Aug. 16, 2008
Written by Phoenix native Stephenie Meyer, the popularity of the young-adult series comprised of Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and the newly-released Breaking Dawn has reached critical mass. With a Twilight film adaptation coming to theaters this winter and an opening day’s sales of 1.3 million books for her latest installment, Meyer can be left with no doubt of her success. From a first-time novelist to a mainstay on the best sellers list, she has risen through the ranks like a veritable juggernaut.
But why? To figure out why the books were inspiring legions of fans and a dozen fan-sites (including the recently hacked Twilight Lexicon), I read the books myself to see what’s what.
To put it simply, dear reader, I was horrified. Not just by the sickeningly purple prose or the lack of general writing quality, but the books themselves are insulting on every level-as a woman, as a teenager, as a literature student, and as a graduate of the Harry Potter craze. What’s worse is that so few seem to realize it.
Twilight is the story of the so-called “average” new girl Bella Swan (Ha, ha, get it? Beautiful Swan?), who finds herself as the object of not one, not two, but a total of five boys’ romantic designs (because she’s so “plain”, see?). The most important of these is the mysterious, hilariously-Byronic Edward Cullen. Bella plays the pitiful damsel in distress a few times and after 200 pages of thinly written suspense, we learn that Edward is in fact a vampire. Never fear, though, because Bella’s “Adonis-like” admirer is no Nosferatu. Instead, he and his vampire family are so-called “vegetarian” vampires, feeding off of animals instead of humans and inexplicably attending high school (during lunch periods they buy trays of food and stare at each other so that Bella can conveniently get a glimpse of Edward from across the cafeteria). The first novel deals with Bella and Edward’s romance and is capped off by a hastily tacked-on plot designed to shove Bella into the damsel in distress role yet again so that her vampire lover can save her.
Okay, you’re saying. It’s a little cheesy. But why is that so bad?
First and foremost, the books present a female heroine who can hardly take a step without needing some boy to rescue her. In fact, the books represent sexist views in almost every way-from the fact that Bella gives up her ambitions and plans for college to get married to Edward, the fact that she is portrayed as a modern Eve, begging the noble, moral gentleman for sex while he desires to preserve their virtue, the fact that their relationship is dangerously unhealthy, and finally to the fact that nearly every single female character in the book is a hopelessly negative caricature.
The series does not improve with subsequent books, either. In New Moon, Bella enters a self-described “zombie” state when Edward leaves her. In fact, the author oh-so-cleverly inserts blank pages with the months’ names as a poorly conceived plot device for showing the depths of her heroine’s pain and also to avoid having to write the “hard stuff.” Bella turns near-suicidal; she purposely puts herself in harm’s way-going so far as to jump off a cliff-to hear her lover’s imagined voice in her head.
What does this say to readers, bearing in mind that the target audience is the tragically impressionable 12-17 year old girls? That they should fall apart at the seams for months if their boyfriend leaves them? That reckless self-endangerment is okay, so long as it’s to be close to your lover? What a lovely message to send to young women.
The sole bright spot of New Moon is the lovable Jacob Black, a member of the nearby La Push reservation and newly-turned werewolf. It is in Bella’s scenes with Jacob that readers see a glimpse of actual personality, and the burgeoning romance is certainly much more true to real-life teen romances than the lofty ideals of the star cross’d lovers Edward and Bella. But add another half-forgotten plot into the mix and Edward and Bella are reunited, with Jacob left by the wayside like a kicked puppy. Pun intended.
Eclipse. It is in this tome that Edward and Bella’s relationship takes a decidedly worse turn. Edward goes so far as to remove Bella’s engine from her car to prevent her from seeing her friend, Jacob, and even has his vampire ‘sister’ kidnap her from a weekend. Bella is a little peeved at this, sure, but she writes off Edward’s atrocious behavior with the terrifying “he’s just a little overprotective” and “he does it because he loves me”. Reader, I actually felt a little sick while reading this, despite these so-called good intentions (they’re always leading to hell, remember). Not only does Meyer give her two characters an obviously unhealthy-even abusive-relationship, but she romanticizes and idealizes it, and not only with Bella and Edward, but with Bella and Jacob as well.
