The Twilight Books as Fundie-Girl Fantasy

[raefinlay]

 

I have read 1 and 1/2 of the Stephanie Meyer books.  I am struggling to get through the second.  I have not read reviews or commentary or spoilers.  (Though, after this post, I will read spoilers happily. I’m sure I won’t finish the series.)

 

About halfway through Book One, it became profoundly clear that these books represent the very best of Fundamentalist Girl Wet Dream Lit.  Here is how:

 

1) The protag, Isabella Swan (Yes, I kid you not. Isabella Swan.) is a typical self-absorbed teen.  She’s a terrible friend—can’t be bothered to listen when her amigas talk to her, doesn’t care about their lives, doesn’t share anything real about her own.  So, how do we know she’s a good person?

 

We know it because a) she’s so damned female domestic. She cooks and cleans. Her daddy needs her; b) because she’s a good student; and c) because like all good fundie girls, sure, she can be selfish and self-absorbed, but when it comes down to it, she would give her effing LIFE for the people she shares a dysfunctional co-dependent relationship with.  She’s a glorious martyr.  Greater love hath no fundie girl than this.

 

2) She doesn't have sex. She doesn’t say “sex.” And in spite of the fact that she’s a 17-year old girl who thinks at us so much about her hots for a guy that we get 500 pages of book and 150 pages of plot, she doesn’t even think about sex.

 

But the entire book, her entire world, is--very obviously--about sex.  SEX SEX SEX. (But no, she didn’t say that! She didn’t even imply it! It’s not her fault if you and millions of other readers have misinterpreted everything to be about sex! (This is what I call the Passive-Aggressive, Sexually-Repressed Fundie Problem.))

 

3) Her boyfriend instructs her on a lot of things.  He tells her what to do and how to act.  He gives information to her only as he sees fit.  He rescues her, especially from herself.  He is 100 years older than she is.  OMG, did I just say “boyfriend?”  I meant “Daddy.”

 

4) Her daddy-boyfriend is a very powerful, very dangerous dude.  Like God, he's not someone you want to make angry.  He could kill you in an instant.  He's on the verge of killing you every instant. You should see what he does to your enemies.  Yet, just like God, he loves you and all of humanity with incredible, self-sacrificial love.
 

5) Predictions for the future: They will not have sex until they are married. There will be a child (because true adulthood and self-actualization only come with Holy Motherhood.)

On a slightly more positive note, I do see why these books are so popular. The author uncannily captures teenaged-girl-angst. In particular, I am awed at how the protag can be so unpleasant, and yet so unmaliciously so. Just like a real teenager.

Comments

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

5) Predictions for the future: They will not have sex until they are married. There will be a child (because true adulthood and self-actualization only come with Holy Motherhood.)

So can I spoil you for the last book? I will spoil you for the last book!

- They indeed do not have sex until they are married. In fact, the daddy-boyfriend was a virgin himself! A 104 year old virgin.

- There is indeed a half-vampire, half-human miracle baby. And by miracle, I mean a demonspawn that grows at an accelerated rate, breaks Bella's ribs when it kicks, makes Bella want to guzzle blood (which is pretty funny considering the fact she'd faint at even the sight of a drop!) and then proceeds to break her pelvis and spine during childbirth.

Actually, the Holy Motherhood scred was made even worse because not only was there Bella with her miracle demonspawn, every other female character was characterized by her maternal instinct, her ability (or inability) to have children, or both. It was creepy.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Oh, dear lord. *dies* I seriously should have predicted 1) miracle baby, and 2) 104-year-old virgin. This has just brought my fundie cred into question!

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

Wasn't there something really horrible baby-hating about that pregnancy (I read parts of a piratical PDF, which makes me want to bleach my brain)? The kid damned near killed her, draining her body and breaking her and all of that.

At which point she gets a perfect child, so beautiful and wonderful, and here's the really great part; mature and fast growing. As in hair and teeth and looking like a toddler by the end of the first week or something creepy like that. After an atrocious pregnancy, she gets to skip all the parts of motherhood that are just messy catering to sleep-deprivations organism that can't talk or reason.

So perfect Bella says that pregnancy is a massive violation of the body and infants are boring and horrible.

Ick. Ick ick. I mean, quite frankly I don't think it's an unreasonable viewpoint to have if you're voluntarily childless, but combining it with a book that fetishizes motherhood as the be-all and end-all culmination of multi-book romance... it's kinda disturbing.

I also read a preview of the next book (wait! there's more!) on the author's website, and it makes it clear that endlessly sexy Edward is a hateful sociopath (but twoo wuv will redeem him!) and it made me want to not go near people for a while.

I haven't read the series. I'm just a fan of the wank.

