The release of the latest Twilight flick, New Moon, will doubtlessly send gaggles of girls (and grown women) across the world into a blissful tizzy this weekend.
But looking beyond Robert Pattinson’s Byronic good looks and the irresistible allure of immortal love, is there something improper lurking within the Twilight franchise?
A University of Victoria political science professor seems to think so. In her gender and politics class, Janni Aragon explores the negative sexual stereotypes she believes the saga enforces.
“Do I have issues with how weak Bella is? Yes,” she said. “I don’t want to romanticize the boy always saving the girl.”
For those few not yet familiar with the Twilight phenomenon, the books and movies tell the tale of the mortal Bella who falls in love with vampire Edward. Between exchanging smitten glances with Bella and swearing his undying love for her, Edward regularly rescues her from back alley hooligans and vampire attacks.
Oh, and he watches her while she’s sleeping.
“I was wondering, ‘Is he stalking her’?” Aragon said of reading the Twilight books. “I didn’t want [my 11-year-old daughter] to romanticize Edward appearing everywhere that Bella was.”
Aragon was also at issue with the fact that Edward and Bella can’t get too intimate lest he lose control and ultimately kill her.
“[Young girls] might think when a boy’s sexually aroused, you can’t say no because he can’t stop,” Aragon said.
Then there’s the little detail of Bella giving up her friends and family in order to become a vampire and live with Edward.
“Edward becomes her life,” Aragon said. “That’s not positive. I would’ve liked it if she’d been tighter with her friends. I think it could have been done and I think it would have [made the books] just as good.”
Aragon isn’t the only one who detects gender stereotypes within the vampire saga. University of British Columnia English professor Dr. Tiffany Potter echoed Aragon’s concerns of a weak and self-sacrificing female prototype.
“I have a few friends who haven’t been keen on letting their 13-year-olds read this,” Potter said. “[Bella] has sacrificed everything. She’s sacrificing her humanity, literally, for a boy…She’s going to become part of his community which will exclude her from her own.”
As for the damsel in distress aspect of the tale, Potter references Edward’s wealthy family as an additional rescue device.
“He’s not just rescuing [Bella] physically, he’s rescuing her economically,” she said. “It’s never just a matter of love. It’s also a question of money…it frees her from all of those natural burdens.”
According to Potter, such stereotypical gender themes are nothing new in literature or film.
“This phenomenon runs ways back,” she said, pointing to numerous novels produced during the 18th Century. “We are in a long movement of cultural struggle of when gender roles evolve. [The Twilight] series is just another volley in this.”
But what does this mean for the young girls who devour Twilight merchandise and daydream about vampire boyfriends with model good looks? Are they at risk of becoming the weak female protagonist in the tale they’re so gaga about? What do they think of Bella as a role model?
“I think she’s pathetic,” said Oanh Enih, 17, who is still “so stoked” about seeing the new Twilight flick. “Out of all my friends, I’m not the only one who thinks so. That’s almost as bad as looking up to Britney Spears.”
Fellow Twilight fan Emily Thoen, 16, agreed.
“She threw herself at Edward and she didn’t really think about much,” she said. “She just went for it. ‘Oh yeah, I’m going to date a vampire. He might kill me, but that’s alright.’”
Thoen’s idea of a real heroine is someone who’s “independent and able to take care of themselves.”
And how does she feel about her 13-year-old sister being a Twilight fan?
“They’re good books but I don’t want her being like Bella,” she said. “I think she has enough common sense not to be.”
Here’s hoping the rest of Canadian teens do too.