Jacob, in fact, gets a bizarre personality transplant (lycanthropic dissociative identity disorder, maybe?) and turns into a real asshole in this book. He actually forcibly kisses Bella-twice-while ignoring her protests and actually threatens suicide should Bella refuse him. But not once does the thought of abuse, sexism, or inequality even occur to her main character! In fact, halfway through Jacob’s forced kiss (sexual assault, mind you) Bella actually decides that she’s in love with him. What is this??
I threw down my copy of Eclipse in disgust and I was ready to forget that the books existed until the Twilight-mania began anew in the lead-up to August 2nd’s release of Breaking Dawn. I can write this article just having read the first three, I told myself. In the end, though, partly due to morbid curiosity and partly a result of wildly irrational hope that somehow Meyer would redeem herself, I gave in.
I was wrong. In Breaking Dawn, Meyer gives us an honestly bewildering and at times horrifying close to the series. The several hundred pages are filled with sickly-sweet self-indulgence and a blatant dismissal of continuity and realism. In brief, Bella and Edward get horizontal at long last (but only after they’re married, of course-we can’t have the naughty temptress taking away Edward’s 107 year-old virginity) and Bella somehow gets pregnant. Please, Meyer says, never mind the fact that all the vampires’ body fluids are replaced with their ‘venom’ or that sperm dies after three days, much less a century. Even more fantastically, the vampire/human spawn grows at an alarming rate, so fast in fact that Bella feels it “nudging” her at approximately two weeks of gestation. Now, I’ve never been pregnant but I did take health class back in high school and I’m pretty sure that there’s something wrong with that picture.
I’ll spare you the details of the rest of this horror show. Trust me, the birthing scene is something I desperately wish I could un-see (after the loosely-called ‘baby’ breaks Bella’s pelvis, spine, and ribs from the inside, Edward ends up clawing his way to a surely-unsanitary vampire version of a Caesarian section using his teeth). I’m sorry. I had to share my pain. Bella becomes a super-special vampire with super-special powers and she wins the not-conflict of the not-climax. And don’t forget her nifty ability to go hunting in a forest in a cocktail dress and heels.
Thankfully, the ‘Twilight’ series is over. Not as great is the fact that millions of girls are reading this sexist tripe without a care in the world, obsessing over the “perfect” Edward Cullen and the “hot” Jacob Black, pretending to be Bella Swan and ignoring the unhealthiness of the relationship just as successfully as the character does. What happened that two hundred years after feminist hero Elizabeth Bennet is put down on the page, we get one of the most awful excuses for a female literary hero that I’ve ever seen?
So frankly, excuse me if I bow out of the Twilight mania. I’m going to go sink my teeth into Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and pretend that Stephenie Meyer’s terrible series did not set gender equality back two hundred years in the minds of millions.
Read my follow-up to this piece, entitled Twilight: A Follow-Up, and a Promise!
Read my review of the movie!
Follow Kellen on Twitter!
sombraSilian—
I have read the books, and Edward Cullen is not “super romantic, loving and wonderful”; he is a condescending, controlling, psychotic stalker. This is not romantic and it is horrifying that a generation of girls are being taught that it is. It isn’t that Twilight is stylistically a disgrace to literature, it’s that it’s dangerous, and it is not good for anyone to believe that a relationship like Edward and Bella’s is one we should aspire to.
Why would we be jealous of Stephenie Meyer? If this was a jealousy thing, why wouldn’t we target the far more successful J.K. Rowling? The storyline in Twilight is just as terrible as everything else; it’s Bella and Edward gazing at each other and pretending that their superficial obsession with each other is love, with supporting characters thrown in for the sole purpose of illustrating how special they both are and a few wildly inconsistent “plot” details that Meyer tacked on when she realised that NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENED throughout the whole of her books. Twilight haters aren’t jealous. They think Twilight is a godawful series. Deal with it.
