, particularly twins of Asian ethnicities, especially fall victim to this. Additionally, there’s a strange trend of correlating fraternal twins with incestuous desire.

• More generally, twins tend to either be polar opposites or completely the same individual. The former situation includes the “good twin/evil twin” trope, the latter can vary from the twins speaking only in sync to being completely silent.

• More often than not, twins are played by a single actor.

At least one set of twins must come to your mind while reading this. I want to discover how deeply rooted these otherizing depictions of twins are. How is that impacting how society views and interacts with twins and how twins themselves navigate society? What do these depictions say about twins as a pair and as individuals? Especially in the cases where twins’ identicality is reinforced, are twins’ individuality and defining feature solely their twinship?

Of course, I hope to find and highlight media that represents twins more realistically and positively, as well. Nonetheless, analyzing the examples of such archetypes is also important in identifying what exactly is going on here and its effects. Stories are a window into the realities of culture.

This leads me to the final thing I know: I’m excited to get researching.