Dear Twilight fanatics,
It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since I first caught wind of Twilight and the rest of the series. It all began about June 2008, I noticed on my Facebook, that several of my girlfriends started to change their “Favorite Books” section. For an example, one of my friends whose favorite books used to include: “Anything by Nicholas Sparks”, “Bridget Jones’s Diary”, and “Lovely Bones”. Then, she changed her favorite books to: “Twilight! New Moon!! Eclipse!!!”. To say the least, I didn’t think anything of it. A few weeks later, my Facebook feed showed that another friend had received some “flair”, one button said “I <3 Edward Cullen”, and the other said, “Because of Twilight, I now have unrealistic expectations of men”. As the summer progressed, I also couldn’t help but notice Perez Hilton’s many entries about Robert Pattinson (“Who?”, at this point). Okay, what is this craze spreading faster than the bird flu?? A few months later, I started asking my girlfriends. Their usual response was, “OMG…you have not read Twilight?? You don’t know what you’re missing!!! I wish Edward was real.” Or at least something along those lines. Immediately, I could not help but laugh and mock these crazed girls. After some thought, I decided to remain skeptical till I read the first book. After a few months of reading and researching, here are my thoughts.
If I do not analyze or think from my feminist point of view, the Twilight books are not that bad. They have larger print, sectioned off, easily have a built-in screaming teen girl audience. Also, the use of descriptive language is impressive for teen literature. There is even an updated Romanticism theme throughout the entire series. And most importantly, the Twilight series have plucked teenage girls and even college-age women in masses from vacuous magazines and back into reading books.
But reading from my feminist perspective, I hated it. Bella comes off as needy, obsessive, and irritating. She glamourizes the “romantic hero” acrchetype that is Edward Cullen. That we know of, she does not have any other real friends, not invovled with extracurricular activities, but does work at Newton’s Olympic Outfitters. For her, it’s all about Edward. She endures Edward’s mood swings and actions that border on physical and emotional abuse. After Edward convinces her that he does not love her and want to be with her anymore, like most girls she is heartbroken. But then she takes it to a whole other level. She becomes depressed, feels that she can’t live without him, and attempts suicide. Towards the end of the series, she decides to forget college and stay with Edward to marry him. What is this saying to all of the younger, more impressionable female audience??
Contemporary American society underestimates the power of literature. Not all, but many young girls may get the distorted idea that how Bella swoons and obsesses over Edward is the way to go. Never mind having her own life and identity. Forget going to college. Get married and have a baby at 18. Instead of looking to Bella Swan as a “heroine” archetype, consider more positive literary characters. Read a book with a female character with a voice, personality, and smarts. For my college-age women, think and consider how far we, as American women have come. Figure out on your own that we still very much need strong, smart, independent women in literature. Help out by reading some of them.
Signed,
a feminist reader
P.S. For a laugh, here’s a link to Sarah Haskin’s “Target Women: Vampires” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtBqNtgxq-I
