I was not prepared for the sexism in Twilight
Yowza! I was surprised by the rage Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight brought out of me. This was one of the most sexist novels I can ever remember reading, and I grew up on a steady diet of Sweet Valley High and VC Andrews.
This poorly-written dreck made me so annoyed and angry that I have a hard time not being completely condescending. I don’t think I’ve eye-rolled so much during a book since I read Nicholas Sparks’ shitty, shitty The Wedding.
Twilight tells the story of Bella, a seventeen-year-old Arizonan who moves to Forks, Washington to live with her dad after her mom marries a minor-league baseball player and moves to Florida. Bella’s not thrilled about the move until she meets Edward, a pale, beautiful boy who turns out to be a sparkly vampire.
Why this book is an international, best-selling phenomenon is beyond me. I can understand why the barely-pubescent crowd loves it. Because the relationship between Bella and Edward is the kind of cheesedog bullshit that teen girls think romance is — inevitable, all-consuming, and filled with unabashed proclamations of their love.
When I was thirteen I’d have probably thought of Edward as the height of romance, but through my 30something eyes I can see that he’s sexist and bordering on abusive. There are many times throughout the novel where Edward chastises Bella for being too alluring and irresistible. He tells her that if he can’t control himself (and it’s really, really hard to do so), that if something bad happens it will be her fault. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Plus, there’s the constant need to watch-over and protect her, and the fact that he continually tells her she can’t take care of herself. Of course, Bella doesn’t help herself at all and totally loses herself in Edward — doing everything he says and never standing up for herself. And, while we’re told Bella is a smart girl (she’s disappointed by the library’s book selection) we never see it.
Bah! It’s so bad.
Then there’s the writing which is awful and repetitive with the incredulous grins and the eyes. OH THE EYES. Christa already made a helpful list about the eyes. I would get into it, but, really the story is so awful and distasteful that the bad writing is just like frosting on the shitcake.
Before you get up in arms about why I even bothered with this book, it’s because my Rock & Roll Bookclub selected it. I am excited to discuss it. Hannah, the thirteen-year-old daughter of two of our members, loves the Twilight series with a passion. I am curious to see what she has to say about it and get her insight.
Related posts:
- And other Matthew McConaughey-isms Phase two of Stephenie Meyer’s beloved vampire series begins...
- The infinite review of the infinitely enjoyable teen romance book that is not the barfy Twilight Last year, when I started the Rock & Roll...
So true. I’m honestly afraid that the Twilight series will have warped a whole generation of girls into thinking the relationship between Edward and Bella is normal and fine. It’s not.
I totally agree with you and the first commenter…
What a bunch of crap.
I also wonder, and this is beside the point too, if the sexist/degrading subjects within rap lyrics will have some affect on future generations… my little sister is ten and knew the lyrics to “Smack That”. sick.
(SPOILERS) Your right! I mean, I also don’t understand why every guy in Twilight has to be perfect and they all seem to smell great! WTF??? Why does Edward smell like a sweet factory??? Vampires are suppose to be scary… Anyway, I don’t like the way Bella always describes herself as being ugly and then describes Edward as a beautiful, liquid topez eyed, pale , sparkling (yea… SPARKLY), 108 year old vampire. The fact that he is 108 or whatever and he ends up having sex with a 18 year old girl is sick! Then at the age of 18 she is pregnant. Yea, what a great role-model. Here you go and have unprotected sex with a 108 year old man, get pregnant while your suppose to be going to collage and waste the rest of your life staying at home being a stay at home mother to a freak baby. Yea… every girls dream! That’s a powerful message.Then to make the story even more twisted and wrong, Jacob Black the werewolve and one of the most annoying people in the books imprints with Bella’s baby! And Bella let’s them get together when they get older. Ewwwww!!! I actually physically wanted to die by that point. What kind of vampire book has lines like “And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.”… or “You are my life now…” or even scarier, “I watch you while you sleep.” If I just found out that freaky veggie vamp was watching me sleep I’d grab the knife from the kichen drawer.
Yea, so I know what you mean it’s sexist, freaky, boring, sick and horribly written. Sorry, I wrote a lot. I have strong views on this.
FINALLY!And you are so,so right.
and have personally never seen the appeal in romance-without-good-plot-or-characters nor specifically Twilight(I think it’s the only book that I have ever had to physically FORCE myself to finish because there was only page after page of junk.I kept hoping they’d all drop dead.)
I read the first book because pretty much everyone was talking about it and I wanted to see what the big deal was.And now,I’m even more confused.Not to mention very, very horrified.
Much as I hate to admit it(being one myself) you are very right about most teenage girls.I go to an all girls school