Sexist Microaggressions

This doesn't really have anything to do with Twilight, but I wanted to share this with you guys. I found it valuable because of the Voices of Discovery group that I was in. We talked about microaggressions and how the subtle things that you say may unintentionally offend someone. Many of these microaggressions are founded in some sort of stereotype or ideal. In this example, he is talking about sexism. As it pertains to this class, I think that these microaggressions have become popular in our vernacular and within our culture. Is he being oversensitive, or bringing up a valid point? Has our culture simply become more "rude"? A couple hundred years ago, our society was all about the niceties of social graces. Now we've evolved to offensive phrases?  

Better Books?

In class yesterday, Dr. Lampert was talking about how she would sit down her child and have a talk with them about how Twilight is not a good example of a healthy relationship. A chance to clear the air and guide them towards better examples of heroines to find themselves in. I saw this post and it got me thinking. Yesterday we named some texts that were similar to Twilight.  Can you guys think of any romance books, specifically romance!!, that are better examples? A book that you find less fault with and that portrays a perfect, healthy relationship that isn't dumb? Or do we just associate most romance novels as dumb? There was the talk about liking Harry Potter, is that because, at least in the first book, there is no romance whatsoever?

Why I Fell Out Of Love With Twilight

     I’ll be the first one to admit that I’m a hopeless romantic. I love love stories. Yes, they’re generally shallow and definitely predictable. But, I don’t analyze them so much. I just read it. When I was younger, reading the books before the movies came out, I was in love with Twilight. I read New Moon in one day. (That was really hard to confess by the way.) Just like we talked about in class, I was young and besides the supernatural part, it was a love story. Being about 12 when I read the book, I didn't know what a love story was supposed to be in real life. I mean at that age how would it not be cool to imagine two guys fighting over your love?

     What changed me loving Twilight was the movie. Yes, I’ll agree that the more we talk about how boring the characters are and how the plot line is very unoriginal that the book would not be my first recommendation to someone. However, what really got me to fall out of love with the whole thing was how strange the acting appeared in the movie. I found this article called “10 Reasons People Hate Twilight,” and it mentioned the acting in the movie. The article described it as “everyone looks like they’re holding in a fart” which is actually true. (Here is a link to the article: http://reelmovienation.com/10-reasons-people-hate-twilight/)

     However, the article also points out something that I agree with but hadn't really thought about before. Everyone gave Kristen Stewart really bad reviews of how awkward she was acting as Bella in the movie. However, I don’t think Kristen Stewart is really that bad of an actress. If we think about how Bella is supposed to be in the book: clumsy, awkward, average looking, a little whiny, and somewhat passive, Kristen Stewart didn't play the part badly. (She may have overdone the awkward part a little.) I think people, including me, were upset with it because how could two guys be fighting over someone THAT awkward?

     I think the biggest problem for me was that the acting in the movie was just not what I was expecting it to be. The characters didn't act or even look how I had imagined them. I also think the movie makes it even clearer that the plot line of the book is really shallow because the movie is rather boring to watch.

Team Oz or Team Jacob

Since I brought up the Buffy comparison earlier, I decided to look through some commonalities between the two and see what Buffy fans thought of Twilight.

The comparison between Oz and Jacob was hilarious. First of all, I find Seth Green funny and a little funny looking...in a cute goofy way. But in Buffy, Oz is this tiny indie/rock boy with bright red hair who can also eat your face off if not caged up. Jacob, on the other hand, is tall, dark and disgustingly beautiful. Jacob is ripped and often shown shirtless protecting the girl he is in love with (not shirtless in the books obviously). Yet some how they are both set up to be objects of desire? In fact! Oz gets two girls and Jacob doesn't get any! ...Well until he strangely imprints on Bella's daughter and that somehow explains the years of infatuation prior...but anyway I really enjoyed this comparison.

