 This would be my final essay for English Composition II. It was requested that I post it, so I have. Enjoy. Any time a new book series emerges that sweeps the nation and blows sales figures out of the water, it makes sense that one would take a second look at what exactly is being read, or what the author of said series is doing to so enrapture their demographic. It happened when the Harry Potter series reached its peak, and occurred again when Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code was firmly grasped in the hands of millions. Both book series and their respective films caused their own controversy, with people protesting Harry Potter due to the portrayal of witchcraft in the series and people opposing The DaVinci Code along with Angels and Demons due to the claims the books made about the church and religion. During the past several years, however, there has been a new series on the rise, one that many claim trumps both of those previously mentioned. While the target audience is much smaller and specialized than JK Rowling’s or Dan Brown’s was, it is strong and it is vigilant. It is also, unfortunately, extremely susceptible to the ideas in which the series it loves places so much emphasis on. It is a demographic being shaped by the media surrounding it as it matures, and in some cases, Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight saga are doing a lot more than providing teenage girls with a “fun” book series to read on the school bus when they don’t feel like thinking about how mean real boys are or how boring algebra class is. When asked why they read Twilight or enjoy watching the Twilight movie, there was a general pattern that emerged among young girls. The series follows Bella Swan, the new girl in town, and her love affair with Edward Cullen, the dark, brooding vampire that is oh-so dangerous but is completely infatuated with Bella as well; it is said brooding vampire that has these girls in such a maddening frenzy. In her article “What Girls Want: An Edward Cullen to Love Them” for the website Townhall.com, Dr. Miriam Grossman spoke to several girls and asked them why exactly this was. Nava, age fourteen, explained, “He’s cute, and he’s really nice to Bella.” Kayla, age 16, claimed, “He’s caring, and genuine. He expresses his love, and risks his life to protect her. And he’s handsome.” Tanya, age 19, continued to elaborate on the same idea, stating, “Edward loves Bella and wants to be with her forever, so he controls himself. The self-discipline is very hard on him, but seeing her hurt would be even worse” (Grossman). The general idea about Edward Cullen gathered from these statements would make it very understandable why young girls find him appealing; he’s caring, genuine, self-sacrificing, and good looking on top of that. What is there not to like? Unfortunately, there are many qualities about Edward Cullen and his relationship with Bella Swan that not only answer that question, but provide an unsettling set of new questions regarding the readers that seem to think that he’s the overall “perfect guy”. When going down the list of characteristics in a typical abusive relationship, Edward matches up with more than a few, including but not limited to: making you feel like you are unable to make decisions, using threats to gain compliance, tracking your whereabouts, preventing you from seeing your friends and family, and being generally jealous and possessive (Batignani). He also withholds sex and other forms of intimate contact with Bella, and when they do finally have sex, despite the fact that she wakes up covered in bruises due to the violence of it all, the only thing Bella cares about is whether or not Edward enjoyed the act. This behavior by the series protagonist leads to the final, and possibly most disturbing, point of all. For a book series that is penned by a woman and loved by an audience that is made up primarily of women, the female protagonist is awfully weak. Bella is constantly dependant on a male figure to make herself content and stable, and seems to have no desire in her life other than loving Edward, being with Edward, and making sure that Edward is happy. She is weak and frail, and needs “rescued” by the capable, strong men in her life on more than one occasion. For a book series that young women flock to, this is all highly unsettling. Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight saga preaches unhealthy relationships and stereotypically anti-feminist values, all the while justifying this by wrapping it up in a pretty, sparkling package and calling it “love”. From the first moment that Edward meets Bella, he warns her that he is dangerous; in the film he comes right out and tells her, “If you're smart, you'll stay away from me” (IMDB). Now, if Edward were simply a brooding “bad boy”, then the appeal of this angst fueled attempt to distance himself from Bella might be slightly understandable and forgivable. In fact, studies have legitimately shown that girls are more often than not attracted to bad, dangerous boys. In the article, “Why Nice Guys Finish Last” on the ABC News website, Dr. Peter Jonason, lead investigator in a study on whether women really do prefer more “dangerous” men states, “…We think women would avoid these kinds of men, but what we show is counterintuitive -- that women are attracted to these bad boys and they do pretty well in terms of sheer numbers of sexual partners” (Grayson). The study performed was based on certain traits that were found in typical “bad boys”, including callousness, impulsive behavior, extreme extroversion, and narcissism; two of which Edward Cullen matches up with (Grayson). So if Edward were simply another “bad boy” that was a little callous and impulsive, it would be understandable that young girls are flocking to him. He is a challenge, he is non-accessible; something that automatically makes him desired. On top of this, as the young readers above mentioned, Edward is very attractive and seems highly devoted to Bella. Edward Cullen, however, is more than the typical “bad boy” and therein lies the problem with his massive appeal to young women. Later in