Deconstructing Twilight Part One - Freedom of Choice...and Lack of It.

‘Many women do not recognise themselves as being discriminated against; no better proof could be found of the totality of their conditioning.’ (Kate Millett, 1969/70, 55)

Discuss with reference to the presentation of women in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series.

Feminism is defined as the ‘Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes’[1], but Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series (2005-2008) argues: ‘In my own opinion (key word), the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose.’[2] This reveals one of the (many!) central underlying problems in Twilight; Meyer fails to recognise the difference between overt sexism and ingrained patriarchal dominance. Nobody in the Twilight series tells protagonist Bella Swan that ‘she can’t do something solely because she’s a woman[3]’; instead, Bella’s decisions and potential are limited in far subtler, deep-seated ways, because she has been taught that she is inferior and therefore believes it. Meyer’s argument that choice is the foundation of feminism leads to an erroneous conclusion: that because Bella chooses to accept patriarchal dominance, believes in her intrinsic inadequacy in comparison to Edward Cullen, and stays with him despite misogynistic and abusive behaviour, Bella is a feminist.

Yeah. You go girl.

The lack of choice is a clear theme in the Twilight series, and many of Bella’s apparent choices are not hers at all. Perhaps the most important choice Bella makes is the decision to become a vampire; a first person narrative voice presents her perspective as a human who desperately wants to be a part of vampire Edward’s world (like most mindless teenage vampire groupies) by being turned into an immortal. Edward will not inflict such a dark life on her: ‘I can’t do it, Bella. I won’t do that to you’ (Meyer 2005, 413). However, while Bella’s determination and willingness to sacrifice her mortal life to be with the man she loves might seem like the empowered decisions of a strong-willed girl, the situation is a clear case of a female ‘continually obliged to seek advancement through the approval of males as those who hold power.’ (Millett 1969/70, 54). The power is all Edward’s, the man’s, to give. In the middle of life-threatening childbirth Bella is finally turned into a vampire by Edward, while she is unconscious and drowning in her own blood. Her choice to become immortal is the choice she fights for hardest (or at least, whines and wheedles about the most) throughout the series, yet is only the illusion of choice; decided upon and granted by a man while she is inert and dying.

In New Moon, it is revealed that Edward believes Bella so incapable of making her own choices that when he leaves, breaking up with Bella ‘for her own good’, he also removes from her house gifts he had given her and other personal reminders of him. As well as being a disturbing violation of boundaries (but this is the asshole who stalked her, broke into her house, and watched her sleep, so this is TAME behaviour by his standards...), this completely removes Bella’s choice to deal with his departure as she sees fit: ‘“It will be as if I’d never existed,” he’d promised me’ (Meyer 2006, 74). Even when removing himself from her life, Edward has taken charge (like the dick he is), deciding for her that removing all memory of him is best for her.

'So even though I've just dumped you, I'm still gonna break into your house, sneak up to your bedroom and paw through your personal effects like a serial killer. Cool? Cool.'

Edward’s influence over Bella’s decisions extends to Bella herself believing she has no choice; she says ‘Making decisions was the painful part for me’ while admitting in the same breath, ‘I didn’t know if there was ever a choice, really. Because when I thought of him… I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now’ (Meyer 2005, 121). She frequently describes a ‘hypnotic’ sensation when she hears Edward’s voice or looks into his eyes – and although intended as romantic (blurgh. That sound is my spleen trying to exit my body.), this alerts the reader that this outside mesmeric force (specifically, Edward) is manipulating her decisions: ‘There was no way around it; I couldn’t resist him in anything.’ (Meyer 2005, 249), ‘I turned slowly, unwillingly’, ‘There was no question of me looking away.’ (Meyer 2005, 62, 63), ‘His eyes were melting all my fury. It was impossible to fight with him...’ (Meyer 2005, 422), ‘His mouth was on mine then, and I couldn’t fight him. Not because he was so many thousand times stronger than me, but because my will crumbled into dust the second our lips met’ (Meyer 2006, 451). Edward erodes Bella’s thoughts and willpower, sometimes to the point where she faints (yes, people. she actually loses consciousness when he kisses her. Because swooning like a hysterical victorian romance heroine shows what a strong female you are!), and yet she never removes herself from the situation or even questions whether it is wrong to lose her sense of self so utterly.

Bella is too weak to argue with her boyfriend, and often too frightened to try: ‘I shivered at the threat in his voice’ (Meyer 2005, 143), ‘He flashed his teeth in a brief, threatening smile. I fought back a shiver before it could expose me’ (Meyer 2005, 189), ‘I worried it would provoke the strange anger that flared whenever I slipped...’ (Meyer 2005, 201). Mary Wollstonecraft states ‘The obedience required of women...comes under this description; the mind, naturally weakened by depending on authority, never exerts its own powers...’(Wollstonecraft 1792, 151) Bella is so subjugated that she has learned that practising independent thought and questioning Edward is dangerous, punishable by his anger. By having all the decision-making power, the male characters of Twilight have all the control in relationships and subsequently, the women do not even attempt to think for themselves.

[1] http://www.answers.com/topic/feminism [Accessed 23/5/11]
[2] http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bd_faq.html [Accessed 23/5/11]
[3] http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bd_faq.html [Accessed 23/5/11]

Phew! End of part one. Next time, continuation of lack of choice, and how the women of Twilight are treated like objects.