Twilight 2.0

Mostly because I love it, below is the link to A Bad Lip Reading of Twilight. I think these videos are hilarious, but this is just one form of parody that emerged after Twilight's immense popularity. In fact, someone made an entire movie (Vampires Suck) dedicated to ridiculing Twilight. Maybe it's just because it is easy, but the sheer amount of videos or comedy sketches making fun of this novel and subsequent movie is astonishing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmxSk0wZxss

Why Twilight sucks

I have been thinking about this question for the past couple of days. Why exactly is Twilight hated so much? Yes, the writing is pretty bad, but it is also written for much younger women than college-level. Personally, I do not view Twilight as necessarily bad; I view it as something that did not provide any sort of substance or stimulation that we were looking for. I think this is where the Harry Potter comparison comes in. People really enjoyed Harry Potter because they felt that it had more substance and felt that it broke some of the conventional writings of the time. Twilight was just a normal love story of a hopeless and weak high school girl that found love where she least expected it. Harry Potter, on the other hand, went deeper than the conventional love story. It had a much deeper-rooted storyline that kept the reader coming back for more.

In addition, there is no substance to the characters; Bella and Edward seem so incredibly boring to be around. We want to read about characters with personalities, not someone that is special because she “smells good” or because Edward cannot read her mind. Harry Potter has many more likeable characters that young people can relate to and support. For example, Hermoine is the nerdy, sassy girl, Ron is the poor kid where everything seems to go wrong, Harry Potter is the ultimate protagonist with different layers to his story.  In Twilight, however, there is Bella, a shy, pale girl who moves to a new town. There is also Edward, who is mysterious….and really hot. Neither of which really develops a personality deeper than what is presented in the first 20 pages of the book. They are basically people in the book that are doing things, the reader does not have the ability for form a good personal connection with the characters.

Of course, there are other reasons people have their issues with Twilight; these are just a few of my issues. I understand the point of the story is to keep some of the characters mysterious, but you also need to help the reader to develop a relationship and proper understanding of the character. The readers were looking for some more substance from the plot line and characters that they ultimately did not get.

Anti-Nothing?

I get that as students, especially students in the honors program, we are taught to think critically and analyze pretty much everything. I understand that doing these things is important, however, I often find myself wondering if we overanalyze and search for some deep analytic meaning in things so much that we miss what the true intentions actually are. Why is taking something just for what it is not enough?

In the case of Twilight, why can’t it just be a book that involves a forbidden love story with some supernatural stuff thrown in? Why can’t it just be a book that people found entertaining? Why does it have to turn into a book that is potentially anti feminist or anti catholic or anti (insert whatever other thing people try to argue it is)?

Okay so yes, I do think that there are some parts of the book that portray anti-feminist ideals, like how Bella seems like the only person who cooks and cleans in her home, but I also think that there are some parts that support feminist ideals, like how Bella doesn’t listen to everyone who tells her to not see Edward, like her own father. Even so, I do not think that the true intentions of Stephanie Meyer were to create a book that was either anti feminist or feminist.  I think she just had a crazy dream and decided to write it down.  Yes, I think that the book clearly is influenced by her religion, but if any of us were to write a novel, I’m sure some of our own biases would end up in the book as well.  Thus, I think Twilight is just what it is.  It is a love story with vampires and werewolves, and maybe there are some parts that can be analyzed and taken to mean something grand, but that doesn’t mean that we have to go there. In fact, I think that when you tear something apart, you are simply setting it up for disaster. When tearing something apart, you are going to find something to pick at, whether it is there or not. You are going to find a way to make an argument by twisting the words of the novel because they are just words, and interpreting the meaning of words is basically up to the reader. Thus, Twilight could mean a variety of different things and none of those things are necessary right or wrong. The truth is that despite being “dumb”, Twilight was still popular. Why was it popular? Because it’s simply a love story with vampires and werewolves that young readers could relate to, and probably mostly because it was marketed effectively to that group of readers.

I know I might get some flack for this, and I welcome it! I just think that sometimes we get so caught up in being critical and making things complex that we forget what it is like to think simplistically.

Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Everyone knows the most important part of Twilight is which team you are: Edward or Jacob.So in anticipation of Thursday's class, I'm sharing the link to Taylor Lautner's epic Team Edward vs. Team Jacob skit on SNL. Just remember, if the debate ever gets too heated, we can all agree that Bella is a whiny do nothing that doesn't deserve either one of them.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/lab-partners/n12640

"Why Girls Love the Dad Bod"

    A lot of the time, society and media focuses on how girls have issues with their bodies. But guys have issues, too. This somewhat amusing article talks about how girls are actually more interested in guys who have a "dad bod" aka somewhere between appearing to workout everyday and a beer gut.
    However, I also find it a little bit interesting that even though girls are more accepting of a guy who isn't exactly perfect, there is still a lot of pressure on girls to look better than their male counterpart which is addressed in one of the reasons why girls are going for guys with the dad bod. They don't feel like they have to look their best all the time if their guy doesn't look like a Greek god.

