Scary Stuff for Halloween: Twilight on Feminism, and my Howling at New Moon: the End of the World is Nigh!

OK.  I am very opinionated and occasionally judgmental.  I recognize these as flaws and I am working on them.  When I saw the Twilight series last year at my local bookstore on display I took one look at the summary and said, "Great another bunch of Vampire Cr*p."  Then proceded to buy something completely different.

I don't particularly have a problem with Vampire stories, there are many different ways in which they can be interesting themes: immortality, power, the struggle between good and evil.  But I suspected, on superficial prejudice of the book summary alone, that this series was focused on a theme that makes me utterly uncomfortable: damsel in distress saved by stronger wiser knight in shining armor.  Personally, I got over that theme when I was two. 

But ever since last year, when the movie came out, I have been wondering if I was just being closed minded.  The movie did so well, the following is huge.  I thought, maybe I was wrong.  Maybe there is something I am missing, and I should follow it.  Well, it's true, I was missing something, and it is deep, dark and scary.  But it isn't the Vampires.

I want to start by giving credit to Stephanie Meyer for getting published in the first place, which means she put in a lot of work, created some compelling characters and then signed a movie deal sure to sell big.  That took a lot of effort on her part and it is worthy of commendation.

But...(you knew that was coming right?) it has resulted in a dangerous weapon for the destruction of the feminine identity.  The problem that Stephanie Meyers faces is similar to the problem that Robert Oppenheimer and his colleagues ran into when they perfected the Nuclear Bomb.  What happens when the culmination of your thoughts and imagination, can be manipulated to destroy humanity or at least a part of it?  What happens when you realize that you knew that all along, and that you were working on a flawed application of an interesting premise?

Do those seem like extreme parallels?  After all it is only a book series, right?  It's only a movie series, right?  Well, that depends on whether you are a human living on the planet who values a mutual respect and equality between the genders or whether you espouse more "traditional" views on the roles of men and women.  Decide carefully, this is a double edged sword.

For my part, I have obviously long decided, though deciding has not made it any easier to live with.   I believe that if women are victims and men are heroes, the world is weak and unstable.  I hold to Plato for support.  He came to this conclusion in antiquity and exposed it in his work the Republic.  To summarize, the best service to society comes from persons of both genders who are strong and integral, respectful of each other, and eager to work together.  This does not necessarily mean an absolute equality between men and women, we are so different that trying to make us identical is as pointless as making blue equal red.  They are different colors, self-standing and unique, and not intended to be one or the other.  They are both nice shades in their own right and attractive for different reasons.  When they mix evenly we get the lovely color purple...the color of royalty and power.  In other words, when men can be men, and women can be women, and we can both be together, we are a lovely bunch of humans.  I'm not saying this is easy, but it is necessary for a great society.

So what does all of that have to do with Twilight?   Well, if I wanted to take the polar opposite thinking, and package it into a format that would sell well to the masses, and then make a fortune by selling out humanity's greater ideal for a lesser, baser concept of human, that was already proven flawed thousands of years ago, then I could change my name to Stephanie Meyer and write these books.

As I put in the DVD for Twilight, which I finally buckled into buying because I wanted to keep an open mind, I had no great expectations.  But I was willing to be pleasantly surprised.  As the movie progressed, I found myself furiously taking notes and shouting "Come on!" at the screen.  My husband was amused.  He thinks it's charming that I get so worked up about things and wind up shouting at the TV like a crazed football fan.  But I asked him if he didn't see what I was seeing, and he agreed, there is definitely an agenda in the Twilight series, and it is not one that we particularly want our young men and women to espouse if our aim is for a greater, stronger, wiser society.

So here are my notes of what is really scary in Twilight.  If you found other things please feel free to comment.

1)  Right off the bat, this young woman has the potential to be an interesting character.  She might have been a deep thinking young woman, who is able to stand on her own two feet.  She is clearly written to represent those values, but she is shown as a flawed independent.  She is weak, she is pale, she has no inherent vibrancy.  The author will not allow her to glow on her own.

2)  When Bella meets Edward he smells her and appears repelled or convulsively attracted, whatever.  Instead of thinking what I believe any normal, well adjusted, sixteen year old girl would think: "Weirdo!" our Anti-Heroine is self-conscious.  Does she smell?  Why doesn't this strange and irritating young man like her?  That is the absolute worst thing we want young women to think.  One guy doesn't like you, so what?  There are several hundred others at the school.  Go after them, or stand on your own two feet and move on.

3)  Consistently in the beginning of the story, Edward acts like a psycho.  He is the type of young man that would be likely to be a dangerous and abusive boyfriend in the real world.  There are hundreds of young men like this, they are called predators.  In fact, in the story Edward IS a predator.  But instead of writing a heroine that is sharp enough to pick up on that and steer clear, Stephanie creates an anti-heroine who is attracted to this destructive character.  This is the oldest sterotype in the world: girls like the bad boys, the worse you treat women, the more they like it.  Thanks, Stephanie Meyer, for reinforcing these prejudices, and VALIDATING them, by getting a bunch of young people to identify with this weak anti-heroine. 

4)  With incredibly nauseating irony, Bella actually encourages one of her female friends from school to ask a guy she likes to prom by saying, "Take control.  You're a strong, independent woman."  Please!  Those words are so hollow coming from a young woman who walks head on into a tragic circumstance and who doesn't do a thing to defend herself and sharpen herself up.  Knowing you can ask a guy out to prom if you want to means very little.  Knowing you don't have to live life as a victim means a lot.  Teach young women that!

