Let's get this over with...

I decided to make my first post about this series because without it this blog wouldn't exist. It's what took me from, "Gee, sometimes movies are sexist and that makes me mad." to "Oh my god! Something is wrong in our culture and I'm so upset about it that I've gotta write about it and post it on the Internet!"

Basically, this feminist hates Twilight. I know, you're shocked.

Frankly, I think the whole series is a collection of sexist stereotypes that are being marketed to teenage girls as romance. I have had some debates with friends who have argued that all the points I find objectionable can be justified by the fantastical nature of the stories. But the fact that it's a fantasy series with vampires and werewolves serves as a flimsy excuse for the unhealthy behaviors exhibited by the characters. The parallels between Bella's "romances" and  abuse in the real world are shocking. 

In order to get my thoughts about the series done in one post I am picking one element to write about from each part of the series (otherwise I'd have to create a new blog just to whine about Twilight).

Twilight

The first part of the series is a pretty typical vampire love story. Girl meets Vampire, Vampire tells Girl that he really wants to kill her but won't because he's also really in love with her, Girl decides she's really in love with him too and, despite his history as a murderer, chooses to trust him anyway. While talking about the first part of the series, I'm going to focus on the main vampire in the story, Edward.

Edward is abusive. This statement has nothing to do with his being a vampire. This may seem a little odd for those who haven't read the books or seen the movie, because a lot of feminists find the very idea of vampires disturbing; considering that they are characters that embody romance, sexuality and violence all in one. A love interest that is constantly fighting the urge to kill you... definitely problematic. 

But leaving Edward's unholy appetite for human blood aside, my feminist alarm started going off when I read this passage from the first book. It takes place before Bella discovers Edward's secret and before they've started dating. Their science class has just done a lab where they prick their own fingers to find out their blood type. Bella gets sick at the sight of blood and Edward insists on seeing her home: 

We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket yanking me back.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, outraged. He was gripping a fistful of my jacket in one hand.

I was confused, “I’m going home.”

“Didn’t you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I’m going to let you drive in your condition?” His voice was still indignant.

“What condition? And what about my truck?” I complained.

“I’ll have Alice drop it off after school.” He was towing me toward his car now, pulling me by my jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward. He’d probably just drag me along anyway if I did.

“Let go!” I insisted. He ignored me. I staggered along sideways across the wet sidewalk until we reached the Volvo. Then he finally freed me –I stumbled against the passenger door.

“You are so pushy!” I grumbled.

“It’s open,” was all he responded. He got in the driver’s side.

“I am perfectly capable of driving myself home!” I stood by the car, fuming. It was raining harder now, and I’d never put my hood up, so my hair was dripping down my back.

He lowered the automatic window and leaned toward me across the seat. “Get in, Bella.”

I didn’t answer. I was mentally calculating my chances of reaching the truck before he could catch me. I had to admit, they weren’t good.

“I’ll just drag you back,” he threatened, guessing my plan.

I tried to maintain what dignity I could as I got into his car.

And this is supposed to be a budding romance?! To me, this seems like a jerk talking to a teenage girl like she's an unruly three-year-old and dragging her across a parking lot. Now, call me crazy, but if this really were an attempt to help Bella by driving her home when she is unwell, rather than an attempt to assert dominance, couldn't he have just asked to drive her home?

I wish this were a rare and extreme example of Edward's misogynistic behavior, but you could open to almost any page and see something similar or worse. Throughout the film, his tone is always domineering and often threatening. In the beginning of their relationship, Edward follows Bella and sneaks into her room at night (in other words, he stalks her). Some fans might miss some of these disturbing actions because Stephanie Meyer uses the common technique of dismissing this behavior by distracting the audience with a more obvious threat. For example, when it's revealed that Edward has followed Bella, it's because he steps in to save her from a gang harassing her. This creates a perception of Edward as the good guy and excuses his controlling behavior.

Last time I checked, becoming a vampire didn't come with the uncontrollable urge to watch teenage girls while they sleep. So while it's true that vampires don't exist in the real world and chances are the young girls reading Twilight will never have to worry about a guy sucking all the blood out of their body, what does exist in the real world are really pretty guys that will treat girls like crap.

I'd like to leave Twilight with a video of "Buffy vs. Edward." And I highly recommend checking out the creator's post on WIMN, about why he decided to make the video. 

 New Moon

Twilight ends with things going well for the young lovers, but in New Moon Edward decides to get Bella away from the danger of dating a vampire by dumping her and leaving town. So in part two I am going to discuss the 100% human, Bella.

She's possibly the worst female protagonist I've ever seen.

It's a pretty common character trait for women in pop culture to have low self-esteem, but with Bella, self-deprecation drips off of every page. What little confidence she has is entirely dependent on her boyfriend. Again, common in female characters, but harmful because it socializes women that if they are unwanted by a man they are worthless. In New Moon, Bella shows us just how damaging this mindset can be when Edward disappears and she literally doesn't move for three months because she's so depressed. (Think I'm exaggerating? See the movie.) And what do you think finally pulls her out of her crippling depression? You guessed it. A boy! 

