• Sat, Nov 17 - 10:30 am ET

Now That The Twilight Saga Is Over Can We Stop Making Girls Feel Bad For Loving It?

We, well, most of us, are not fifteen-year-old girls. It’s been quite a long time since a lot of us were fifteen-year-old girls. So it’s pretty bizarre that so many of us girls who are older than fifteen-year-old girls feel the need to drone on about how awful the Twilight books and movies are. You know what else is awful? The entire Transformers franchise, but I don’t see a lot of men lecturing fifteen-year-old boys about why they shouldn’t dig The Transformers series.

A lot of the arguments lobbied against Twilight is that it’s not “feminist” and does nothing to empower girls. Bella Swan is a clumsy bumbler who constantly has to be saved and protected from her vampire boyfriend (and than husband) Edward Cullen. I get that it can be argued that Twilight isn’t teaching girls to be strong, independent and capable, but there are plenty of instances in the books (and movies) where Miss Swan asserts her independence.

Tanya Gold writes eloquently in The Guardian about why Twilight isn’t “feminist, it’s female masochism” :

Bella is rescued from a buffet of terrible fates, including a nest of Italian vampires who look like fashion designers; whole tracts of the movie scripts consist of repetitions of the line, “Bella has got to be safe!” – which is not only offensive but also incredibly boring. But the most terrible fate is already with her: she cooks, she cleans (she is a sexually promising Famous Five heroine); she does not have sex with Edward before her marriage, because nice girls don’t in abstinence porn – which, if Twilight has a genre, is surely the one. Finally – and if you hate a spoiler, I care not – she becomes a vampire.

It isn’t perfect, I get that, but isn’t it sort of not seeing the forest for the trees? The endgame of Twilight is that women are writing books for women and are making movies for women and women are starting to (finally) assert their place in popular culture. The themes and stories may not be perfect, but I would rather have the Twilight series drawing a huge audience (and The Hunger Games, etc) than live in a world where we are subjected to yet another male-dominated testosterone fest like The Fast And The Furious series.

Because I’m not a fifteen-year-old girl, I don’t fully understand the appeal of Twilight. I know it was not written for me, and that I’m not supposed to be able to fully relate to the story and characters. As a mom of a daughter who will one day be fifteen, I hope that we start to see more movies and books that focus on strong, kickass, feminist characters for my own daughter to become obsessed with. But I’m tired of everyone slagging on Twilight. I can understand discussing the violence in the book or the anti-abortion subtext, but to dismiss it as stupid and worthless and yeah, female masochism does a huge deserve to all of the young girls who love it. Hopefully everyone who has such a huge problem with the teenage vampire love story can do better for our girls, by writing books and screenplays. Because of Twilight, we are now fully aware that there is an audience for girl and women-centric stories.

(photo: imdb.com)

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  • http://www.twitter.com/allenkristina Kristina

    I’m 26 years old, so it’s been a pretty long time since I was 15 and yet I like the Twilight series. Guilty pleasure. I know the story is poorly written and Bella is definitely not a strong role model for young girls/women. However, I do like to always point out for those that don’t know: in the end Bella is the one who has to save everyone so she kind of redeems herself.

    • Sandy

      Yeah she saves everybody by having a fucking forcefield. Its not HER that saves anyone, but a deus ex machina. Because she´s the ultimate vampire. That can do everything.

    • http://itsmyworldcanthasnotyours.blogspot.com/ wmdkitty

      Two words: Mary Sue.

  • http://itsmyworldcanthasnotyours.blogspot.com/ wmdkitty

    Twilight promotes, normalizes, and romanticizes an abusive relationship. Anyone who enjoys that should, rightfully, be made to feel bad about it.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      I think that aspects of the book do need to be discussed with girls, but I do think the whole backlash over being cruel about what girls like needs to stop.

  • sweetpea

    I dont see why every book and movie aimed at tween and teen girls has to come under so much scrutiny. They are stories, just stories. Not every female character in a story will be strong or ‘feminist’, i word i hate by the way when it refers to women who dont fit a particular pattern.

    Why cant we just let girls enjoy what they like, and at the right time let them know that they can be any type of woman they want to be…one who cooks, one who’s not overflowing with confidence all the time, even one who needs saving now and then. They are just stories. Girls have enough crap to feel worried about without people guilting them over what they like to read and watch for fun.

    • Daisy

      I couldn’t agree with you more! In a world that bombards girls over the head with how they must always be strong and independent and blaze their own trails and must never, ever, ever fall for that sappy love story crap… It is kind of nice, just for a couple of hours, to feel like maybe it is ok to have someone by your side and maybe it is ok to fall in love and have a boy want you more than anything.

      I’ll admit, I first read Twilight when I was 17 and convinced that no boy would ever like me, and now that I’m 23 and have had a good and serious relationship, Twilight makes me cringe a little more. But Twilight and good literature are not mutually exclusive. Most of what I read are big fat historic fiction books, and I think I can consider myself a well-read person in general. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy Twilight AND Anna Karenina.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      – It is kind of nice, just for a couple of hours, to feel like maybe it is ok to have someone by your side-
      Awwwww. agreed :)

  • o rly?