[dolphin--girl.livejournal.com]

Oooh, don't forget the part where the baby is protected by a vampire-strength amniotic sac, so Edward has to give her a cesarean with his teeth.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

OMG - you're serious. It sounds like you're making this up. I mean like... really this is the plot of a bestseller. So is dawn her pelvis? Breaking Dawn? Okay, you can tell I'm writing this at midnight, but at my old job, for awhile we had to answer the phone blah blah "where you can reserve your copy of Breaking Dawn today." Needless to say none of us knew we were selling a YA book where mommy gets paralyzed in childbirth.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

And this is what the ten year old not-a-granddaughter Anna is hooked on....

I know my daughter didn't read these, because she is just like I was, let the kid read what they want and don't censor their choices. I also know she wouldn't be amused by the message here. I'm not thrilled, though I know Anna will survive one series of bad books.

Still, gah.

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

I admit a part of me dies inside when I think of the millions of girls reading these books. Because I know some of them do want to be like Bella and some of them do want a boyfriend like Edward, and I'm just like, "No, stop. Please, stop."

[cristalia.livejournal.com]

Eh. I read a whole generation of books where strong women = stamp their feet and throw a tantrum. I lived. *g*

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Back more on topic and less with the lulz, I should note that Stephenie Meyer does give her manuscripts to her bishop (I think that's what the equivalent of priests are called in the Mormon Church?) and get his approval before sending them on. So.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

She's MORMON and the Bishops and Elders are approving the books?!! Oh flaming balls of greasy grimy gopher guts, that explains so much.

The entire Mormon cult is predicated on every woman and girl being a Madonna who serves the men in her life, bears child after child and has no identity of her own. This goes far beyond run of the mill fundie woman is subject to the husband creed. The most extreme are the polygamist Mormon sects where a man can have ten women worshiping his every word and sharing his bed.

Now I'm even more squicked and horrified.

[hollailama.livejournal.com]

NO WAY!

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Bingo. We were talking about this on my blog a week or two back, and the likes and dislikes divide exactly along this axis.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Ooo, I missed that. Would you mind sporting me a link? Now that I've done my own wanking, I'm curious to read everyone else's.

[ruralwriter.livejournal.com]

I read on Holly Black's journal a comment that said that Edward's "fangs" could not be shown in the movie that's coming out.

"Fangs." Yeah. We know what they're symbollic of. Hahahaha!

You've nailed what is really gross to me about the Bella-Edward relationship - a 100 year age difference. But amongst fundamentalist Mormons (i.e., the ones who are still polygamists) it's a-okay to have such a significant age gap; works much better to keep the girls in line when they're indoctrinated from an early age and used to submitting to their elders.

As an aside, I've only read the first book.

I was forced to endure fundamentalism (not Mormon, though!) as a child. GAH!

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

HA! I bet they're long and thick. I wonder if he's named them?

[purdypiedad.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to keep these out of Kristine's library.

(I generally try to avoid teenage angsty books for the 7-year-old anyway. I figure, if she doesn't know about teenage angst, we might be able to avoid some of it.)

The whole sex theme without ever mentioning sex defines fundie romance novels. Even Francine Rivers couldn't get away from it. I mean, wasn't Marcus' allure completely sexual in her gladiator series (can't remember the name of it)? And I think we were supposed to want to have sex with Atretes, too, but I just didn't actually like him... however much like the stereotypical fundie husband he was (not unlike the vamp you just described).

I just choked on my oatmeal reading about the 104-year-old virgin vamp.

The series almost sounds satirical for Christian romance.

[kelly-swails.livejournal.com]

Ew. Just, ew. I had wondered if the series was something like this; I've not read them but I've read lots of comments about how pathetic Bella was as a protagonist and how the writing isn't all that great, and how nothing happens until the last 100 pages. That it's fundie teachings dressed in paranormal romance clothing doesn't surprise me one bit.

The "all I want is to be a mother" message is enough to send me over the edge. Hey, you want to be a mom, go right ahead. Just don't think that's the only thing you have to do.

I can't believe she got paid $750,000 for the first three books. (Per an Entertainment Weekly article).

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

$750,000??? Holy cow.

Well, it paid off for them, so I guess they made the right decision.

[scbutler.livejournal.com]

Nothing much to add, but boy it is weird way you nailed that arc. Ack. Needless to say, as a boy, there isn't a chance in, dare I say it, Hell of my ever reading these books.

My daughters have shown no interest, but then the youngest is 17.

[hollailama.livejournal.com]

You have super powers of analysis and prediction.