Anyways, here is a link the article: http://theodysseyonline.com/clemson/dad-bod/97484

I just thought it was kind of interesting and amusing. Worth a read if you have a few minutes.

I'm 13 and in love and I don't care who knows it!

I'm sorry that the picture is blurry. So I just came across this and thought it was hilarious. But I think that it does a good job at showing something important about teen romance novels. The audience for books like Twilight, are typically high school maybe middle school girls. At this point in their lives, they might be having their first crush, boyfriend, love, or whatever they want to call it. At least for myself, I think that the first time that you ever experience a first crush when you're that young, you tend to hopelessly rush into it and go too far too fast. It's easy to think you've fallen in love with someone in a day. And something that these books tend to do is to feed off of this passion. Some posts have commented about how fast Bella fell in love with Edward even though they don't know much about each other. And when we were reading this book when we were 13, we just kind of went with it. Because at 13, you think that you're in love and that it's going to be the greatest love story in history and it's going to last forever.  

Twilight

I’d like to start out by saying that if you are a part of the Twilight fandom, you are wrong and you’ve obviously never read Harry Potter…or any book with a plot line thicker than an unoriginal love story. With that being said, I will get to the point…

When I think of the main themes of this book, vampires and love first come to mind. However, after reading this book for the second time since 6^th grade, I noticed a different theme that seemed to be all too important. Beauty.

When Bella first sees the collection of vampires, the only thing that held Bella’s interest was their beauty. “Their faces…were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful,” writes Meyer on page 19 when describing Bella’s initial reaction. The paragraphs prior to this statement were spent describing every detail of the vampires from their hair to their skin. She only noticed them, because they were beautiful, however, she does note how they are strange-not eating and what not. BUT she wouldn’t have noticed that if she weren’t staring at them for their beauty.

Bella has no shortage of men. I mean Eric, Mike, Jacob, and Edward?! This girl is awkward, skinny, deathly pale, and is majorly lacking in the spunk department! Yet every boy that crosses her path is instantly charmed and wildly in love. What?! So obviously Bella’s own thoughts on her looks (as narrated through Meyer’s writing) must be somewhat inaccurate-or so I’m led to believe. In other words she’s beautiful…at least she is to the four of the five/six main male characters.

What if Edward were ugly? What if Bella were ugly? What if Bella had no other suitors? Would there even be a story? I don’t think so. The fact that the most desirable boy in Forks High School got with the awkward (though equally desired) new girl made the love story so popular. Throwing in the vampire aspect just made it a bit more unique…although I could list numerous other TV shows and fantasy novels were this idea came first-like Buffy the Vampire Slayer which came just two short years prior to the publishing of Twilight. Anyway the crappy love story is, what I believe, makes the novel so popular. Without every main character being absolutely “inhumanly” beautiful, the love story wouldn't have existed. Which leads me to ask why love and beauty are such popular topics among adolescents? Are beauty and love really more desirable than adventure and personal, intellectual growth to a fourteen year old girl?

Twilight

I was never super into reading Twilight or any of the following books or watching the movies. In fact, I’ve only ever read the first book and watched the first movie. I don’t even remember what my thoughts or opinions were on the book the first time I read it. But wow, do I have some opinions now!

First of all, although I practically shudder to admit this, I couldn’t put the book down. Yes, I know how terrible it is and what a horrible representation of love it portrays, but I found myself wanting to know what was going to happen next (although this may be contributed to my personality, since I’m usually the type of person who has to reach the end of a book as soon as possible to find out what happens to the characters). But whether or not I like to admit it, there is something about the book that kept me semi-interested. I do think part of it is that almost every teenage girl ever can find some way to relate to Bella; whether through her awkward clumsiness or her far-away desire for a dream boy. Bella is a very relatable character, which makes for an interesting and easy read.

On the other hand, one reason I was so interested in finishing the chapters was because of the shock/mild horror I felt. I never really thought about it until now, but Edward is one controlling guy! I found it disturbing that he followed Bella and ridiculous that he wanted to stay with her always to protect her. He walked her to and from every single class and was jealous if another guy so much as thought about her. While some teenage girls may find that adoration and “love” charming, it’s actually quite a disturbing relationship if you think about it. I will be interested to see what everyone else’s reactions were during our conversation in class tomorrow!   

