She gets her way in just about everything, and not by sitting around waiting for it to fall into her lap. She makes demands and she compromises.
She decides to attempt suicide to hear Edward's voice--but 'accidentally', not in a way that can be traced to admitting to have conscious motives. Her life is a series of blank pages without Edward or Jacob around to give her meaning and purpose by being men romantically interested in her. Her demands consist of asking Edward to turn her but repeatedly giving in to weddings and big parties that she claims not to want.
Depends on what you mean by "war-like." That has negative connotations to me. But I never said showing women warriors was bad. I said that very often works that do that are actually presenting men with boobs and calling them women, and that they very often explicitly insult any woman who cannot or does not want to be a warrior, and look down on things like needlework.
That's one of my pet peeves too--the woman who presents as superior because she's just like men and hates women who do needlework. :) Or in fandom, making the fanauthor's supposed Strong Woman enjoy feeding the hated Weak Woman to crocodiles.
Alice is the most powerful Cullen, one of the most powerful vampires in the world, powerful enough for the Volturi to want to recruit her. They want Alice and don't particularly care about any of the other Cullens. Rosalie doesn't actually have any vampire power, but lots of vampires don't, including Emmett and Dr. Cullen. And I don't see why Bella's power should be discounted or looked down on because it's defensive. That makes no sense at all to me. It's like saying body armor is useless.
Edward is also regarded as powerful, and Alice is often depicted as obeying his orders within the Cullen family--for example, kidnapping Bella at his request. In actual fight scenes with Victoria and others, Edward tends to have more action while Alice is protected by Jasper, even though she's supposed to be equal. Rosalie is presented as being so beautiful it's close to a superpower for her. Body armour and shielding powers are not useless in themselves, but giving the female character the defensive power is part of a sexist pattern. I think I'd also have been more impressed if Meyer had Bella use her powers in some strategic, interesting way rather than being granted suddenly large amounts of power basically at authorial will. For example, Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four has invisible force fields as a power and comes up with innovative ways to use them in combat.
There would be zero vampire romance novels if we said that people must always run away from those who pose a real danger to them. There would be a lot fewer romance novels, period. Perhaps this is a kink someone has to share to understand, but it is not something that should be condemned.
I think it's Bad Writing in Twilight. There are better ways to plot out a story where the psychological realism can come alongside the fantasy, or where the fantasy is emphasised enough that the dissonance is no longer felt between realistic setting and poorly characterised behaviour.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2012-06-12 06:07 pm (UTC)She decides to attempt suicide to hear Edward's voice--but 'accidentally', not in a way that can be traced to admitting to have conscious motives. Her life is a series of blank pages without Edward or Jacob around to give her meaning and purpose by being men romantically interested in her. Her demands consist of asking Edward to turn her but repeatedly giving in to weddings and big parties that she claims not to want.
Depends on what you mean by "war-like." That has negative connotations to me. But I never said showing women warriors was bad. I said that very often works that do that are actually presenting men with boobs and calling them women, and that they very often explicitly insult any woman who cannot or does not want to be a warrior, and look down on things like needlework.
That's one of my pet peeves too--the woman who presents as superior because she's just like men and hates women who do needlework. :) Or in fandom, making the fanauthor's supposed Strong Woman enjoy feeding the hated Weak Woman to crocodiles.
Alice is the most powerful Cullen, one of the most powerful vampires in the world, powerful enough for the Volturi to want to recruit her. They want Alice and don't particularly care about any of the other Cullens. Rosalie doesn't actually have any vampire power, but lots of vampires don't, including Emmett and Dr. Cullen. And I don't see why Bella's power should be discounted or looked down on because it's defensive. That makes no sense at all to me. It's like saying body armor is useless.
Edward is also regarded as powerful, and Alice is often depicted as obeying his orders within the Cullen family--for example, kidnapping Bella at his request. In actual fight scenes with Victoria and others, Edward tends to have more action while Alice is protected by Jasper, even though she's supposed to be equal. Rosalie is presented as being so beautiful it's close to a superpower for her. Body armour and shielding powers are not useless in themselves, but giving the female character the defensive power is part of a sexist pattern. I think I'd also have been more impressed if Meyer had Bella use her powers in some strategic, interesting way rather than being granted suddenly large amounts of power basically at authorial will. For example, Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four has invisible force fields as a power and comes up with innovative ways to use them in combat.
There would be zero vampire romance novels if we said that people must always run away from those who pose a real danger to them. There would be a lot fewer romance novels, period. Perhaps this is a kink someone has to share to understand, but it is not something that should be condemned.
I think it's Bad Writing in Twilight. There are better ways to plot out a story where the psychological realism can come alongside the fantasy, or where the fantasy is emphasised enough that the dissonance is no longer felt between realistic setting and poorly characterised behaviour.