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Without question, both the striking international popularity as well as content — and it’s implications — of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight are worthy of feminist inquiry. Mikhail Lyubanksy, in a piece titled ”The Meaning of Life, According to Twilight, Is Love, Only Love,” argues that the context of Bella’s torrid romance is ”clear: ”
“What gives life meaning and purpose is the ability to love, more specifically, the opportunity to be and loving and romantic relationship.”
However, Lyubanksy, at Psychology Today’s culture blog “Between the Lines” notes, as do many other feminist critiques, that ”Bella’s decisions are worth discussing,” and it’s probably because of her personal and constant reliance on self-validation through adolescent “love.”
Certainly I can agree that, ”Bella’s interest in Edward to the exclusion of practically everything else” is incredibly problematic as it does not ”reflect the full richness of women’s interests and abilities to contribute to society.” Further, Bella’s intense and life-changing/ending adoration of Edward Cullen serves to reinforce, ”traditional gendered representations of young women finding personal fulfillment exclusively …
… in a romantic relationship.” Ultimately, Lyubansky argues that Bella’s choices are her own, much like anyone else; she should, therefore, be responsible for any actions that are a direct result of her decisions.
Similarly, A.O. Scott at the New York Times observes that the tense dynamics of desire are, and I quote,
” … not as straightforward as they seem. Those who might mock (or praise) the pro-abstinence message of ‘The Twilight Saga’ tend to miss the way the movies in particular embrace the sensuous pleasure of sublimation.”
In one sense, Meyer poignantly describes the melodramatic politics of adolescent desire and sexual tension — often desires and tensions that are acted out or upon. Bella’s tormented longing for Edward is bizarrely reflected, at least obliquely, in the manic and desperate Twilight craze among young people, and if you ever lurk in a Twilight-themed chat room or read some of the fan fiction, you would see perfect examples of this.
Kristen Stewart herself describes Bella as ”the most undeveloped [character she's] played.” Bella, “sufficiently skeletal,” is the empty, untethered lens with which so many young people can feel unbearable, seemingly fatal angst. Ultimately, the extreme fetishization and lunacy of Twilight is the most disturbing; the trend as a phenomenon is in some ways more complex than series.
Do you think many are looking too far into the impact of Twilight-mania on young adults? Do you think that the franchise not only gives young people an unrealistic point of view toward love and desire, but also desensitizes these same individuals to the constant barrage of exquisitely delicious “sparks” that are often not always present in “normal” relationships for the long-term, and thus setting them up for disappointment? Or do you think the opposite: are we, as a society, selling ourselves short on finding true love, and movies like Twilight are supposed to “help” bring us back to the fundamentals of what “love” is supposed to be?
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I have such a deep hatred for Twilight, for several reasons. I believe it’s setting young girls up to fail because they’re going to save themselves for their “edward” forever, when he’ll never come. Some relationships I know have fallen apart because one person wasn’t enough like Edward, or even Bella, for that matter. Edward is textbook abusive, Bella is what we call in the writer’s world a classic “Mary-Sue”, and it’s frustrating the kinds of fans that follow it. I read a review for the new “Wolfman” movie, and one of the comments was something like “This movie is a ripoff! Everyone knows SMeyer invented werewolves, how dare they steal her idea for this terrible movie!” THIS is the kind of thing Twilight is breeding. SMeyer has admitted in several interviews that she never did a lick of research into these monsters before she wrote about them, and refuses to watch any vampire movies because they “creep her out.” She’s also stated that she will NOT read other vampire literature, because “if the vampires are too much like mine, I get annoyed, and if they’re not enough like mine, I get annoyed.” I really honestly hate what this series has done to people, children, teens, and adults alike. I can hardly wait for it to die.
Bella is never proactive, she’s the ultimate passive. Even when she becomes a “super kick-ass” vampire in Breaking Dawn her whole “ability” is to negate others’ abilities. She spends four novels waiting for the men in her life to save her and they do, but they always expect her to utterly submit to them and their needs.
Edward is the ultimate abusive with his daddy-daughter dynamic, stalking, and manipulations.
Sorry, vampire and werewolf lit has been around for…how long? And she has the audacity to get huffy if they’re not like her half-assed fuzzy sparkles and rainbows versions? Who lit the fuse on her self-righteous tampon?!
i totally hate twilight too. bella is soo useless! she does nothing but to be rescued, and edward is completly abusive and controlling, and the worst part is that everyone is finding his behavior romantic.
i usually think that you cant blame movies, tv or popular books for the way teens act, that it is just entretainment, but in this case it is actually disturbing the way young girls are believing this stuff and waiting, longing and suffering for this fantasy to happen to them. it is teaching youg girls that it is ok to expect nothing from life but a handsome guy who would “die and kill” for you, so you can drop your life, change everything in your “personality” (or the lack of it in this case) to follow him. besides there is nothing that justifies the love that bella and edward share, they just have this sort of sick addiction to each other and do nothing but worship each other, it really sickens me.
and “twihards” might say that people who hate twilight for these reasons are bitter or maybe never had love, but it is actually completly unrealistic to expect these things from life and worst, from a person, every person is really complicated as it is and now this twilight generations are setting the bar to imposible standards.
Consensus: we all think Twilight is a load of bollocks. Please can we stop talking about it? It makes me hurt inside.
I am one of the lucky ones. I read Twilight when it was age appropriate, and I have come out the other end, my expectations, moral integrity, and relationships in tact.
I picked up the book back when it was the only copy in Borders, shortly after it was published, when I was 12. I loved it (as nearly everyone still does), but I loved it from the simplistic and short sighted view of a tween with unsophisticated and unrealistic ideas of romance. Tweens don’t analyze relationships the way adults can. That is okay.
So as the books continued to come out I continued to read, but as I aged, my romantic ideals matured, too. I no longer saw Edward Cullen as the height of perfection, as Stephenie Meyer (btw, what 30+ woman creates a 17 year old as her perfect man?) intended. My friends and I had a healthy perspective about the books, reading them for entertainment, but pretty much finding them to be a joke.
I am now in a loving, long-term relationship, and my real, tangible man is far better (more sane, and with a healthier relationship perspective) than any stalker-love fictional character.
But tweens naturally obsess. If it’s not Twilight, it’s something else, and always has been. I think that the majority of them will outgrow the obsession, and if not entirely, at least to the point where a mention of Edward Cullen or Bella Swan will bring merely a nostalgic laugh.
I think Stephenie is an all around idiot for many reasons, but I don’t think her ridiculous stories will have a permanent negative effect on todays preadolescent girls. Now, people who are expected to have a grain of maturity that become addicted (moms, teachers, otherwise functioning members of society), I do question their health and future…
Why do people have to look so deep into it? It’s a crappy book series and a crappy movie series that entertains some. period.
[...] but that clever allegory had at least made the show a little more substantial and intelligent than that other vampire franchise. I mean, thank God True Blood merchandise consists of things like replica drinks or [...]
I too am a fan of Twilight.