Here is an article I wrote for Her Campus a year ago about being a twin...
Dopey guy: “Bloody Hell you two look alike! Are you twins?”
My sister and I in unison: “Yeh…”
Dopey Guy nudges his meathead friend with a grin and loudly whispers “Mate, mate, their twins. Twins!”
Dopey guy then looks to my sister and I and says; “So what’s it like to be a twin? Do you do everything together?”
Meathead friend also pipes up giving away his thoughts; “Do you, like… bath together and stuff?”
This male reaction to seeing identical twins started occurring from the tender age of twelve years old. When I was young, insecure and had little self-confidence this conversation and all of its innuendo’s would make me nervously giggle. We were getting attention from BOYS for looking alike. So depending on their attractiveness we would occasionally flirt back, revelling in the newly found attention. However, as I’m sure many of you have discovered through the teenage years of relationships, hook-ups and heartbreaks, not all attention is good attention.
Now, with a bit more self-awareness and appreciation and a better understanding of our male counterparts, when this conversation arises both my sister and I know that dopey guy and his meathead friend either have ‘THREESOME’, or ‘BUY ONE GET ONE FREE’ in flashing red lights, circulating around their heads.
I do have to give guys a break as admittedly (and thank goodness) not every first meeting encounters a question involving a spoken sexual fantasy. Not to mention people are attracted to different looks. It would be extremely arrogant to say all guys slip into an erotic daydream upon meeting an identical pair. However, when guys see twins, they see a one package. Arguably the same goes for women. People see twins as one. You are constantly in silent competition with your other half. When meeting anyone together you are wondering who will they like better? Do they think she is funnier than me? Does he fancy her more than me?
My first realisation that being a twin means something different to boys was when we were eleven. We had just been to our first ‘disco’ and met the boy of our dreams. Yes- we both fancied him. He looked like the boy from the 2002 Peter Pan film (I know you all fancied him too). My twin managed to wangle a slow-dance with Peter Pan boy. Naturally I was extremely jealous. When Britney’s ‘I was born to make you happy’ finished, I grabbed Peter Pan boy and started to have my speeded-up-dance to Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’. After the disco, my twin received a text on her 3210 from Peter Pan boy: “Will you go out with me?” So, my arm-waving dance-moves hadn’t done the trick. –Damn.
Two weeks later, a dumped Peter Pan boy, and another ‘disco’ scheduled for the following week, my sister and I find out the truth. Peter Pan boy had flipped a coin over which one of us to ask out by text. Although I was secretly flattered that I was in the running, it just shows that to him we were of no difference. As far as he was concerned he was going to get the same looking girl either way.
Since this first encounter, my sister and I have experienced some odd situations with our relationships. I ended up going out with a guy who originally pursued my sister. After her rejection, he decided I would be a good back-up plan. I fell for it (and him), which only inevitably ended in heartbreak. My sister has also had a track record of hooking up with my boyfriend’s best friends.
Going to universities opposite ends of the country means that these freak relationship scenarios do not often occur. Thankfully, nor do those initial innuendo conversations (NB. Could be to do with the fact we are growing up). The only odd experience to occur at university has been when a guy my sister was seeing came up to experience the notorious Tequila night. He saw me and drunkenly thought I was my twin. When it was explained to him that I was her twin all he could say for the rest of the night was ‘uncanny!’ Here at Leeds, most people do not know I have a double. I like being known as my own person. I am not being compared to my sister.
So next time you ask:
What is it like to be a twin?
We know no better. We have had no experience living life as a single so how are we meant to know the difference?
Do you do everything together?
No.
Do you, like, bath together and stuff?
Do you bath with your sisters and brothers?