I read a couple of chapters out of mere nosiness but could tell it wasn't for me. I'm glad you read as far as you did. I guess it was your turn to take one for the team.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

*takes one for team*

Ok, so, it's your turn, right? I suggest the J.R. Ward books. O.O

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I read someone's review of the last book, and it immediately made me roll my eyes at the whole entire series. How crap like that is acceptable but Potter is the devil is beyond me.

Thank you for taking one for the team.

[ccfinlay.livejournal.com]

Now I wonder what fundie-boy fantasy would look like. Besides another Republican administration, I mean.

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

A beautiful woman falls naked from the sky onto the hood of your '57 Chevy. She has a fully annotated study bible in her hand. A voice from heaven says, "THIS IS THE ONE."

She is beautiful. She finds you irresistibly attractive, even though you are not. She works hard for you, cooking and cleaning and raising babies. Your only job, aside from keeping an eye on the filthy liberals via lots of tv-watching, is to mold her into the woman you know God wants her to be, which gets lots of appreciation, because, yanno, it's a full-time job.

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

Her daddy-boyfriend is a very powerful, very dangerous dude. Like God, he's not someone you want to make angry. He could kill you in an instant. He's on the verge of killing you every instant. You should see what he does to your enemies. Yet, just like God, he loves you and all of humanity with incredible, self-sacrificial love.

This sounds like my ex-husband. Unfortunately, I'm not joking.

This is a description of an emotionally unavailable man. Your description is of someone who might be partially attractive because he is so dangerous. This book is telling a teenage girl that it's okay to be with an abusive boyfriend because if you wait around and really get to know him, there is a payoff.

This book character is similar to that of my mother's generation and our first favorite song together, The Wayward Wind:

"Oh I met him there in a border town
He vowed we'd never part
Though he tried his best to settle down
I'm now alone with a broken heart"

Stephanie Meyers is describing a different person than Gogi Grant is singing about, but they are both making it perfectly understandable to be a rogue of sorts. And the woman has much compassion and understanding for the man's selfish/anti-social/controlling behavior. The man in the song is gone, but he couldn't help hurting her because he was a "slave to his wond'rin' ways." If the daddy-boyfriend turns out to be a good guy in this book (series?), every girl reading may (on some level) think be validated to put up with a bunch of cr*p.

Are you reading this for a class?

[silkpajamas.livejournal.com]

My mention of the ex might have made my post sound angry or bitter, and that's not the case. He died in 1991, not much part of our lives.

To compare the song with the book you're reading might sound lame, but how many women do you who are attracted to "bad boys?" I hadn't realized that popular books are perpetuating the images of men that lonely girls can latch onto. A teenager girl should never think it's okay to be with a man (boy) who is dangerous in any way. These books are more destructive than (gansta) rap music, because the messages are embedded in something deemed harmless.

[cammykitty.livejournal.com]

Okay, guess I'll have to read Twilight eventually just to know what the fuss is about. You and janni have had a great time bashing the series. I think the reviews might be better reading than the book. What I want to know is why is an undead vampire (117 years old) still in high school? He couldn't have flunked for 100 years because after awhile the teachers would tell him to just drop out already.

Happy Birthday!!!

[beteio.livejournal.com]

Apparently every four years or so the whole vamp family moves and then they start high school again...? Don't ask me why they'd ever want to spend 100-ish years in high school...

[kiviuq.livejournal.com]

I know this is a week late but Happy Belated Birthday!!

I've been hearing so much about these books and really won't read them. They're the antithesis, it seems, of things that I would read. Haha. But yeah. I've basically heard the same kinds of things from friends and have established that I can go through life quite happily missing out on this 'phenomenon'.

Zombie-girls for G-d

[loismoon.livejournal.com]

Since this post, I've been checking out what the girls in my HS classes are reading. Every time I see them with one of these books I feel like I've found another zombie-girl, but I'm the only one who can see her. The books scare me now. I want to take them and throw them away, and save the un-dead girls by giving them some REAL fiction that won't rot their souls. Stephanie Meyer be damned.

[(Anonymous)]

i'm glad there are so many people not buying into the hype these books have created, and i agree with 90% of what's been said here.......

but i think we teenage girls deserve a little more trust. no twilight fans i know are ignorant of the darker messages behind the books. and what's more, we know how to seperate fantasy from reality. even teenage girls, as hormonally unbalanced as we may be, know better than to date a guy because he reminds us of a 100 year old vampire in a fantasy novel. i was hooked on these books a year and a half ago, and it was because i thought edward was sexy, not because i wanted to end up a wife and mother like bella.

that being said, i understand the arguments against meyer's writing (i'm out of my twilight phase for good now), and for anyone looking for teen fantasy with a better message i recommend A Great And Terrible Beauty and the sequels by Libba Bray. it's chalk full of feminism, with complicated characters and plenty of teenage angst.

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

[(Anonymous)]

I love it.