Every time a new movie adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s truly dreadful books comes out, conversations about sex and vampires and Bella’s pathetic characterization regarding the portrayal of females in literature and film seem to pop up everywhere.
Consider this a token response to Breaking Dawn (subtitled Breaking Bella).
Natalie Wilson recently wrote a book entitled Seduced by Twilight, which touches on many of the very legitimate concerns the series raises, an excerpt of which was run on Women’s Enews. Wilson attempts to “explore the contradictory messages of Twilight, a series that presents neither a subversive nor a conservative view of larger social contexts, but is an ambiguous mixture of both.”
Right on, Natalie Wilson!
Most of the messages in the saga are rather old-fashioned, encouraging the largely female fan base to head back to the kitchen. The series speaks for the likes of Glenn Beck, who told Sarah Palin to “make him some stew.” Yet, some of the textual strands are transgressive, suggesting that religious and cultural mores of sexuality and gender are too strict. Others …