And no, thankfully, there are quite a lot of sane teenagers who are not envious of a whiny, dependent, idiotic doormat who falls for men who emotionally abuse her.
Finally, you clearly don’t have the slightest idea what the word “hypocrites” means, since you haven’t used it in the correct context once. I’d suggest you leave words you don’t understand well alone—Stephenie Meyer certainly should have done.
TWILIGHT DOES NOT SUCK! IT ROCKS! SUCK THAT!
This was fantastic. The sexism was the first thing that came into my mind when I began to read the book. Also, have you noticed how even the humor, not just the romance, is cheesy? Or is that just so inevitable for a novel of this caliber that you didn’t want to waste time explaining? Haha! You’re an amazing critic. I can’t wait to hear more from you.
all i can say is wow!! 2 kellen and 2 all d rest of u against twiligth .ya’ll r truly amazin
ok so i may not be a twihard but i’m not a ‘twi-hater’ either. i am in my late teens and i happen to like d series. i like it alot actually. really and truly i dont c anything wrong wit it…i read it, enjoyed it and continued wit my life as normal. i like edward but now i dont automatically wish my bf was like him…he’s quite d opposite actually lol and i love him jus d same. really ppl i dont think young girls who read this stuff suddenly think that every boy must b like d perfect edward for them 2 date or like…come on…give them more credit than that.these girls r young and immature…they’re having fun wit it so let them…not because they put up something sayin ‘edward raises d standards 4 all future bfs’ mean they live by that rule and expect real boys 2 b like edward. they want something 2 obsess over, ok. d bk is romantic, edward is ideal…they like that.like they say-braincandy. they’ll get over it so focus on some other more important world issues ppl not over a group of girls who’ll grow out of it in a few yrs.plz.ur wasting ur time. A generation of girls is not lost because of twilight…not even stephanie meyer has that power.
another thing…this feminist sexism thing thats comin out of d bk proves that u ‘educated’ ppl truly want something 2 talk about. seriously? if thats wat u get when u read twilight ur sad. bella cooking 4 her father, playing d damsel in ‘distress’, kellen:’can barely take 2 steps without needin a male to rescue her’??! THATS sickenin. like someone said in a comment b4 u ppl modify d definition of sexism and feminism by tryin 2 project wat u want 4 all girls and women onto them. u defeat d purpose and carryin us back to that place where we cant make a choice of our own without us being ‘disempowered’ if d choice doesnt suit ur fancy. edward is overprotective…that proves that he and d relationship isnt perfect so u contradict urselves…no relationship in real life is perfect…and o yes i forgot…’she all but craps her pants at d thought that edward would find out’. if a man had said ‘now she’ll kill me if she found out’ it’d b a-ok but if a girl says ‘ooooh!! he’s gonna b so mad!!’ she’s oppressed and emotionally abused!??? try helpin women who feel trapped in real abusive situations rather than bashin on an innocent fictional bk…o and while ur at it…do get a life.
Twilight Neutral
But sickened by all d senseless bashin
reallyppl???? —
Wow, well, that was barely coherent. Extreme text talk is always a great way to convince people to take you seriously; well done.
Honestly, your post isn’t neutral; it’s an example of yet another fan missing the point. Edward is not an unattainable ideal. He is everywhere in real life, in the form of stalkers, emotional abusers and psychopaths. How you can actually read comments like “Edward has raised the standards for boyfriends” and *still* not believe that this series is having a hand in shaping young girls’ ideas of romance is beyond me. Are you in denial, or just not very bright?
