rather than my random ramblings about stuff
so (i kinda stole this off lilly im sorry!! if lilly wants to do a better version she can! in fact i think she should.. this is just my opinion/take on it....and lillys will probably be more...sophisticated and informed) i havent got a very strong argument on this. its just my thoughts
i present to you
feminism in twilight
so i wouldnt consider myself a feminist....or particularly aware of feminsim in todays society...
but all of you ladies out there who have read twilight will probably agree that bella is kind of anti-feminist..
i mean she leaves edward to save her..many a time. shes portrayed pretty much helpless (except for the end of eclipse and even then she gets told off for trying to help)
and she does the housekeeping for her father
i have talked to other people about this and what came up is that (im not having a bash at SM's religion here) but SM is a mormon. she stays at home, minds the kids, does the cleaning and cooking while her husband goes out and works (mind you now her book is a worldwide bestseller she probably earns more than he does but thats not my point)
and this is pretty much reflected in bella. like she is a bit of a clumsy soul and shes always looking for the big strong (hunky vampire) to come save her
so yeah...i havent got more to say...thats was probably pretty pointless anyway
please lilly..write a better one!!
i found this somewhere...okay it was under the FAQs for breaking dawn on Stephenie Meyers website
Its SM's response to people who think bella is anti-feminist...
Is Bella an anti-feminist heroine?
When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character, those theories are usually predicated on her choices. In the beginning, she chooses romantic love over everything else. Eventually, she chooses to marry at an early age and then chooses to keep an unexpected and dangerous baby. I never meant for her fictional choices to be a model for anyone else's real life choices. She is a character in a story, nothing more or less. On top of that, this is not even realistic fiction, it's a fantasy with vampires and werewolves, so no one could ever make her exact choices. Bella chooses things differently than how I would do it if I were in her shoes, because she is a very different type of person than I am. Also, she's in a situation that none of us has ever been in, because she lives in a fantasy world. But do her choices make her a negative example of empowerment? For myself personally, I don't think so.
In my own opinion (key word), the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. The core of anti-feminism is, conversely, telling a woman she can't do something solely because she's a woman—taking any choice away from her specifically because of her gender. "You can't be an astronaut, because you're a woman. You can't be president because you're a woman. You can't run a company because you're a woman." All of those oppressive "can't"s.
One of the weird things about modern feminism is that some feminists seem to be putting their own limits on women's choices. That feels backward to me. It's as if you can't choose a family on your own terms and still be considered a strong woman. How is that empowering? Are there rules about if, when, and how we love or marry and if, when, and how we have kids? Are there jobs we can and can't have in order to be a "real" feminist? To me, those limitations seem anti-feminist in basic principle.
Do I think eighteen is a good age at which to get married? Personally—as in, for the person I was at eighteen—no. However, Bella is constrained by fantastic circumstances that I never had to deal with. The person she loves is physically seventeen, and he's not going to change. If she and he are going to be on a healthy relationship footing, she can't age too far beyond him. Also, marriage is really an insignificant commitment compared to giving up your mortality, so it's funny to me that some people are hung up on one and not the other. Is eighteen too young to give up your mortality? For me, any age is too young for that. For Bella, it was what she really wanted for her life, and it wasn't a phase she was going to grow out of. So I don't have issues with her choice. She's a strong person who goes after what she wants with persistence and determination.
11 comments:
Hmmm.
Definitely interesting to hear Stephanie Meyer's point of view, and she does make some good points about choice. It's not entirely true that Bella does exactly what Edward tells her to, and she does make most of the decisions about her future herself, often not what Edward would want for her. She fights hard for the life she wants - becoming a vampire, having her baby. However, Bella is a fictional character, so she doesn't actually make choices, other than those Stephanie Meyer chooses for her. The path Meyer decides she wants is not one that you could consider particularly feminist - Bella ultimately decides that her life means nothing without Edward. Meyer cannot really explain away the anti-feminist undertones in her books by claiming they are Bella's choices, as they are the choices she has made for her, and the message she sends to her readers is that they are the right choices to make. Also, Meyer does not really address some of the other issues a feminist reader might have with twilight. Edward is very controlling and over-protective - he does not trust Bella to make decisions about her life herself. Bella is unable to look after herself and must be rescued, and she is very clingy. She is a rather wussy role model for young women, and Stephanie Meyer could definitely have given her some metaphorical balls.
Helena, I think you are far more qualified to blog about Twilight than me! You know it back to front. :D
Reading SM's response was very interesting, she must have changed it since I last went on there because back then her only response was "Just because Bella cooks and cleans doesn't mean she's not a strong woman!"
And I think Jessie does make very good points. Bella is obviously a total Mary-Sue, so I imagine any choices she makes are obviously reflections of SM's beliefs and values, and reflect maybe her own choices.
But the main problem I have with the Twilight series is not that Bella marries young or throws away her future, but that she chooses to do it with Edward- one of the most misogynistic characters I have come across in quite some time. He is very manipulative and controlling- such as taking away her enging in her car so she can't visit Jacob, getting Alice to basically kidnap Bella etc. That Bella would stay with him and that SM basically presents him as the perfect human being is what I find the most disturbing.
Argh sorry I meant to post that as Lily. It's difficult managing two accounts!
Dude, and the excuse that Bella lives in a fantasy world. Fantasy and science fiction don't mean that character (who is actually part of this world. Its just that....we dont know about the vampires and werewolves) would or should make different choices. Science fiction and fantasy often reflect current social issues and comment on them. And writing teenage fiction glamourising possessive men and looks over everything (or anything) else seems to me to be one on the side of the (female spearheaded) anti-feminist movement.
Also, umm, the character of Edward isn't actually seventeen. He has the intelligence and experience of someone a hundred and something years old. he just has the appearance of someone seventeen. Kind of like the middle-aged men pretending to be teenagers on the internet.
I dont think SM ever really got the memo that (good) literature is about themes and messages, and that actually, characters aren't alive - they're out of her own head
sorry to be twilight bashing. am in grumpy mood. will make positive pro-bella comment later
oh, and also helena, that was a really good post. I forgot that bit. am a terrible person.
mmm,i dont think twilight is anti-femnist either, really. As it has been stated, I think the impression is given because bella is the typical mary jane character and edward the typical hero-saves-the-day. Think clark kent saves Lana Lang. I mean,the book even comes with a bonus love triangle. We are lucky Mrs. Meyer had not read these amazing tutorials:
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2260837/1/How_to_Write_Badly
or this one
http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2419633/1/OMG_Robbing_a_Bank_Without_Getting_Caught
and not become a writer at all.
p.s. really funny. to rob a bank, scroll down.<3
nice, loong post helena!!<3
And when Bella ends up in the most helpless position of all, what is the moral?
That teen pregnancy makes your life rad.
nuh
of course it does
you get to be a vampire
and have sex all night! what could be better than that??
zomg
i read them
and they were
HILARIOUS!
freaking heck
rad as !
I haven't read Twilight, so I'm not that qualified to analyse, but I can sssorta see her point when she says feminists try put limits on women. There is a lot of backlash in the feminist movement against women who choose to be mothers, or who wear short skirts or whatever, which is understandable but bogus.
However, this is on the extreme end of the scale. And from what you guys say, it doesn't sound like an active "choice" to go do that with a misogynist at age 18.
Bah, the backlash has blurred lines between choice and coercion so well...Like ads that say it's a women's RIGHT to feel beautiful, and she has a RIGHT to this skin product. And that it's her CHOICE. Excellent job of creating a false consciousness among women. And men, for that matter.
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