    This is the biggest load of shit I’ve ever read. Jane Austen is rolling over in her grave right now – but you probably don’t know who that is since female authors didn’t exist before 2005.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      Noo, haha! I agree that there are amazing books for girls that are the “classics” but the problem is, there isn’t some huge “pop culture” rush for Pride and Prejudice. No one attacks a girl and calls her stupid for loving Jane Austen.

  • Lo

    I’ve seen a few people who enjoy the books despite their flaws. That’s cool. Some of my favourite reviews are fully aware of the Mary Sue saturation and treat it like candy – terrible for your health but loaded with tangy chemicals. (The recaps by Cleolinda on livejournal are old but well worth a read).

    I do get involved, though, when anyone claims that it’s good writing. The romance is overblown and creepy, the main character is a placeholder for all our effortlessly-special Sue fantasies, and don’t get me started on how it waters down monster mythology. I’m glad that so many people still hold fiction to a higher standard than Meyer and are willing to criticise such a popular series.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      I’ll look those up, TY! I think we need to start a “better books for girls” thread. And haha, I would LOVE to hear your views on how it waters down monster mythology, I think I can see part of what you mean, “Nosforateau never sparkled” but would love to hear more.

  • To Celebrate Women

    If you like it cool, but it’s one of the worst books/series ever written, it carries many disturbing messages, and I’m not going to deny that, ever. Luckily, most girls aren’t stoopid enough to believe that “Edward” is something attainable or desirable.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      Haha, I don’t LIKE it, I just think that it’s kinda lame when we discount girls for liking it. :)

  • Tinyfaeri

    “Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength, and doing what is right in the face of adversity… Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend.” – Andrew Futral.
    ———————————-
    That pretty much sums it up for me. OK, so Harry’s a boy (nevermind that he wouldn’t have gotten far without Hermoine). If you want a series with a female lead, how about the Hunger Games? Sure, Katniss is whiny and self-absorbed, but what teen isn’t?…and she’s faced with a whole lot of messed up and life-threatening situations and survives. I’d rather have my 15 year old look up to an antiheroine who kicks ass and becomes the face of a revolution than one whose only (litterally ONLY) goal in life is to live for loving her boyfriend/fiance/husband.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      I can agree to an extent about THG, but why oh why must we have the whole love triangle thingy? we need more books written for girls– books written now, not classics, where the endgame isn’t always “true love 4ever”

    • Tinyfaeri

      Have you read the Hunger Games trilogy? “True Love 4ever” is the last thing I’d call the endgame (or ending) of those books, but yes, there is a love triangle of sorts. I’d also argue that the HG books weren’t written just for girls, but that they were written for a broad audience and happen to have a female protagonist. Much like pink Leggos and Lincoln Logs, when things that should be more gender-neutral are done “for girls,” they seem to go a bit wonky in the substance department, so maybe we need less books written “for girls” and more books/movies/shows written for everyone that have a female protagonist. Preferably, a strong one.

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      I have! and I did enjoy them. And I agree, more strong female characters always!

  • Sandy

    Sorry. No. If someone says to me they love twilight theyll get a confused look from me. If they insist on arguing about it ill tell them why, with plenty of examples. I read the thing (its easy to critize what you dont know, so I made sure to read them despite the urge to bang my head against the wall) and ill tell you every single thing thats wrong with it, from the inconcistency, to the illogical character actions to the bad writing to the fucked up relationship.

  • Jessie

    Someone seriously needs to reintroduce the world’s teenage girls to Tamora Pierce. EVERYTHING this woman writes has a strong female lead who KICKS TEN KINDS OF ASS that no little Mary Sue like Bella Swan EVER will. Pierce’s stories are strong, engaging, adventurous from start to finish, and she has been writing them for almost thirty years now and they STILL have a massive fanbase ranging from girls and boys in their teens (the target audience) to adults such as myself.

    I hate Twilight with a passion, and will slag on it until it gets forgotten in the depths of Literary Hell where it belongs, because vapid trash like that overshadows the TRULY AMAZING literature of people like Tamora Pierce. Every time I see a Twilight fan, I want to hurl copies of Pierce’s various book series at them like some sort of religious nut hurling pamphlets at non-believers, haha!

  • Jessie

    Someone seriously needs to reintroduce the world’s teenagers to the work of Tamora Pierce. EVERYTHING this woman writes has a strong female lead that KICKS TEN KINDS OF ASS that Bella Swan NEVER will. Her stories are amazing, well written, adventurous, and engaging from start to finish. She has been writing them for almost thirty years now, and they still have a MASSIVE fanbase ranging from teenagers (the target audience) to grown adults such as myself and several of my friends. She writes the kind of story that one can NEVER tire of reading over and over again.

