Feminism And Gender Roles In Stephanie Meyer's Twilight

It is important to understand and examine popular texts because they can be used to impose social values and culture on others. Popular female-targeted novels -such as Twilight and most romance novels- are important to understand because they are critiqued most often on the basis of gender roles and feminism. Feminism often leads to the examination of the patriarchal structure of a society as it relates to women's power and what is expected of them. Twilight is a popular young adult novel written by Stephanie Meyer that unexpectedly accompanied an uproar of negative responses from both the public and professional critics. The response by the public and critics of Twilight is justified because even though Stephanie Meyer attempts to break the ideology of a patriarchal society, she in fact fails because the characters conform to the stereotypic expectations society has of gender
roles. Stephanie Meyer fought back against critics of Twilight claiming her characters are not entirely what readers perceive them as, “There are those who think Bella is a wuss. There are those who think my stories are misogynistic—the damsel in distress must be rescued by strong hero… I am not anti-female, I am anti-human. I wrote this story from the perspective of a female human because that came most naturally, as you might imagine. But if the narrator had been a male human, it would not have changed the events. When a human being is totally surrounded by creatures with supernatural strength, speed, senses, and various other uncanny powers, he or she is not going to be able to hold his or her own. Sorry. That's just the way it is. We can't all be slayers. Bella does pretty well I think, all things considered (Meyer, The Story). Her storyline forces the female characters to be naturally weaker than the men. There are qualities that some readers could claim as “breaking the typical mold,” but they are not powerful enough to break the stereotypical gender role expectations that society has. The very prominent roles found throughout Twilight is that the men are protectors and the females are helpless and need protection. Stephanie Meyer specifically creates her characters to play these roles, for example Edwards Father, Carlisle, is the most well-known doctor in town, Charlie, Bella’s father, is also the police chief, and Jacobs dad is even the Quileute tribe leader. Edward is a strong, attractive male who all the females swoon over and is constantly needing to save Bella in situations she happens to get herself into. For example, Bella ends up in a dark alley being trapped by men and even though she thinks of ways to save herself instead of giving up, in the end it is still Edward that rescues her. It is the perfect scenario of “damsel in distress,” and occurs multiple times throughout the novel. In opposition to the male characters the females are portrayed exactly how a patriarchal society would describe them. They are symbolized as very childlike and constantly needing protection. Stephanie Meyer could have created a strong, powerful, female lead character but instead she created Bella, who is very clumsy, weak, and childlike. There are very negative critiques associated with this novel which is a reason why it is ignored today.
Many young adults, even teenage girls, are ashamed to be seen reading the novel because of the negative connotations that society has placed on the book. Women enjoy the strong male lead character whereas men see the book as another love story that sets females standards of men even higher than it was before. The readers are largely critical of Bella because she fails to overcome the patriarchal constraints that Stephanie Meyer created in Twilight. Many critics say the book is unfit for young women because it presents domestic violence in a way that makes it acceptable. Feminism critics want writers to create novels with strong lead characters that will inspire young women to be independent and break free from societies idea of their expected role. This novel further reinforces the oppressive ideology of patriarchy that exists in our real-world. Twilight has and will be, neglected and ignored because of the negative connotation it is gained from the public and professional
responses.