5)  Edward actually stalks Bella.  He follows her around in an extremely creepy way.  We know how many real young women are victims to violence because of this obsessive and unhealthy behavior on the part of young men who also think they are supposed to save them and protect them, whether or not they want to be saved and protected.  This is a real issue in our society.  To romanticize it is profane.

6)  In the epitomy of the anti-heroine's fall into the abyss of madness, we have the sick dialogue on the hill between Bella and Edward.  I have to quote it here, as it is beyond belief:

Edward:  I was designed to kill.
Bella:  I don't care.
Edward: I've killed people before.
Bella: Doesn't matter.
Edward: I want to kill you right now.
Bella: I trust you.

This is when I pray for the psychiatrist to arrive and confine Bella immediately before she commits suicide.  Really?!  This is how we want young women to respond when they are confronted with an abusive boyfriend or a predator?  We want them to trust him, because they feel that they are somehow hiding a beautiful sweet core deep inside those thousands of layers of FREAK?  Young women please!  The minute a guy says, "I was designed to kill," the only appropriate response is, "I was designed to get the f*ck out of here!"

7)  Edward has all the power: he's faster, stronger, he can fly.  Bella can only ride on his back, otherwise she's weak and helpless.  He is such a 'gentleman' but he puts her in danger.  He encourages her to run away from home, from a father who might really be able to protect her, and to lie her parents about it.  This is how you end up inprisoned by a cult, enslaved to a pimp, or just one of the many missing girls whose bodies have not yet been found.  It is scary stuff indeed.  Not even slightly romantic.  It is Gothic, and the last time that these gothic values were so espoused, women were oppressed and enslaved in homes that were tantamount to prisons, unable to hold property, unable to vote.  We were there already, many great women died to get us out of there, and we don't want to go back.

8)  This whole thing isn't even about Vampires and the Vampire myth.  Let's face it, it is a weak analogy for the loss of virginity, and the quandry over whether or not to give your virginity to a particular man.  Edward doesn't bite Bella at prom even though she asks him for it, because he is such a gentleman.  Aww.  Cute.  Bella: get laid!  ASAP.  By anyone who isn't a creep.  Get it out of your system.  Get real.  The wolf-boy Native American dude seems cute.  Just don't get too attached because in the end, it's really not that big a deal.  There'll be more men, good men.  You'll meet them, you'll bed some of them, you won't bed others.  Eventually, you'll find a man who is both good in bed and good out of bed.  The first time is just a way to get started, and then you have to find your own way from there.  I am not actually trying to promote promiscuity, and I probably would tell a sixteen year old that she doesn't have to be in any particular rush, but the mystique of sex is what Stephanie Meyers is preying on with her character of Edward.  We all know that around sixteen there is plenty of curiosity, and even some actual exploration.  If I had to chose to have my daughter explore or be mystified by a predator, I'd have her explore responsibly, taking appropriate precautions, and above all other things knowing it is SHE who has all the power, SHE who has all the control, and SHE who gets to pick the partner or reject him. 

That is what Stephanie Meyer fails to teach young women.  It is just as true for young men.  Being an integral person, learning to work comfortably within the confines of society's standards for our gender roles, and our own views of the universe is hard work.  Fraught with errors.  You will get the balance wrong, you will go through highs and lows, you must fight to find the balance.  When you forfeit your right to chose from the beginning you wind up frustrated and empty and have bad dreams at night, like Ms. Meyers.

Stephanie Meyers mentions that the book is the product of a dream.  Or nightmare, whatever.  The truth is, Stephanie, these dreams are normal.  We all have them.  Our subconscious is analyzing the various roles we can fit, the various elements of a persona that we can espouse, and it is up to our conscious mind to decide how to interpret them.  But a responsible adult doesn't put these things to print as potential archetypes for impressionable minds to absorb as truth, without putting them in check.  Words are weapons.  If you have created the atom bomb, you may not be very happy when Okinawa ends up toast and millions of people in a generation face a scarier, darker world.

Stephanie Meyer also points out that she took the name Edward from Mr. Rochester by Bronte and Mr. Ferrars by Austen.  I have to ask, Stephanie, were Cliff's Notes a big part of your literary education?  Such a superficial understanding of the works of these fine literary women can have no other excuse.  The Bronte sisters were victims of the societal values that Stephanie Meyers presents in her work.  Their only form of escape from the confines of their over-protective homes was by writing.  Their heroines were true heroines, none-the-less, fighting their own fight.  And Austen, madam, Austen would be likely to dub you just another Catherine Morland.  Read the full 'Northhanger Abbey,' then re-read 'Sense and Sensibility,' you seem to have missed the point entirely.

This isn't merely a feminist issue.  Certainly, the roles of women have direct impact on the roles of men, and vice-versa.  I doubt that the majority of well-adjusted males out there want to be coupled with utterly helpless and weak females.  It might be attractive to be the hero, and there is something certainly noble in the male wiring that helps them help us when we cannot help ourselves, but that is not the everyday reality of life.  It is not the rule.  There are times as well when men are saved by the concern, charity and nurturing of women.  There are times when men are the nurturers.  There are times when women are the warriors.  All of these things can be true without making any of them less valid.  But one of them cannot be the predominant norm and the only permissible role, or society would fall apart.

All things said and done, when it comes to Vampires, the only one sucking the blood and soul out of our young women and our young men is Stephanie Meyers herself, the Publishers of her books, and the Producers of the films based on those works.  All I can say is:  Where's Buffy when you need her?