proteanmix
Plumage and Moult
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2007
- Messages
- 5,514
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OK I pride myself on being very current and pop cultural-y. This whole Twilight phenomenon has completely blindsided me and I'm scrambling to see what all the fuss is about. Never even heard of the books, so I'm looking for a critical analysis and I find some interesting stuff about the main characters, fangirls, and the Twilight series.
Now the group that Twilight has the most influence over are middle class, suburban, white females, mostly between 12-18. The oldest of the girls were born in maybe the late 80s early 90s. The grew up/are growing up post-Madonna, post-Britney Spears, post-Lewinsky I mean there have been massive cultural shifts regarding teenage sexuality.
So I'm doing my little research and I run across some stuff that I find really interesting. There are a lot of comparisons between Bella Swan and the Mary Sue archetype.
Definitions of Mary Sue on the Web:
The main male protagonist is Edward Cullen, Bella's love interest. I'm reading he's not such a cool guy, but of course Bella (and lots of young women) thinks he is. Controlling, obsessive, hot-tempered, and emotionally abusive all under the guise of really
-ing Bella. I mean I'm reading lines akin to I'd die without you. Just hackeneyed drama. And teenaged girls are eating this up (and maybe I am just a little)! I admit to not reading the books but now I'm wondering what type of ideas young women have about love and relationships because these will typically follow them into their adult relationships.
I know many women in my age group who equate controlling with loving. I think most people regardless of sex would agree this is not love. But when I see it actually playing out so many women willingly give their boyfriends passwords to check their email and voicemail, the SO "gets to go" to strip clubs and openly watch porn in front of them and if they complain or say anything to them they're the one with the problem, and make sexual demands of them that if they refuse it could mean the end of the relationship. One friend told me her boyfriend demanded she swallow and they got into a huge argument over this.
I see all this free sexuality floating around, but it seems that it's getting harder and harder to maintain a relationship between equals. What is it about these specific types of declarations of love (?) that make women swoon? I remember this Lauryn Hill lyric that goes "Die for me? Why won't you live for me?" It's like telling someone I'd dissect my own eyeball for you is love. What I've always found so beautiful about that lyric is that it superficially would seem like dying for someone is the ultimate sacrifice and yes it is in a lot of ways. But sometimes living for someone, changing, growing, deferring, compromising, getting disappointed, getting back up, forgiving, forgetting, sacrificing, that shit is the hard shit. I mean, when I think about love I'm all about the two become one, but not in this dire and overwraught way.
Anecdotal and hard evidence keeps saying that that it's that companionate love that withstands. Consummate love is the ideal, but hard to sustain.
So what's my beef? I'm still not completely sure myself but it's just an off feeling. People say it's just a book, it's just a movie, but I don't see much of anything being just something. I'm seeing this being played out a decade or so later with my contemporaries. I think we're setting ourselves up.
And now for my disgruntled complaint: I'd put this thread on the general forum but I know it would get FUBAR'ed. Dammit I want some thought put into replies!
Now the group that Twilight has the most influence over are middle class, suburban, white females, mostly between 12-18. The oldest of the girls were born in maybe the late 80s early 90s. The grew up/are growing up post-Madonna, post-Britney Spears, post-Lewinsky I mean there have been massive cultural shifts regarding teenage sexuality.
So I'm doing my little research and I run across some stuff that I find really interesting. There are a lot of comparisons between Bella Swan and the Mary Sue archetype.
Definitions of Mary Sue on the Web:
- Mary-Sues are widely known throughout the fanfiction world. The author puts themselves into the story, mostly as a romantic interst for one of the ...
fanfictionblog.wordpress.com/terminology/ - A term probably originating in Star Trek fandom. An original female character embodying a set of stereotypical perfections who is inserted ...
Aestheticism Articles: FanTerms Update - An original and overly perfect character created by the writer and often acting as their alter-egos. They often end up bedding other characters or ...
Passion and Perfection: Definitions - an original female character, usually a love interest, who possesses traits similar to those of the author.
Fan Fic and M7 Terminology - a story with an original female character who's perfect, does it all, saves the day, and is usually martyred; seen as amateur writing
Glossary - Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character who plays a major role in the plot on ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary Sue
The main male protagonist is Edward Cullen, Bella's love interest. I'm reading he's not such a cool guy, but of course Bella (and lots of young women) thinks he is. Controlling, obsessive, hot-tempered, and emotionally abusive all under the guise of really
-ing Bella. I mean I'm reading lines akin to I'd die without you. Just hackeneyed drama. And teenaged girls are eating this up (and maybe I am just a little)! I admit to not reading the books but now I'm wondering what type of ideas young women have about love and relationships because these will typically follow them into their adult relationships. I know many women in my age group who equate controlling with loving. I think most people regardless of sex would agree this is not love. But when I see it actually playing out so many women willingly give their boyfriends passwords to check their email and voicemail, the SO "gets to go" to strip clubs and openly watch porn in front of them and if they complain or say anything to them they're the one with the problem, and make sexual demands of them that if they refuse it could mean the end of the relationship. One friend told me her boyfriend demanded she swallow and they got into a huge argument over this.
I see all this free sexuality floating around, but it seems that it's getting harder and harder to maintain a relationship between equals. What is it about these specific types of declarations of love (?) that make women swoon? I remember this Lauryn Hill lyric that goes "Die for me? Why won't you live for me?" It's like telling someone I'd dissect my own eyeball for you is love. What I've always found so beautiful about that lyric is that it superficially would seem like dying for someone is the ultimate sacrifice and yes it is in a lot of ways. But sometimes living for someone, changing, growing, deferring, compromising, getting disappointed, getting back up, forgiving, forgetting, sacrificing, that shit is the hard shit. I mean, when I think about love I'm all about the two become one, but not in this dire and overwraught way.
Anecdotal and hard evidence keeps saying that that it's that companionate love that withstands. Consummate love is the ideal, but hard to sustain.
So what's my beef? I'm still not completely sure myself but it's just an off feeling. People say it's just a book, it's just a movie, but I don't see much of anything being just something. I'm seeing this being played out a decade or so later with my contemporaries. I think we're setting ourselves up.
And now for my disgruntled complaint: I'd put this thread on the general forum but I know it would get FUBAR'ed. Dammit I want some thought put into replies!
)
