New Moon: Is Twilight's Bella Swan a bad role model?
Feminists are concerned that the Twilight heroine promotes bad relationships for young girls
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in the movie Twilight: New Moon
(Summit Entertainment)
Tens of thousands of teen girls will line up to watch Twilight: New Moon this weekend, but feminists and academics are concerned that Twilight heroine Bella Swan, a teenager who falls in love with a vampire, presents them with a poor role model. Does Twilight: New Moon promote unhealthy relationships? (Watch the trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon)
Bella is bad for young girls: The character of Bella sends a "dangerous" and "discouraging" message to young girls everywhere, says Krystal Clark in Screen Crave. The "constant influence of the male figures in her life," especially vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen, leaves her with "no identity of her own." The film's "nonchalant attitude" toward this is harmful, especially to "women in her age group who are starting to date for the first time."
“Twilight’s Bella Swan is a feminist’s nightmare”
Falling in love is not anti-feminist: These "quote-unquote feminist arguments" against Twilight are getting tiresome, says Catherine Connors at Beliefnet. People say Bella sacrifices herself for Edward, but don't forget she "fights hard" to "carve a space in this world" for their love. And in the end, she "gets what she wants," despite what Edward wants for her. "Why does love necessarily mean sublimation?"
“Why New Moon (and Twilight) just aren’t as bad as people say they are”
Twilight promotes conservative values: The values of the Twilight world are more “1809 than 2009,” says Hank Sartin in Time Out Chicago. Bella and Edward must remain chaste in case he loses control of his “insatiable bloodlust.” If feminists must get worked up, this “abstinence-only message coded through vampirism” is worrying evidence of a “conservative response to the radical changes in sexual politics of the last decade.”
“Twilight sucks”
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27 Comments
Posted by aw, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 4:06 pm oh please. shut up. everything is an issue of feminism these days.
Posted by Ellie, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:04 pm Come on!!! young girls do stupid shits not necessarily because they watch a movie!!!
Posted by Ellie, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 5:05 pm young girls are stupid , getting pregnant and shit so dont tell me that because I watched a movie where the protagonist commits suicide that means im gonna do it!!!! what the hell?
Posted by Katie, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:20 pm oh my god critics first of all Bella in the movie and Bella in the book are two completely different characters and second twenty bucks if you go to the local middle/high school you will find way worse girls than what you are describing.
Posted by Viola, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 6:44 pm One comment: Twilight is fictional.
Posted by Jennifer, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 8:52 pm Just as Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet prompts the question of love at first sight versus lust at first sight, the Twilight Saga does provide an opportunity for discussion regarding the role of possessiveness, control, concern for safety, and dependency within relationships.I love the twilight saga, don't get me wrong. But that doesn't mean the above isn't a good conversation to be having, no matter which side you eventually sway in on.
Posted by Robert Albertson, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 10:57 pm Kristen Stuart is soooooo fit.
Posted by Christina, Thursday, November 19, 2009, 7:14 am Twilight promotes values that should be taken into greater consideration by girls in this time and age. the values are certainly not conservative, especially sex after marriage, because at least this dictates an educational resolution to teenage pregnancies.
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