the first Twilight film, as he and Bella discuss Edward’s true nature as a vampire and his carnal desire to kill her and drink her blood, he explains, “I'm the world's most dangerous predator. Everything about me invites you in. My voice, my face, even my smell. As if I would need any of that. As if you could outrun me. As if you could fight me off” (IMDB). He also randomly appears in her bedroom one night; she wakes up to him standing at the foot of her bed watching her sleep. When she asks him if he does this often he replies, “Just the past couple of months. I like watching you sleep. I find it fascinating” (IMDB). There is another scene where she is almost attacked by a gang late at night, and Edward, who later admits that he had been following her to make sure she wasn’t in trouble, randomly shows up and becomes so enraged by what the men were intending to do that he verbally lashes out at Bella once or twice in the car. His behavior would seem somewhat heroic and tender, if it wasn’t so possessive and creepy. He follows her and watches over her as though he owns her, when they really aren’t even that close of friends. Instead of taking Bella out to dinner and a movie, he takes her to a forest where he rips trees out of the ground in an attempt to try and intimidate her, to scare her with a display of force and power. To make things even worse, there is an underlying finality about the relationship between Edward and Bella; an indication that if either of them should lose each other their lives would be over completely. In the second book in the Twilight saga, New Moon, Edward tells Bella, “I thought I'd explained it clearly before. Bella, I can't live in a world where you don't exist” (Squidoo). Likewise, in the Twilight film Bella states, “I can't bring myself to regret the decisions that brought me face to face with death. They also brought me to Edward” (IMDB). For a series whose target audience is teenage girls and whose heroin is sixteen herself, these are some pretty bold statements. Clearly , despite all of the crazy and troubling behavior, Bella feels that she is in love with Edward, and wants nothing but to be by his side. This is highly troubling, as it seems to be implying to girls who are just learning how to date and develop relationships that it’s alright to stay with someone who may be highly dangerous, as long as you really think you might possibly love each other. The volatile and unhealthy relationship between Bella and Edward is only half of the issue when it comes to women’s rights and a misrepresentation of gender roles in the Twilight series. Bella Swan, the protagonist, is essentially the perfect little Stepford Wife girlfriend. She is weak, meek, and seems to confuse the words love and dependency more than once throughout the books and in the film. There is the issue of sex, for example. Edward refuses to have sex with Bella until the final book due to his immense strength and the fear that he will harm her, and up until then is hesitant to even kiss her or show her affection, as he may lose control and decide to eat her. When they do finally have sex, after they are married in the final installment of the saga, it is exceptionally violent, and Bella wakes up the next morning covered in bruises. When they discuss it, their conversation goes as follows: “Assumed? Did you expect this, Bella? Were you anticipating that I would hurt you? Were you thinking it would be worse? Do you consider the experiment a success because you can walk away from it? No broken bones—that equals a victory?” I waited, letting him get it all out. Then I waited some more while his breathing went back to normal. When his eyes were calm, I answered, speaking with slow precision. “I didn’t know what to expect—but I definitely did not expect how…how…just wonderful and perfect it was.” My voice dropped to a whisper, my eyes slipped from his face down to my hands. “I mean, I don’t know how it was for you, but it was like that for me.” (Meyer, Breaking 92) Instead of being angry or even somewhat bothered by the fact that her first real sexual experience reduced her to being covered in bruises, Bella simply accepts it and is grateful for the experience regardless because of her love for Edward. What kind of message does this send to the millions of young girls reading these books? While the idea of love surpassing all sounds wonderfully poetic, it should never surpass domestic abuse, in any form. In an article discussing domestic abuse among high school and college students, Dr. Sandra Stith, a nationally recognized domestic violence expert, states that about 30% of college students have been in relationships that involve physical aggression, while more have been in relationships that are emotionally abusive, and 25% of high school students have been in abusive relationships (Associated Content). Obviously there are many factors that contribute to this and it would be absurd to say that a book series is a primary reason for domestic abuse among young people, but providing female characters in popular young adult literature that so opening welcome abuse certainly isn’t helping. But of course, Bella doesn’t say anything to protest this or defend herself, as that would put her at risk of upsetting and or losing Edward. This leads to the final point, and perhaps root of most of the issues regarding these characters; Bella seems completely dependent on men to be happy, without any other real interests or goals for herself. In the second installment in the series, New Moon, Edward leaves Bella, at which point she instantly throws herself into the arms of her childhood best friend Jacob. There is a passage when Jacob and Bella are first developing their friendship after Edward leaves that was particularly troubling; the two are fixing motorcycles together and Bella offers Jacob money to help pay for parts. When he begins to protest she states, “’I’ve got some money saved. College fund, you know.’ College, schmollege, I thought to myself. It wasn’t like I’d saved up enough to go anywhere special—and besides, I had no desire to leave Forks anyway” (Meyer, New 136). What does Bella plan on doing with her life then, if she intends on blowing her college fund on motorcycle parts to win over a rebound boyfriend and staying in her hometown? What goals does she have? What type of message is Stephanie Meyer trying to send? Not to mention that where Edward matches up with the characteristics of an abusive partner, Bella matches up with those of a typical codependent one. Codependency Personality Disorder is characterized by living through or for another, and some of the symptoms exhibited by Bella include an inability to see alternatives to situations, impulsiveness, overacting to change, feeling different, lack of self confidence, and fear of abandonment (Recovery-Man). There is an often overused quote by Franklin Roosevelt that states, “Great power involves great responsibility” (Good Reads). The power to completely consume the minds and hearts of young girls around the world is not only great, it is something that should be handled with extreme care. Stephanie Meyer has made massive amounts of money with her series, selling out movie theaters and packing midnight book releases. With this in mind, it is a shame that she did not consider more deeply the potential impact that her words would have on the world. Why not write a series with an empowering female protagonist? Or one that promotes healthy relationships? As Amy Clarke, an undergraduate professor at the University of California stated in an article for the Washington Post, "Do we really want our daughters reading books about a girl like Bella who is always needing to be saved, who is willing to give up her mortality for a boy?" (Yao). Truth be told, Twilight is just another work of fiction, and if read with the mature realization that the relationship between Edward and Bella is just about as logical and healthy as undead vampires that sparkle, it is perfectly harmless. However, whether or not most of Meyers’ young fan base is reading with that sort of intuitive knowledge, something that the obsession over the “perfection” that is Edward Cullen seems to argue, is left to be determined. SOURCES + Associated Content. September 13th, 2007. November 17, 2009. < http://www.associatedcontent com/article/377942/domestic_violence_among _high_school.html> + Batignani, Renee. “Abusive Relationships”. Conseulers for Women.com. November 17, 2009. http://www.counselorsforwomen.com/abusive_ relationships.htm + Good Reads. 2009. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/135379 + Grayson, Audrey. “Why Nice Guys Finish Last”. ABC News.com. June 19th, 2008. November 17, 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=519753 1&page=2 + Grossman, Miriam. “What Girls Want: An Edward Cullen to Love”. Townhall. com. December 8th, 2008. November 17, 2009. < http://townhall.com/columnists/DrMiriamGrossmanMD/2008/12/08/what_girls_ want_an_edward_cullen_to_love_them?page=1> + Internet Movie Database. < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/quotes> + Meyer, Stephanie. Breaking Dawn. New York: Little, Brown and Company. 2008 . Print. + Meyer, Stephanie. New Moon. New York: Hachette Book Company. 2006. Print. + Recovery-Man. “Characteristics of Codependency”. November 15th, 2007. November 17, 2009. http://www.recovery-man.com/coda/symptoms.htm + Squidoo.com. 2009. November 17, 2009. http://www.squidoo.com/cullenabuse + Yao, Laura. “Bitten and Smitten”. Washington-Post.com. August 1st, 2008. November 17th, 2009. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/story/20 08/08/01/ST2008080100930.html CommentsShawna Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:40:29 Sarah this was an amazing article that you wrtoe Eliza Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:08:27 I loved this. As a feminist myself, I have so many problems with the Twilight series and the relationship between Bella and Edward. You perfectly articulated the issues surrounding the series. Megathy Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:40:18 Generally I agree with this. But. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:26:11 Did you really turn this in with Stephenie Meyer's name spelled wrong every single time? It's a dumb spelling but it's a correct one. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:50:32 I obviously must have, Willa. Then again, I also wrote this between 12:30am and 10:00am Tuesday, so I'm pretty pleased that I managed to construct a sentence given that, and doubt my professor is going to notice and/or care either way. Nor do I, for that matter. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:53:31 The reason that Meyers wrote Bella how she is, is because of her own personal values. She's Mormon, and this is how she thinks women really should be. That's the scary part. She DID think about the impact she would/does have on the world --and she feels she wrote the character perfectly and that Bella is an excellent model for young girls. It makes me cringe that there are still people (women!) invested in driving women back to the dark ages. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:00:39 Oh, and to respond to Willa's comment: Desiree Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:44:02 Desiree Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:54:28 First of all, Mormon women are far from codependent Bellas - nor do we believe women should be the way Bella was described in the article. We have a history and heritage of strong women involved in service, personal sacrifice for the greater good and a strong sense to stand for what we believe in. We are encouraged in our belief system to be self-sufficient, seek education and to be free thinkers and to strengthen our homes and communities. Desiree Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:58:21 (and decidely so) more adult. yep Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:02:55 have you every read Shakespeare? Romeo and Juliet is one of the greatest literary pieces ever written (argumentivtley, of course). but many believe so, and it is known across the world by millions as a "true love story" Kelly Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:58:12 @yep: Leave a Reply |