I don’t know what the hell *your* idea of sexism and feminism is but I can assure you that it isn’t Twilight haters who are modifying it. Bella doesn’t make choices. Edward makes them for her. She doesn’t want to drive home with him? Tough, he wants her to and he’ll drag her to his car if she tries to escape. She doesn’t want to apply to a certain university? Fine, he’ll forge her signature on the application. She wants to see her best friend? It’s not happening unless Edward wants that, and if she doesn’t like it, he’ll disable her car and have his sister keep her under house arrest. She’s said she doesn’t want to go somewhere? Okay, then he’ll go over her head and get her dad involved so she has no choice but to go. And she’ll never oppose any of this, because he’s always got her best interests at heart, just like both abusers and those who are abused claim in real life. There’s no modification or projection on our part going on at all; this stuff is all right there, being frighteningly obvious.
At what point in my comment about Bella’s fear of Edward’s reaction to her seeing Jacob did I say that it would be okay if it was a man who was scared of a woman in this situation? Bella, upon seeing Edward’s car behind her (you know, in the scene where he tailgates her all the way to Angela’s house for no other reason than to intimidate her and make sure he knows *exactly* where she is, ever the expression of true love), is genuinely terrified of Edward’s reaction to her doing something completely innocent and reasonable. Never does she think “How dare he treat me this way?” She describes herself as “chicken”, too afraid to “face” him, and on her way to see him she describes herself as “jumpy”, “anxious”, “nervous”, as though *she’s* the one in the wrong even though she is SEEING. HER. BEST. FRIEND. and Edward has absolutely *no* right to stop her doing this. It’s a scene that clearly illustrates the level of control Edward has over her. It would be as much of a problem if their roles were reversed. It’s still abuse and control no matter whether the man or the woman is in the position of power. Only at no point in the Twilight series is Bella the one with the power. She’s the archetypal submissive little woman the entire way through.
Women in real abusive situations? Like, women who are being stalked? Women whose partners stop them seeing their friends? Women whose partners mess with their heads? Whose partners belittle them? Women in relationships with people like Edward? Hey, how about we try to stop more women getting into this situation by opposing something that insists that these things are romantic? Or, in conclusion: yes, really.
ESTÁ BEM, não vou ficar discutindo com esse tipo de pessoa, metida a superior ao resto do mundo . parece que você não lê as coisas direito . e aproposito, sou uma psicologa formada, trabalho a 10 anos nessa área e bom, gosto muito de twilight . não soa exatamente como você o descreveu aqui, hannah . tenho duas filhas adolescentes . CREPÚSCULO NUNCA INFLUENCIOU ELAS DE UMA FORMA RUIM .
ah, e edward não é um cara romantico ? pode não ser pra você que já é velha e não sente mais o “tesão” da paixão de quando se é jovem . se você leu atentamente e sabe tanto assim sobre crepúsculo “dona hannah metida a superior”, você sabe que uma das falas mais conhecidas do livro e do filme é quando edward diz para bella: você é minha vida agora, bella .
isso, faz qualquer teenager “pirar” .
mas não vou discutir .
porque TODO MUNDO tem que ler livros que tenha realmente um conteudo (não que twilight não tenha) culturistico, ou que seja escrito por grandes autores .
mas, não podemos ler nada que desafie a imaginação (isso foi ironico) .
OK does not I’ll be arguing with such people, stuck-up than the rest of the world. seems you do not read things right. and aproposito, I am a psychologist trained, working 10 years in this area and good, I like twilight. does not sound exactly as you described here, hannah. I have two teenage daughters. THEY NEVER INFLUENCED TWILIGHT OF A BAD WAY.
oh, and edward is not a romantic guy? may not be for you that is old and no longer feel “horny” the passion when you’re young. if you read carefully and know so much about Twilight “hannah housewife stuck-up than, you know that one of the most famous speeches of the book and the movie is when edward tells bella: you are my life now, bella.
it makes any teenager “go crazy”.
but I will not discuss.
because everyone has to read books that really has a content (not that twilight has not) culturist, or is written by great authors.
but we can not read anything that challenges the imagination (that was ironic).
