I'm going to hell.
Why? Because I just paid to watch Twilight.
It was hilariously bad. I haven't read the books, but I've read a ton of teen angst novels in my youth that were better (and worse), and it pretty much followed the same formulaic format, except for one thing. I found this very interesting in fact, especially in relation to my casual study of human behavior.
The main character doesn't learn anything, and does not become stronger in the end.
I might have to become a champion of anti-Stephanie Meyer, because it would appear that her books are encouraging girls to be 1) Weak, 2) Entirely dependent on a male figure and his family, thereby 3) Separating oneself from/weakening ties with one's own family, 4) Obsessive about the aforementioned male figure to the point of hysteria, and 5) Immature.
All of the Young Adult novels that I used to read had some kind of character growth at the end. The female lead would always have learned something, become stronger, and usually found love. In Twilight, she only finds love. In fact, the love seems kind of destructive, causing her to act immaturely, dependent, obsessive and at the same time passive. It looks, frankly, like the beginning stages of a relationship leading to domestic abuse.
From what my friends say about Stephanie Meyer herself, the movie might actually be a better metaphor for the kind of woman that she is, than anything else.
I would guess that she is unhappily married to a man who is a doormat, and provides for her in the usual ways but lacks passion for her entirely. Maybe an arranged marriage. She doesn't think he can really take care of her, and thinks he is weak. She most likely was a loner during her school years, an outcast for some reason and deemed by most social circles to be wholly undesirable. I bet she struggled with self-esteem issues a lot, and while that is normal for girls growing up, I think those self-esteem issues have not gone away for her. The result? An intense romanticization of Obsessive Desire. She wishes, she yearns, she aches for someone to DESIRE her in capital letters, to be obsessed with her, to never want to leave her side. She wants someone to want her as much as she wants to be wanted. Say that 5 times fast.
And obviously, she has never experienced this before in her life. Because if she had, she would know that it's not all Sparkling Wangs and rainbows; it's creepy and frightening and dangerous. If she had ever experienced a relationship where the man was as obsessive and over-protective as the love interest, she would have gotten abused, and this story would be a lot darker. Vampires are pretty vanilla, you have to admit. And so are sparkly wangs.
The worst thing is that the girl falls victim! It's the classic tale of falling in love with the "bad boy", only she doesn't learn anything in the end. Instead she seeks to find empowerment by making him turn her into a vampire; she immaturely demands that he do something that he is morally opposed to, using emotional blackmail to twist his arm. "Don't you want us to be together forever?" or something like that. He doesn't want to do it because he knows that it would only mean an eternity of suffering for her, but she's so stupid that all she cares about is staying together with this guy she met 3 months ago. What about her father and mother, whom she supposedly loves? What about her friends? Oh wait, I forgot that those people don't matter once you find the "love of your life".
The whole thing is so basely immature. And while that's fine in some sense (it panders to the preteen crowd after all), I can't help but feel that it only glorifies immaturity in young girls. It only makes them want to be DESIRED, at all costs, and to selfishly demand this DESIRE from other people without any reason or knowledge of repercussions. This is already a major problem in society. Women don't feel bad about themselves because their bodies aren't perfect; they feel bad about themselves because they have this expectation that they have to be DESIRED in an unhealthy, obsessive manner. Because most of them don't experience this unhealthy level of desire from a man, they think something is wrong with them (usually their bodies, because that is the most obvious thing to blame). These sorts of books are fuel for self-esteem issues. While it's fun to read them when you're 12, I really hope girls don't find out the hard way that love like that doesn't normally exist for a very good reason.
It was hilariously bad. I haven't read the books, but I've read a ton of teen angst novels in my youth that were better (and worse), and it pretty much followed the same formulaic format, except for one thing. I found this very interesting in fact, especially in relation to my casual study of human behavior.
The main character doesn't learn anything, and does not become stronger in the end.
I might have to become a champion of anti-Stephanie Meyer, because it would appear that her books are encouraging girls to be 1) Weak, 2) Entirely dependent on a male figure and his family, thereby 3) Separating oneself from/weakening ties with one's own family, 4) Obsessive about the aforementioned male figure to the point of hysteria, and 5) Immature.
All of the Young Adult novels that I used to read had some kind of character growth at the end. The female lead would always have learned something, become stronger, and usually found love. In Twilight, she only finds love. In fact, the love seems kind of destructive, causing her to act immaturely, dependent, obsessive and at the same time passive. It looks, frankly, like the beginning stages of a relationship leading to domestic abuse.
From what my friends say about Stephanie Meyer herself, the movie might actually be a better metaphor for the kind of woman that she is, than anything else.
I would guess that she is unhappily married to a man who is a doormat, and provides for her in the usual ways but lacks passion for her entirely. Maybe an arranged marriage. She doesn't think he can really take care of her, and thinks he is weak. She most likely was a loner during her school years, an outcast for some reason and deemed by most social circles to be wholly undesirable. I bet she struggled with self-esteem issues a lot, and while that is normal for girls growing up, I think those self-esteem issues have not gone away for her. The result? An intense romanticization of Obsessive Desire. She wishes, she yearns, she aches for someone to DESIRE her in capital letters, to be obsessed with her, to never want to leave her side. She wants someone to want her as much as she wants to be wanted. Say that 5 times fast.
And obviously, she has never experienced this before in her life. Because if she had, she would know that it's not all Sparkling Wangs and rainbows; it's creepy and frightening and dangerous. If she had ever experienced a relationship where the man was as obsessive and over-protective as the love interest, she would have gotten abused, and this story would be a lot darker. Vampires are pretty vanilla, you have to admit. And so are sparkly wangs.
The worst thing is that the girl falls victim! It's the classic tale of falling in love with the "bad boy", only she doesn't learn anything in the end. Instead she seeks to find empowerment by making him turn her into a vampire; she immaturely demands that he do something that he is morally opposed to, using emotional blackmail to twist his arm. "Don't you want us to be together forever?" or something like that. He doesn't want to do it because he knows that it would only mean an eternity of suffering for her, but she's so stupid that all she cares about is staying together with this guy she met 3 months ago. What about her father and mother, whom she supposedly loves? What about her friends? Oh wait, I forgot that those people don't matter once you find the "love of your life".
The whole thing is so basely immature. And while that's fine in some sense (it panders to the preteen crowd after all), I can't help but feel that it only glorifies immaturity in young girls. It only makes them want to be DESIRED, at all costs, and to selfishly demand this DESIRE from other people without any reason or knowledge of repercussions. This is already a major problem in society. Women don't feel bad about themselves because their bodies aren't perfect; they feel bad about themselves because they have this expectation that they have to be DESIRED in an unhealthy, obsessive manner. Because most of them don't experience this unhealthy level of desire from a man, they think something is wrong with them (usually their bodies, because that is the most obvious thing to blame). These sorts of books are fuel for self-esteem issues. While it's fun to read them when you're 12, I really hope girls don't find out the hard way that love like that doesn't normally exist for a very good reason.