Twilight: Then and Now

I first read Twilight when I was in seventh grade. Rereading it, I have a much different impression than I did when I was 12. As a prepubescent tween, I knew that if a real-life “Edward” were to pop up in my life, I would find the extreme way in which he pursued Bella disturbing. I knew their relationship wasn’t a healthy one. If someone stalked me that way in real life, I would probably file a restraining order. But I didn’t care. As a preteen reading it, I found it romantic.

As I read the chapters for today, I was confused by how soon Bella falls in love with Edward. At the end of chapter 9, Bella says, “ I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him” (Meyer 195), after the first car ride and dinner together on the way back from dress shopping. They had had lunch together twice and he had barely talked to her up to this point. How could she already be in love with him? They knew nothing about each other, have barely talked and Edward’s mood swings from day to day. One day he loathes her, the next he loves her. I was shocked by how little they had interacted before she made this proclamation of love.

And what about the characters? The most interesting thing about Bella is the fact that Edward can’t read her mind. She is described as average, clumsy, painfully shy and awkward, yet everyone she meets in Forks is completely enamored by her. Perhaps it is as Josie said, that readers are supposed to identify with Bella, that she is intentionally bland so more can identify with her. Edward and the other vampires exemplify everything that most teenagers wish to be. They are beautiful, graceful, powerful and rich. They are an ideal that most hope to attain. Is that what makes it so appealing? Is it the contrast between the normal and an elevated, supernatural “other”?

The Bruce Jenner Interview

So last Friday night, 20/20 aired an interview between Diane Sawyer and Bruce Jenner, in which he details his internal struggles with being transgender (I am referring to Bruce Jenner using male pronouns because that is how he referred to himself throughout the interview).  Since I am doing my project about trans representation in the media and conducting a study that is examining predictors of prejudice against trans individuals for my thesis, I found myself struggling with how I felt about the interview. 

On one hand, I was very glad that ABC aired this interview and I thought that they did a great job at letting Jenner tell his story.  The interview provided the opportunity for millions of people to learn about someone who is transgender, and perhaps opened their eyes to what being trans means.  On the other hand though, the interview is just another example of the media and our culture being hung up on the coming out spectacle. In fact, Jenner is being featured in a docuseries on E! and at the end of the interview Jenner invited Sawyer to “come back in a year” to check in on his progress. The problem with this is that Jenner’s transition is all that people are going to talk about. Yes, they are being exposed to someone who is transgender, but there are way more newsworthy and important things that involve the trans community than Jenner’s transition. As Laverne Cox explained to Katie Couric, "The reality of transpeople's lives is that we are targets of violence. We experience discrimination disproportionately to the rest of the community. Our unemployment rate is twice the national average; if you are a trans person of color, that rate is four times the national average. The homicide rate is highest among transwomen. If we focus on transition, we don't actually get to talk about those things." Like Cox said, these are the things that society should be discussing. The discrimination and oppression that are lived realities for so many in the community, as well as the accomplishments of trans people, and their day-to-day actions, not just their transitions.

Even so, I am left wondering if coming out interviews, like Jenner’s, are needed in order for society to be exposed to and discuss those issues in the trans community? Without people like Jenner or Laverne Cox, would this community even be talked about in the first place? I’m not so sure that it would, and isn’t positive exposure better than no or negative exposure?

Power and Vulnerability

So I just got to the part where Edward and Bella are in the car discussing his vampirism and I had an idea.

Let us flashback to Charlotte Temple and our class discussions about being a woman in the Victorian era.  Women were seen as vulnerable and weak, and Charlotte Temple was the epitome of that image.  She couldn't control her actions very well and was mostly an actor in everyone else's decisions, including her "lover," her friends, and her family.  Except for one thing--she had the power to completely destroy her family's reputation.  Her personhood was deemed vulnerable, but her actions made her powerful insomuch as she could effect the livelihoods of the people associated with her.

