Amelia Ruthven-Nelson
Recruitment Manager
@AmeliaR_N
Bland and constantly self-deprecating, there is virtually no development in Bella’s character through the entire series. She begins the series miserable, in a town where all the boys hit on her and it never stops raining (talk about “first world problems”). She passively accepts her pitiful life until she meets Edward, the 100-something-year-old vampire in a 17-year-old’s body, and instantly falls in love with him.
It is clear that Bella suffers from severely low self-esteem and borderline depression, but Meyer sweeps all of that under the rug as soon as Edward comes into the picture. Every moment apart results in Bella’s relapse to her old, whiny self as she sits around waiting for his return.
Bella spends too much time putting herself down, wondering how Edward could possibly be in love with her. She is in constant need of validation from Edward, and never once did the idea that she might be a woman worth loving ever occur to her.
Instead of providing us with an independent heroine who we can aspire to be like, Meyer gives us Bella Swan: the constant damsel in distress. Not convinced? Let me recap the series for you:
In Twilight, Bella almost dies because she gives up and goes to meet her would-be murderer. Her logic? Trying to stay alive was inconveniencing Edward.
In New Moon, Bella almost dies because Edward dumps her and she can’t live without him. Sure, she travels around the world to go and save Edward, but all she had to do was show up. Not to mention, the only thing she ever did from the time she got dumped until the end of the novel was go and see Edward.
In Eclipse, Bella saves… no one. Once again, she tries to kill herself in order to save Edward (who did not need saving).
In Breaking Dawn, Bella dies. Some of you reading this may argue that she saved her daughter, but being in close vicinity to the action does not count as saving someone.
Bella is a protagonist; she is not a hero, and she is far from being a feminist icon. The fact that anyone would even try to argue that Bella is someone to look up to seems outrageous to me, when less than ten years ago we had a real female character who embodied the empowerment of women.
Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer? She also had a vampire boyfriend (or two), but she never once went out of her way to die for them. While Bella tried to get every vampire she knew to bite her, Buffy was saving lives. In seven years’ worth of episodes, Buffy went to high school, made friends, got boyfriends, broke up with boyfriends, held jobs, found a career, took care of her mother, took care of her sister, saved lives and—oh yeah—she saved the world.
While Bella’s innate ability to fail at every activity that ever took place in gym class was an ongoing joke in the Twilight series, Buffy had the strength and speed to stop the demons and monsters.
In both series, the majority of vampires kill people. But that is overlooked in Twilight, as long as Bella and Edward are able to be together. Buffy was willing to sacrifice any relationship she had with a boy in order to do her job (you know, saving the world). And yet, young girls are currently inspired by Bella, the girl who would sacrifice the world to be with Edward.
It is true Buffy almost died in every other episode, but she was in danger because she was actually trying to accomplish something noble. Buffy ended her series having ended an apocalypse and empowering women around the world. Bella ended her series happy, as an undead housewife. Does someone want to tell me how Bella can still be considered a feminist icon?
I don’t want to come across as if I’m just jumping on the hater bandwagon. I’ve read all the books and have seen all of the many films in theatres. I, like other women, enjoy the occasional mushy teenage love story but it deeply saddens me to turn on the TV and hear hundreds of impressionable young girls discuss how amazing Twilight is, while they waste their time dreaming of their own Edward Cullen.
She gives up her family, her high school friends, going to university, her body, and ultimately her mortality just to be with Edward. Not only is she annoying, sullen, and melodramatic, but Bella is the ultimate anti-feminist heroine that, through her unbelievable popularity among young girls, sets women back by decades.
there’s so much wrong with this. so many points that are just untrue. for example, she goes to meet her to-be murderer because she thinks she’s saving her mother.
literally