Team Misogyny: the Negative Influence of New Moon
Nicole
December 4, 2009
Team Misogyny: the Negative Influence of New Moon
How many times have you been asked if you are team Edward or Jacob? If you’ve never been asked, then you’re quite lucky. Of course I’m referring to the phenomenon known as the Twilight “Saga”. The movie New Moon, directed by Chris Weitz, is a sequel to the popular Twilight film and based on the painfully awful book series by Stephanie Meyer. In the first movie, an admittedly awkward girl named Bella Swan falls in love with an unnaturally strong, brooding vampire named Edward Cullen. In order for their relationship to work, Edward is forced to live a vegetarian vampire life, so to speak, and stifle his desire to attack her and drink her blood. He has trouble restraining himself and nearly kills her on several occasions. No big deal. They may be an immortal and mortal in love, but their relationship is more unhealthy than strange. He initially stalks her, then restricts where she goes, tells her what to do and makes sure he’s always keeping an eye on her. Convinced he’s her one true love, she drops all of her friends and devotes her time to him. She devotes more than a person in a relationship should.
New Moon continues with their relationship and begins with Bella’s birthday. At the ripe old age of eighteen (one whole year older than her beloved), Bella thinks she’ll soon get too old and ugly for Edwards likings. Fearing he won’t want her anymore if she continues to age, she begs him to turn her into a vampire. Not before long, Edward breaks up with her “to protect her”; she instantly becomes a distraught wreck, doing nothing but wallowing in seclusion for several months. She momentarily replaces him with Jacob, a chiseled young werewolf with anger issues, but even with him, she cannot fill the void in her life. On several occasions she even admits to being nothing without “her Edward”. Though Edward is only present for a short time during the movie, his absence says a lot about Bella as an individual. Bella, the heroine of the film (if you can even call her that), basically decides that she cannot survive without her man. Therefore, besides the movie’s shoddy dialogue and equally bad acting, the movie’s main fault is in its overall message: women need to be protected, and controlled by the big strong men in their life, enduring any abuse they may incur; without them they cannot be happy or even function properly.
As it may be understood by now, I’m no fan of the Twilight movies. Because Twilight has taken over the mass-media, I felt as though I should try to understand the hype, so I watched both movies. I spent the better part of New Moon laughing at the terribly forced acting, unsuitable soundtrack and mediocre dialogue. With lines like: “Time passes. Every tick that goes by…aches…like the pulse of blood behind a bruise…But in a way I’m glad. The pain is my only reminder that he was real”, it was hard to take the movie seriously. However, it wasn’t until the scene where Edward dumps Bella that I started to become concerned. After Edward tells her he’s leaving her, she utters the unbelievable words, “If this is about my soul, take it. I don’t want it without you.” My jaw nearly hit the floor when I heard this. To think that the lead female is so invested in her relationship that she would rather give up her soul than be alone. Immediately after dumping her, Edward leaves her stranded in the middle of the woods. You know, because he’s a gentleman. Bella then collapses on the ground and stays there, sobbing in the fetal position, uninterested in getting herself to safety. She remains there until a rugged, curiously shirtless young man comes to her rescue and carries her to safety. Immediately after she is rescued, it cuts to the next scene where Bella is sitting in a chair staring blankly out the window. Depressing music plays as the names of months appear and vanish on the screen, representing the progression of time as Bella wastes away in her room; she seems unable to do much else without Edward in her life. She has frequent nightmares, barely talks, and eats little. The girl sits alone at abandoning all of her friends to date Edward. By now, we understand what Bella has become when she is not part of a couple: nothing.
At one point in the story, Bella realizes that any encounter with danger gives her a rush of adrenaline that causes her to see a vision of Edward. Basically, her breakup has driven her insane. She starts putting herself in danger to induce these hallucinations. She walks down an alley and addresses a group of sleazy bikers, drives a rickety motorcycle, and eventually jumps off a cliff, all in hopes of catching a glimpse of her one true love. In the process she receives a head injury and nearly drowns. I’m personally surprised that people take their young daughters to see this movie.
In addition to her reckless stunts, Bella begins a dangerous relationship with her newly transformed werewolf friend Jacob who admittedly cannot stifle his intense rage. He pops up into her life with rippling muscles and a tough guy attitude. Now that he’s a werewolf, he can turn on her at any time, so being around him could prove fatal. When Jacob takes Bella to visit his home, she meets the fiancé of one of his werewolf friends. The woman has a deep scar across her face, a wound she got when she angered her boyfriend. Still, she stays with him, puts on a happy face and proceeds to serve all of the men food. It’s almost unbelievable that Bella meets a battered woman in a situation quite like her own and accepts it.
When Jacob basically breaks up with Bella, she sinks back into depression. She says “without Jake, I can’t stand it… I’m alright until I’m alone.” Once again, it’s clear that Bella thinks she needs a man to be happy. It’s nice to know the first break-up taught her a lesson.