    I hate Twilight with a passion, and will slag on it until it gets forgotten in the depths of Literary Hell where it belongs, because it is vapid trash like that which overshadows the work of TRULY AMAZING authors like Mrs Pierce. Every time I see a Twilight fan, I want to hurl copies of Pierce’s various series at them like some kind of religious nut hurling pamphlets at non-believers, haha!

  • K.

    As a feminist, I’m not really all that invested as to whether “Twilight” is empowering or not (and I’ve read all four. Yup.) because “Twilight” is what it is and I don’t think that Stephenie Meyer wrote it out of some anti-feminist crusade. I’m more interested as to the phenomenon that is “Twilight.” What might it mean that the store’s protagonist, a teenage girl who is the textbook Mary Sue, forsakes college to get married, cooks and cleans for her father, is perceived as a kind of role model? What does it mean that a story in which the girl is basically ferried around on the whims of change (as opposed to affecting change herself–other than being oh-so-tantalizing so much as to get herself kidnapped in Book 1, engaging in ‘aesthetic suicide’ in Book 2, being a decoy martyr in Book 3, and getting pregnant in Book 4), and, as is usual in a LOT of literature, is the minor partner in a heteronormative relationship (Edward does the teaching, not the other way around)–what does it say that such a book is so popular? I don’t have the answer. I CAN say that my own students (HS, some MS, and all girls) are perfectly capable of articulating all these feminist issues in Twilight while they are still emotionally attached to the book. They are certainly capable of recognizing that “Twilight” ain’t “Mrs. Dalloway” while they enjoy it all the same. And I think that’s fine.

    As a creative writing teacher, there are a lot of lessons I could design using “Twilight” as a scapegoat (what is a three-dimensional character; avoiding adjective overload, etc. etc.) but what I choose to teach my students about writing, using “Twilight” as an example, is that being true to oneself goes a long way in writing, as cheesy as that sounds. I remind my students to enjoy writing and to believe in their own writing. “Twilight” is precisely the kind of book that I would expect a Mormon housewife from Utah to write (sorry, yes–I’m indulging in a stereotype here). It’s not particularly sophisticated; it’s not particularly well-written; it is simple and cheesy and naive. But at the same time, it also reads as a story that Stephenie Meyer herself loved and loved writing, and that kind of conviction and blithe honesty is what I think readers are attracted to.

    I think that when it comes to reading and literature, there is always room for more. There is room for Joan Didion and Emily Dickinson, and there is room for Stephenie Meyer. Why can’t girls have both?

    • http://www.xojane.com/author/eve Eve Vawter

      Yes yes yes yes, I love your comment so much and you bring up so many great points, thank you! I think for me a lot of it comes down to as cheesy as I find certain YA books, I sort of have to love them for getting so many kids into reading. I come from a place with my own kids that even though they have read and love a lot of the classics, I’m never going to fault them for also loving graphic novels and comics and yeah, even cheesy vest selling YA books.

  • Amy

    Girls should feel bad for loving it, because it’s awful as a work of literature, and it’s demeaning as a portrayal of women. Even leaving aside the fact that it glamorises an abusive relationship, Twilight is a horrible example for girls. The protagonist is a self-proclaimed martyr who whines about everything, has absolutely no interests outside her love interests, and is just plain dumb.

    All Twilight teaches girls is that if you whine and pout enough, then you will get what you want. Your life as a teenage bride who gets knocked up on her honeymoon will involve a stunningly handsome and rich husband (who stalks you and treats you like a child because he loves you so much), and your perfect baby that never needs diaper changes or cries all night. You’ll never want for money, your house will be perfect and you can spend all eternity….doing what, exactly?

    I have nothing against escapist novels, but even they usually have some element of realism. Where is that in Twilight? I can’t think of any books I’ve ever read (even seriously trashy chick lit) where the protagonist literally has no problems at all, and her path runs completely smoothly like Bella’s does in Twilight. There is so much good fiction out there aimed at females where the actions have consequences, protagonists face challenges and you earn your happy ending. Heck, even books where hooking up with the love interest is the sole purpose and you can see the happy ending a mile off, I’ve never seen a character quite as blank and dull as Bella. And girls (from those I’ve seen) aren’t reading Twilight as “this impossible dream would be awesome, but I can see it would get old quickly/I would want more from life”, but rather as “Where’s my Edward? This is what love/life should be!”.

  • meteor_echo

    Okay, if anyone wants books with female protagonists or characters that are 100 shades of badass, go read those:

    - the Howl’s Moving Castle trilogy by Diana Wynne Jones

    - Pratchett’s cycles about the Witches and Tiffany Aching

    - everything by Tamora Pierce

    - The Winter Queen/The Summer Queen by Joan Winge

    - Rose Madder by Stephen King (a really good one on abusive relationships, actually)

    And those are only the ones I can name straight off my mind. Each and every of these is so much more vivid, imaginative and better-charactered than Twilight. Ugh.

    • once upon a time

      The Tomorrow series by Australian author John Marsden, Valkyrie in Skulduggery Pleasant, Matilda, even Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.