I love the Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight Series. There, I said it.
I’ve read all four books, plus the unreleased “Edward version” of Twilight. I also own the movie, and my adoring husband already pre-purchased my tickets for “New Moon” when he was being extra thoughtful one day. I’ve made two custom Twilight cakes for customers (<——one pictured here) and I’ll go so far as to admit I own an Edward Cullen shoulder bag. Okay, so maybe I even almost lifted a full size Edward Cullen cutout from the Hot Topic at Yorktown Mall. Go ahead and laugh your ass off, I’m not ashamed. That character makes me feel like I’m in heat for the first time in… wait…how old is my son? That’s right – 3 years, 3 months, and 3 days. That’s how long it’s been since I wanted to rub myself against someone.
But, it seems that few in the feminist community share my love for this series. It downright pisses the ladies off. I get it… I really do. You have a hapless female lead who’s tripping all over own feet – until along comes a beautiful, mysterious man who rescues her from herself. Problem is, he could kill her quicker than she could scream “domestic violence” and he controls every move she makes in an order to “protect” her from others. But even though he’s lethal, she’s madly in love with him and becomes suicidal when he tries to leave her. She lusts after him incessantly, but he denies all her advances for fear that she will corrupt him. She then ultimately sacrifices her life in order to be with him because being his partner is all she dreams of doing with the rest of her days.
Wow… sounds like a super functional relationship, right? Is it any wonder that the feminists are angry?
Well, I see it a little differently. We’re talking about literature here. It’s Art. Fiction. It’s not oppressing anybody. So, Why so serious, ladies?
I suppose that some could argue that this book tells impressionable young girls, who are the Twilight saga’s core audience, that Bella and Edward’s relationship is somehow a model of what real loving relationships should look like. I definitely wouldn’t want my teen thinking that that. But come on – since when did art have to be anything but an outlet? Since when did fiction have to be anything but an expression of fantasy? Books are meant to be an escape into a different world. Meyers is not trying to indoctrinate our youth. She simply had a fantastic story to tell, and it happened to have resonated with young, hormonal girls (and desperate housewives all over this country.)
I fear that the people who make the moral or feminist argument against this series are also the same people who claim that Marilyn Manson causes teens to shoot up libraries. Rock music does not make monsters out of children, and Stephanie Meyers’s Twilight series is not going to single-handedly turn our bright, feminist daughters into Stepford wives. If your teen daughter does not know what a healthy, loving relationship looks like, then you’ve got bigger problems than Meyers writing a few novels of questionable literary value.
It’s a book. Before you go burning it, decide whether you really want to be burning other female authors’ works simply because you do not find them entertaining.
I, for one, like escaping into a world where lust, danger, love, action, adventure, and mystery can be wrapped up into a one series that makes me feel the orgasmic aching of Passion again. Can't you just see the sizzle coming off that word? Remember, the fleeting hot love that existed before babies and mortgages and washing machine repairs extinguished any fire in your loins? These books are an indulgence, and I think Meyers hit herself a home run with these stories.
And that is The Feminist Breeder’s word on it.
Now discuss……….
I cringe at the idea of ascribing the description of "art" to this series of horribly written, purple prose, Mary Sue laden excuse for literature. I hate the viewpoint it's promoting and romanticizing, while still acknowledging there's nothing wrong with fantasy (I mean, people have rape fantasies too, right?) and that these books aren't CAUSING young girls to go out and live unfulfilled lives bearing children in trailer parks and abusive relationships.
Like lots of things, this series is just a symptom of the overlying societal problems; the fact that this IS a fantasy for so many women, when it's so obviously a twisted and demeaning relationship is a symptom of the subjugated role women are socialized to have. It's like bestiality porn. Sure, lots of people have it as a fantasy but would never act on it. That doesn't mean that it's a healthy expression of sexuality, and that doesn't mean it should be glorified or normalized.
A feminist can read these books. She can even enjoy them. I grapple with trying to understand how any true feminist COULD enjoy them, but I won't fall into a true Scotsman fallacy and tell you that she can't.
What I will say is that the disease of gender inequality rages on. And if our reaction is not to treat symptoms like this by taking the cultural equivalent of some tylenol (chase this with some REAL feminist literature, like some MacKinnon or bell hooks) but to fan the flames of the fever, then we're all screwed.
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