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Edward's Dangerous and I Don't Mind
I want to make something clear before I go on with Twilight, because this comes up over and over again. People yell about Bella being "stupid" for wanting Edward, since he is deadly dangerous and has to fight down the urge to kill her. The fact that Edward is deadly and has cravings to kill Bella does not bother me, nor do I think she is stupid for wanting to be with him. In fact, if this book were well-written, I would enjoy this relationship dynamic.
Twilight is a romantic fantasy. Many women, self included, like to fantasize about dangerous men. I don't worry that girls are going to read Twilight and think they should seek out men who want to harm them. I'm someone who likes dangerous men in fantasy and I have never been drawn to abusive men in real life.
When critics rail about Edward being dangerous because he thirsts for Bella's blood, they're missing the point. The entire reason for this fantasy is that Edward is dangerous to Bella. Critics who freak out like this also usually seem to think that girls are going to follow in Bella's footsteps. Those critics are basically saying that girls can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and that's pretty insulting.
These critics are also missing something that I think might be one reason the books are so popular. I've seen a lot of criticism of the fact that Edward could easily harm and even kill Bella. Most teenage boys could easily harm and even kill most teenage girls, if they wanted to. Edward is like an assault rifle where most boys are revolvers, but once you get to "strong enough to completely incapacitate me easily," extra strength doesn't matter all that much. Heroines who kick ass are nice, but a book that acknowledges the reality of male vs. female physical strength and tells girls that they don't have to be ashamed for being physically weaker than boys is also nice. Or would be, if it were written well, which Twilight isn't.
Much of speculative fiction has heroines who are basically men with boobs, and who can do everything any man can do physically. The heroine often legitimizes herself through beating men at a physical game. These works often say in so many words that a woman who cannot or does not want to do this is weak, stupid, and utterly worthless. More stuff is being written now that does not do that, but it's still common.
So along comes Twilight. It lavishes attention on Edward's looks. Edward's dangerous. And Bella isn't some Action Girl: she's the opposite, in fact! Twilight is one of those strange books that, if I only look at the plot outline and certain important themes, I think I would like; then I open the book and start ranting about subject-verb agreement. I truly can see why so many girls and women like Twilight, though -- their imaginations are doing the book's work for it. Most bestsellers are just plain terrible, and I have no desire to analyze them. Twilight is more interesting than those.
I only wish Meyer could write with a minimal level of competence. And that she'd get rid of the misogyny, racism, and classism.
Twilight is a romantic fantasy. Many women, self included, like to fantasize about dangerous men. I don't worry that girls are going to read Twilight and think they should seek out men who want to harm them. I'm someone who likes dangerous men in fantasy and I have never been drawn to abusive men in real life.
When critics rail about Edward being dangerous because he thirsts for Bella's blood, they're missing the point. The entire reason for this fantasy is that Edward is dangerous to Bella. Critics who freak out like this also usually seem to think that girls are going to follow in Bella's footsteps. Those critics are basically saying that girls can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and that's pretty insulting.
These critics are also missing something that I think might be one reason the books are so popular. I've seen a lot of criticism of the fact that Edward could easily harm and even kill Bella. Most teenage boys could easily harm and even kill most teenage girls, if they wanted to. Edward is like an assault rifle where most boys are revolvers, but once you get to "strong enough to completely incapacitate me easily," extra strength doesn't matter all that much. Heroines who kick ass are nice, but a book that acknowledges the reality of male vs. female physical strength and tells girls that they don't have to be ashamed for being physically weaker than boys is also nice. Or would be, if it were written well, which Twilight isn't.
Much of speculative fiction has heroines who are basically men with boobs, and who can do everything any man can do physically. The heroine often legitimizes herself through beating men at a physical game. These works often say in so many words that a woman who cannot or does not want to do this is weak, stupid, and utterly worthless. More stuff is being written now that does not do that, but it's still common.
So along comes Twilight. It lavishes attention on Edward's looks. Edward's dangerous. And Bella isn't some Action Girl: she's the opposite, in fact! Twilight is one of those strange books that, if I only look at the plot outline and certain important themes, I think I would like; then I open the book and start ranting about subject-verb agreement. I truly can see why so many girls and women like Twilight, though -- their imaginations are doing the book's work for it. Most bestsellers are just plain terrible, and I have no desire to analyze them. Twilight is more interesting than those.
I only wish Meyer could write with a minimal level of competence. And that she'd get rid of the misogyny, racism, and classism.
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Most teenage boys could easily harm and even kill most teenage girls, if they wanted to.
Yet most teenage girls are quite so ridiculously helpless and passive as Bella. Perhaps it's her passivity that helps to make her an audience-blank-slate, but Meyer makes her almost pathologically clumsy (though never given in the text as an actual medical condition) as well as physically fragile. There are teenage girls who play sports, who kickbox, who feel physically confident in themselves, and I think presenting women of a warlike bent can be empowering.