To be blunt twilght sucks tommy lee’s balls. The book has no redeaming value other than wating hours reading the millions of pages of a less than mediocre novel. stephanie meyer is a complete failure at writing. I am in the eighth grade and I have written better essays for social studies class than this failure. I’m not great but I know a million people who can write a story just as terrible as her’s. The next problem is that rob pattinson is a douchebag. He tries to act all modest and calm but he is just making himself look like an even bigger dick that before he opened his stupid mouth!!! And does anyone else think that what those two have is a healthy relationship?! It is telling people my age that you can attempt suicide just because you want to be with someone who watches you sleep! ALL NIGHT!!!!! And what is all this crap that twilight has outsold harry potter? IT IS WRONG AND THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT ARE THESE BATSH*T CRAZY FANS!!!!! The fans are friggin’ maniacs on crack. Its pretty dang sad when anyone with a computer and more ideas than common sense or writing ablility can slap together what they call a novel! Who should I be more mad at? stephanie meyer? rob patinson? the people who published the book? the batsh*t crazy fans on crack? I am so fuming I don’t even know who to be more mad at!!! Also “EDWARD” IS A RAPIST!!! One more thing before I go if you’re wondering why I dind’t capitalize edward, stephanie meyer, rob patinson, or twilight it is because they are such a failure that they don’t deserve to have their names/ tiles properly cpitalized!! I do not respect them enough to do so. The bottom line? twilight sucks. Plain and simple. It will end up being like titanic. It will earn a lot of money, be forgot about, and then years later tennage girls will say, “oh my god. I can’t believe I used to like that.” If you are a twilight fan I am glad you took the time to read this and possibly get a wake up call.
somebraSilian—
I don’t see why you being a psychologist is even the slightest bit relevant. Although, at what point in the psychologist’s training you expect me to believe you had were you taught that an ad hominem attack is an effective way to persuade people round to your way of thinking? Because, you know… it isn’t.
I didn’t “read it right”, huh? Let’s see: Edward follows Bella without her knowledge, climbs into her room to watch her sleep, leaves her near-suicidal after telling her he doesn’t love her anymore, blames *her* for the consequences because she believed him, forbids her from seeing her friend, disables her car, keeps her under house arrest, messes with her head by alternately telling her that she should stay away from him and that she can’t survive without his protection, wants to forcibly abort her baby and offers her to Jacob to have sex with without her knowledge or permission. These things all happen. These things are all abusive. These things are all portrayed as romantic in the books. Therefore, the books portray abusive behaviour as romantic. There’s really not much to get wrong there.
I’m eighteen. I’m younger than you if your story about being a trained psychologist is correct. It probably isn’t, since your post is more in line with the comments of thirteen-year-old Twitards who aren’t able to logically defend these books and have to resort to petty insults, but that doesn’t change the fact that your assessment of me is dramatically wrong. “Housewife”? “Stuck-up?” Please. There’s nothing that indicates that these things are true of me in my comments. I’m a teenage girl who appreciates competently written books which promote healthy messages, and who actually doesn’t go crazy for a guy who is such an obsessive, dependent loser that he has no life whatsoever outside me. “Housewife” and “Stuck-up” aptly describe Bella Swan, though, and the suggestion that she and Edward are remotely passionate or “horny” is hilarious. It’s the most boringly chaste and cold (pun intended) relationship I’ve ever read about.
And oh, look at how you’ve contradicted yourself—teenage girls aren’t influenced by Twilight (because, if you even have two teenage daughters, of course they must be representative of *all* teens) and yet they all go crazy for Edward? On the one hand you’re trying to tell me I’m wrong to believe that people will fall for Edward Cullen; on the other hand you’re suggesting I’m strange for *not* falling for him. Do you see how that doesn’t work at all?
Are you seriously suggesting that Twilight challenges the imagination? Just… read a good book. Please.