Well, a boy and becoming an adrenaline junky. One night her father convinces her to go to a movie with her friend, Jessica. On their way home Bella notices a group of scary bikers. The fear that she feels while walking toward them cause her to have a hallucination of Edward warning her to stay away. She thinks, "That's awesome!" ditches her friend, and jumps on the back of some strange guy's motorcycle. She then goes on to do a lot of other really dangerous stuff all in the hopes of her ex-boyfriend appearing and bossing her around. The only justification given is her voice over, "Maybe I'm crazy now and I guess that's okay. If a rush of danger is what it takes to see him then that's what I'll find." It's on this quest for danger that she develops a relationship with Jacob; a teenage boy who we soon discover is a werewolf. It's only after she latches onto another male that she becomes "almost healed." Jacob and his pack open up a hole other can of worms in terms of abuse and misogyny, but I promised I'd only talk about one thing that makes me mad for each book so let's just stick with Bella.

It frustrates me that such a popular female character that is written by a woman and being seen by so many young girls, is such an extreme embodiment of the stereotype that a woman is nothing without a man. She is so lost at the points in the story when she doesn't have Edward or Jacob to rely on that she finds literally no meaning in her life.

Before I finish with New Moon I would like to post an opposing view point arguing that Bella is a feminist character. It comes from Mendelson's Memos and a post titled Question of the Day: Why Isn't Bella Swan a Feminist Creation? As stated in my first post, I want to start discussions in the midst of expressing my own opinions. What do you think about my take on Bella verses the take of Scott Mendelson?

Eclipse 

In Eclipse Bella's love life gets a little more complicated. Edward and Bella get back together before the end of New Moon, Edward proposes but Bella refuses to answer due to her distaste for marriage. Jacob is pissed that she took him back and she's caught between two dudes desperately trying to mark their territory. For part three, I am going to show the lack of respect that both Edward and Jacob give to Bella with regards to her sexual agency.

Since I haven’t said much about the character of Jacob much yet, I’d like to share her reaction to Jacob’s first attempt to kiss her. Despite Bella’s protests he forces a kiss, or what I would call assault. Here is her reaction from the book (but I must preface this with a POSSIBLE TRIGGER WARNING):

            I grabbed at his face, trying to push it away, failing again. He seemed to notice this time though, and it aggravated him. His lips forced mine open, and I could feel his hot breath in my mouth.

            Acting on instinct, I let my hands drop to my side, and shut down. I opened my eyes and didn’t fight, didn’t feel… just waited for him to stop.

She then demonstrates a small amount of fight, punching him in the face. (Unfortunately, all this does is break her hand.) I was relieved that Bella’s reaction was anger, and I thought his actions were going to be dealt with for what they were, assault. However, she forgives him after a couple chapters and confesses her love for him by the end of the book, resulting in a passionate kiss. And to add insult to injury here is Edward’s response to Jacob when he hears about the kiss and Bella's broken hand:

            “…if you ever bring her back damaged again –and I don’t care whose fault it is; I don’t care if she merely trips, or if a meteor falls out of the sky and hits her in the head –if you return her to me in less than the perfect condition that I left her in, you will be running with three legs.”

Now this might be a nice sentiment (or, at least , an understandable one) if he could say it without making her sound like a used car, rather than a person who is standing right there. 

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But neither of the men in her life are in the habit of treating her like a person capable of making her own decisions. Which brings me to the topic of Edward and Bella’s sex life… or lack thereof.

Throughout the series Bella establishes that she is ready and willing to get it on but Edward keeps putting on the breaks. At first, he claims that he might lose control and hurt her with his vampire strength in the heat of the moment, then it turns into his desire to “protect her virtue”. He wants to protect her soul from the sin of premarital sex and so he refuses to even consider sex before marriage (despite the fact that Bella hates the idea of getting married). As refreshing as it could be for a female protagonist to be honest and outspoken about her desire for sex, it is made pointless because she is with a guy who doesn’t allow her to explore that, and not because he is not interested in sex but because he wants control.

Breaking Dawn- Pt. One

I’m going to make this part short, because Breaking Dawn is just a repeat of all the problems I’ve already whined about only taken to an even more absurd degree. (Also, I figure I will have to write another post when Part Two is released in theaters.) I think this NPR review of the latest movie sums it up perfectly when they say, “…when a saga popular with pre-adolescent girls peaks romantically on a night that leaves the heroine to wake up covered with bruises in the shape of her husband's hands — and when that heroine then spends the morning explaining to her husband that she's incredibly happy even though he injured her, and that it's not his fault because she understands he couldn't help it in light of the depth of his passion — that's profoundly irresponsible.”

Basically, I’m trying to say that no matter how you slice it and no matter what fantastical circumstances get set up, the stuff that happens in The Twilight Saga is MESSED. UP.