As well, while the reality is that the bell curve of boys' physical strength is different to the bell curve of girls' physical strength (though these overlap), when supernatural elements come into play there is no reason why girls should not have equal access to these powers. The pattern is too frequently a powerful male supernatural boyfriend and a helpless female human girl. When there is no reason why girls cannot access this fantasy skill set, it's as sexist as portraying men as brilliant scholastic geniuses and women as barely sapient creatures with the intelligence of hamsters. Alice, Rosalie, and eventually Bella have some vampiric powers, but Rosalie's is beauty-based and Bella's is passive and defensive.
There are also many forms of strength that don't come in stereotypically masculine flavours and are therefore not acknowledged as often as they ought to be. I don't think Bella has any of them. The text claims she's self-sacrificing when she's whiny, in true love when she has a case of teenage depression, a brave and noble mother trying to protect her daughter while she and Edward aid and abet vampiric murderers who eat people.
I think it would be more psychologically realistic to back away from the killer who claims he wants to eat you, unless the character is portrayed as the sort of person who writes letters to serial killers--and the text should give a clue that something's wrong with them. Stories don't have to stick to psychological realism, but when they're ostensibly set in the real contemporary world and have details about daily life at an ordinary high school, there is dissonance when the psychology and characterisation fails. As it does frequently in the Twilight series.
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Bella is not an audience-blank-slate. I know Meyer said she intended Bella to be an audience-blank-slate, but Meyer can't write, so whatever her intentions are, she is incapable of translating them to the page. Bella has a very clear and very definite personality. She instinctively lies before telling the truth even when there's no reason to lie; she's severely depressed; she intensely hates everything but a couple Cullens and the sun, especially herself; she is psychologically disconnected from her own bodily reactions; she is self-obsessed; she hates greenery and math and thinks reading Wuthering Heights is fun; she has a creepy father, a scatterbrained mother, and no one has ever taken care of her. Nor is Bella as passive as she's often accused of being. 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.
I think presenting women of a warlike bent can be empowering.
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.
Alice, Rosalie, and eventually Bella have some vampiric powers, but Rosalie's is beauty-based and Bella's is passive and defensive.
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.
I think it would be more psychologically realistic to back away from the killer who claims he wants to eat you, unless the character is portrayed as the sort of person who writes letters to serial killers--and the text should give a clue that something's wrong with them.
This is a sexual and romantic fantasy, wherever and whenever it's set. While I would like Bella to struggle more against her love for Edward, because that would be more interesting and might actually give us some character growth, there would not be any point to the book if she just stayed away from him or if he was not a danger to her. 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.
As for giving a clue that something's wrong with Bella -- well, Bella thinks everything's wrong with Bella. Loudly. Constantly. It's really, really, really annoying, and a large part of what makes this book such a slog.
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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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a book that acknowledges the reality of male vs. female physical strength and tells girls that they don't have to be ashamed for being physically weaker than boys is also nice. Or would be, if it were written well, which Twilight isn't. Much of speculative fiction has heroines who are basically men with boobs, and who can do everything any man can do physically. The heroine often legitimizes herself through beating men at a physical game. These works often say in so many words that a woman who cannot or does not want to do this is weak, stupid, and utterly worthless.
Agree so much. I've complained about it a lot of times, so you know all my thoughts there. And I agree with what you're saying about the fantasy.
Part of the problem, though, is that a lot of people - maybe because they're new to fantasies put in writing, maybe because they have poor judgment, IDK - don't acknowledge the fantasy aspect. There are girls/women who talk about Edward as an objectively romantic figure. There is a resolute determination, it seems like, among fans (and critics, you're right there) to not treat it like a kink. There's a certain atmosphere of "I understand that this is not for RL" that I feel in discussions about kinks that I just don't perceive at all with Twilight fandom.
The blank-slate/severe-problems readings of Bella's personality aren't mutually exclusive, I think. It's just Watsonian vs. Doylist.
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On the other hand, there are adult women in Twilight fandom. Some of them treat it like a fantasy. But others don't, and will even argue that Edward is the perfect man. I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that. Mostly I think it's very sad that their standards are so low that "he doesn't try to rape her" and "he cares about her safety" make a guy some kind of god to them. I also wonder how much of it is defending a kink they don't have the words for and don't want to admit they have. Or even just defending finding a gorgeous young man physically attractive. Women aren't "supposed" to simply fantasize about sex, we're supposed to wrap it up in pretty emotional and "forever" packaging. That can lead some women to odd contortions to justify being turned on by certain things.
I find it really complicated, too complicated to judge. What I don't find complicated is that these books are written so terribly, I don't know how anyone can get through them for pleasure, unless it's the pleasure of analyzing how bad they are.