Flashforward again to Twilight and we see the same sort of power relationship going on.  Bella is practically the definition of clumsy, and trouble always seems to find her.  She sucks at sports and she pretty much forgets how to people every time she talks to Edward.  On the other hand, Edward is strong--unhumanly strong--and has the power to make everyone around him swoon (on top of being able to read minds).  However, Bella has the power to completely destroy HIS family's reputation.  If he messes up because of her, really bad things could go down.  If she talks when she shouldn't, the family secret could get out and they would have all sorts of problems to deal with (which we learn about in the following books).  Bella is powerful because of her relationship to Edward and his family and the desire he has for her romantically as well as the fact that she apparently smells delicious.  Edward is weak because, if he can't control his desires, the consequences for both of them would be dire.  Anyways, I think I've made my point.  Any thoughts?

Avengers Sexism?

While I was reading through my Facebook feed, I found this article that I thought pertained to this class pretty well. It's about some sexist-sounding jokes that two male actors (Jeremy Renner and Chris Evans) made about the Black Widow character in the film series. It's worth a read if you have a minute.

http://nerdist.com/yes-jeremy-renner-and-chris-evans-black-widow-comments-are-problematic/

Twilight and Teen Sexuality

When we were in class yesterday I thought it was interesting that Dr. Lampert casually asked the question of what Twilight means for teenage sexuality. I'd never thought about the novel that way before, as a testament to teen sexuality, but when I sit down and think about it, the connection between the novel and its audience is a fascinating one to explore.

Twilight is no Fifty Shades. There's no steamy romance, no explicit sex scenes. But the two are very similar, as to be expected as the latter began as fanfiction of the former. Most importantly, Twilight and Fifty Shades both contain this element of the forbidden love, and an idea that "love conquers all," as hokey as that sounds. Instead of the BDSM culture, Twilight delves into the realm of fantasy to add its forbidden element: vampires.

We talked earlier about how Fifty Shades can be read as a representation of an ideal fantasy rather than something that could actually happen. And I think it's important to consider Twilight the same way. The blandness and awkwardness of Bella is vital for self-insertion, but the ideal presented by Edward I think says a lot about what teenage girls' ideas of romance really are. Edward is of course attractive, chivalrous, possesses a large, welcoming family, and likes Bella for very little reason.

But I think it is this element of forbiddenness is what makes this novel so popular. Edward isn't just a guy, he's a vampire. This element of the book and its popularity I think says something really significant about teenage sexuality. For one, it's not that different from adults' own sexuality, and we only have to look at the similar elements and popularity of Fifty Shades to see that. But because they are so similar, teens are getting exposed to sometihng that was first presented in Disney movies: through novels like Twilight, teens can instead enjoy an ideal universe and situation that is not only different from reality, but it also subvert it. Twilight is so popular because it is an ideal, it is a break from reality, andit offers forbidden elements that allow teens to defy the expectations of normal relationships, which of course is a huge focal point on teen life.

Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe teens just like it because it's the closest thing to a romance novel that parents will let them get their hands on? I don't know, that'sjust my theory.

Why are teenage girls in love with Edward Cullen?

 While I would not classify Twilight as great literature by any means, there is something to be said for the outstanding success both the novels and films earned. With teenage girls as the majority of the fan base (except for those Twilight obsessed mothers which their almost isn’t enough scholarly research into the Oedipal Complex to go into), it seems that the majority of the attraction of the novel lies in the male lead, Edward Cullen. So why is a sparkling vampire so dang attractive?

Well, if you look at the female lead she is self-conscious, so clumsy she can barely walk, and is a bit of a nerd. She feels like an outsider, and as she has pointed out several time throughout the first twelve chapters, she has never truly have a niche in school. Then, she moves to Forks and becomes the small town equivalent of a movie star. Everyone wants to be her friend, and she is incredibly uncomfortable with all the attention. Couple that with the fact that the only dude she actually is interested in is the gorgeous bad boy, who completely ignores her, and you have the recipe for a teenage girls fantasy.

So essentially, the teenage reader has been set up in a position to read Bella as themselves. I mean who wasn’t awkward and felt like an outsider at some point during high school? And its completely cliché and also completely true that girls tend to go for the bad boy in hopes that he can be fixed. Thus, of course Edward Cullen, the bad boy who never even talks to people at school, falls for the clumsy little Bella and she for him, and miraculously, Bella sees the good in him that he simply cannot see, and she manages to bring it out in him. Bella has essentially fulfilled every teenage girls’ fantasy. She has won and fixed the beautiful, bad boy.