Twilight. Yes, this is going to be about Bella & Edward. I have read the series and while it may be passe to say so, I ripped through them quite speedily and enjoyed most of my reading time. If you haven't read them (or seen the movies) you will find better uses of your time than continuing on here.
That last book though....I started to feel uncomfortable with the whole thing. Controlling boyfriend/husband, abstinence, really passive and depressing girl who only wants to be exactly like her boyfriend (I think of this as chameleon syndrome), weird baby/werewolf plotline involving, essentially, pedophilia. I'm sure if I kept trying I could think of more. I felt a bit let down, maybe even disgusted.
Today I read this (please read): http://thehairpin.com/2011/11/our-bella-ourselves
And while most of my horror is not even discussed here, it does make me think about Bella a bit differently. The argument is that Bella's depressing and creepy chameleon syndrome and her obsession with Edward is just a girl teenager issue. Everything relationship just seems amplified when you're 16/17/18 and at the same time you have no idea who or even what you are. It's why we no longer look kindly on people that get married that young. At that age, you're just swept up in your own emotional drama that you can't truly figure yourself out. Bella might suck, but she sucks in a way that most teenage girls suck, which is why most teenage girls like the books.
The comments, too, are interesting. I mostly expected people to be very negative (Twilight + a community of ladies = a certain brand of feminism SCREAMS in horror). Turns out it's mostly just a discussion of the articles good points and maybe not so great ones. It's like 16 & pregnant. Romanticizing something that isn't great for youngsters (chameleon syndrome/controlling boyfriend/teen pregnancy) isn't something I'm a proponent of.
Pedophilia, abstinence and controlling boyfriend are still a large, hideous Twilight issue for me though.
I don't know if I find that last book so horrible because of Bella's miss-ish-ness; it's the only book she really stands up for herself, for instance, by insisting that she keep the creepy baby.
ReplyDeleteMy problems are rooted more in what your problems are. It's hard for me to verbalize, but so much of it made me deeply, deeply uncomfortable. I read an article once that conjectured that much of the things we object to are a product of the author's Mormon beliefs, and I found that very easy to swallow. The abstinence and the submission of women and quite frankly, even the pedophilia. (Most Mormons aren't polygamists, and many polygamists don't practice pedophilia, but the fact remains that some do, and it's not exactly a secret among American Mormons.)
When viewed through the Mormon lens, I find the book even creepier, if that's possible.