Bella is no role model to be admired. For one, she is completely helpless and needs to be saved more often than a person should ever need to be rescued. When an evil vampire finds her alone and vulnerable in the woods, the werewolves save her. When Bella is almost attacked by one of the werewolves, Jacob runs to her rescue. When she nearly drowns trying to get a rush cliff-jumping, Jacob pulls her from the water, saving her again. It seems that Bella Swan is incapable of, as well as uninterested in, protecting herself; this seems to be why she clings to powerful men. When she is without any such man, Bella is basically devoid of any personality. She becomes an empty shell and has trouble functioning in the world. She Even with a man, her self-confidence is severely lacking; she puts herself down throughout the entire movie. When she is reunited with Edward in the end, she doesn’t understand how he could possibly want someone like her. She exclaims, “It doesn’t make sense for you to love me. I’m a nothing. A Human - nothing”. Not only is she physically weak and incompetent, but she does not value her own self worth in the slightest. What fantastic lessons for young, insecure girls!
Such young women are the target audience of the Twilight series, which is precisely what is so concerning. As this movie debuted the first weekend with $140 million, the third largest debut in cinematic history, it is clear that it is a growing phenomenon. This movie came out at the most opportune time, when there was an emergence of handfuls of vampire-related novels and TV-shows targeting young women. With the increase in popularity of shows such as True Blood, The Vampire Diaries and Moonlight, most would agree that 2009 seems to be the year of the vampire. Although many of these shows prove to be remarkably similar in structure (There are shows about mortal women dealing with the struggle to date a vampires.), they do not appear to send the same negative messages that New Moon seems to promote. In an article about the show True Blood, the author writes that,
“In a long history of girl-meets-blood-sucker fantasies, these two fictional women have taken the spotlight in the resurgence of vampire obsession. Bella slips into a controlling relationship, hoping to toss her mortality away like last year’s fashion trend. Sookie’s just looking for a good time before moving on to something that resembles a normal life.” (Susan C. Young)
It seems like Bella differs from most of the other heroines in vampire movies in shows; Sookie seems like a perfectly acceptable heroine and competent role model. Unfortunately, characters like Sookie are overshadowed by Bella as The Twilight Series is by far the most popular amongst young women. Because of this, New Moon is more responsible for the negative lessons each movie perpetuates.
Teen shops are filled with memorabilia plastered with Edward Cullen’s faces on them. If it’s not his face, it’s Jacob’s. I’ve seen countless shirts with the words “Mrs. Edward Cullen” scrawled across it. Apparently, these girls desire nothing other than being his nameless wife. The worst I’ve seen was a shirt that said, “Edward can BUST my headboard, BITE my pillows and BRUISE my body ANYDAY!” (Café press.com) It’s unbelievable how girls will demean themselves by wearing such horrible attire. Besides the obvious overt sexuality, it very plainly condones domestic violence, even trivializing it! But it’s totally okay because he’s such a hottie.
One important aspect of the new-wave vampire trend is that the story does not have the same allure and shock as it had in the days of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Now, vampire stories have a different sort of appeal; they are much more romanticized and do not really function to scare the viewer. Male vampires are seen as sexy. In the world created by Stephanie Meyer, they do not burn in the sun; instead, they merely sparkle like diamonds. Not only do they sparkle, but they are attractive in the most human ways as well. In one scene, the actor playing Edward has abs sprayed on so that he may portray Edward with a certain sex appeal. Vampires in general have more of a dangerous, bad boy image that, disturbingly enough, entrances women. If a vampire dates a human, there is always a lingering threat of not only abuse, but of death. Such a woman feels vulnerable in this situation and gives all of the control to the man in the relationship, which is apparently appealing. She takes solace, somehow, in the fact that her biggest threat is also her lover and protector. It is almost sick that little girls see vampires such as Edward Cullen as the perfect “man”, the epitome of a good boyfriend.
If Edward Cullen was simply a man, not a vampire, then his actions would send up red flags to the viewers. But of course, the movie is labeled a fantasy; the condoning of controlling, abusive relationships is deemed excusable. One blogger, Captain’s Log’s kar3ning, has caused a commotion on the internet comparing Bella and Edward’s relationship to the National Domestic Violence Hotline’s official fifteen signs that you may be in an abusive relationship. This blogger discovered that they fit most of the criteria. She writes, “Does your partner ... [try] to isolate you from family or friends? Bella doesn't have time for anyone else! … look at you or act in ways that scare you? Check! ... make all the decisions? Check! ... threaten to commit suicide? Check!” (kar3ning). The blog goes on to make several points about how unhealthy the relationship between Edward and Bella truly is - the sort of relationship that girls envy. Even with the knowledge that these relationships give girls terrible ideas about love and devotion, there is no doubt that the phenomenon will live on until at least all of the movies in the Twilight series have come and gone.
Though they may disguise themselves under the shroud of fantasy, television shows and movies like New Moon that are part of the vampire phenomenon promote the disempowerment of women and indirectly promote abusive relationships, whether they are physical or emotional. The men in the film are not to be idealized or sought after; they should be an example of what to avoid. Thanks to the Bella Swan, the feeblest heroine imaginable, New Moon itself promotes an unhealthy self image and idea of self worth in young girls in particular. It addresses but does not condemn abuse and domestic violence and seems to even promote misogyny. So, if you want to come up to me and ask me if I would rather date Edward or Jacob, you’ll soon learn that I don’t condone abusive relationships of any kind. As a woman, I have a sense of self respect and worth; I’ll opt for neither.
WORKS CITED
"Am I Being Abused?" National Domestic Violence Hotline. Web. 04 Dec. 2009.