YES.

[kezbat]

I found this article via speednik on Twitter, and I'm posting the entire text here because a) I do believe it needs to be read and b) it says exactly what I tried and failed to articulate. Also c) because I was a hardcore Buffy fan, and this whole one-step-back approach to the vampire genre fucks me off beyond reason.

Original article by Lucy Mangan

Comments

[strangefrontier]

Well said, Lucy Mangan! Articulating pretty much why I did not like either the book or the film and managed to finish neither. Well, that and Bella's whiny, petulant immaturity that really grated at the start of the book. AND THE SPARKLES. Which will never stop being hilarious. I will plough through them at some point so I can be better informed for debating the anti-feminist aspect.

[whalefish]

I'm sure when I was a kid teenage girls were into either smoking and parties or schoolwork and exam results.

When did all this vampire stuff come into play? I feel old.

[louenn]

[kezbat]

I think the point is if you want vampire-and-werewolf-based entertainment that *doesn't* portray women as sycophants who cannot live without a man and who must Do As They Are Told and have no personality and thoughts of their own, Buffy is the way to go.

It may only be a book, but it's sold directly at the most impressionable people on earth - teenage girls, specifically the younger ones. And it boggles my mind that something with that kind of message is allowed to be published!

[louenn]

[kezbat]

It's so anti-feminist it baffles me. I can understand it's all about overpowering desire and all that, but what's the message? Never mind the danger you're putting yourself in, never mind that the guy says he could kill you if he wanted to, just so long as you get to be with someone?

It doesn't sit well with me. It never has. From my point of view, it's anti-feminist and worrying.

I don't like Harry Potter either, but at least it didn't have an underlying theme of women knowing their place.

Edited to add: all I basically think about Twilight is in the article; I'm just not as articulate and intelligent as Lucy Mangan! So... I just refer you back to that. :)