Is Bella an anti-feminist heroine?
"When I hear or read theories about Bella being an anti-feminist character, those theories are usually predicated on her choices. In the beginning, she chooses romantic love over everything else. Eventually, she chooses to marry at an early age and then chooses to keep an unexpected and dangerous baby. I never meant for her fictional choices to be a model for anyone else's real life choices. She is a character in a story, nothing more or less. On top of that, this is not even realistic fiction, it's a fantasy with vampires and werewolves, so no one could ever make her exact choices. Bella chooses things differently than how I would do it if I were in her shoes, because she is a very different type of person than I am. Also, she's in a situation that none of us has ever been in, because she lives in a fantasy world. But do her choices make her a negative example of empowerment? For myself personally, I don't think so.
In my own opinion (key word), the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. The core of anti-feminism is, conversely, telling a woman she can't do something solely because she's a woman—taking any choice away from her specifically because of her gender. "You can't be an astronaut, because you're a woman. You can't be president because you're a woman. You can't run a company because you're a woman." All of those oppressive "can't"s.
One of the weird things about modern feminism is that some feminists seem to be putting their own limits on women's choices. That feels backward to me. It's as if you can't choose a family on your own terms and still be considered a strong woman. How is that empowering? Are there rules about if, when, and how we love or marry and if, when, and how we have kids? Are there jobs we can and can't have in order to be a "real" feminist? To me, those limitations seem anti-feminist in basic principle." - Stephanie Meyer
Everyone has their own opinions of Bella - whether she is portrayed as a role model to some or a slap in the face for feminism to others. According to Stephanie Meyer, she defends the character of Bella as not being a negative example of empowerment. She claims that feminism is to "be able to choose" choices for yourself and because Bella chooses to be with Edward she is empowered. Having the power to choose is one important aspect of feminism but the concern is not so much the option to choose but rather how the choices Bella makes reflect who she is. And is this person reflecting feminist or anti feminist ideals?
There are a countless number of myths associated with being a feminist. You must be a lesbien if you are a feminist. You must hate men if you are a feminist. You must be a hippie that never shaves your legs or ANY part of your body if you are a feminist. It is important to remember that these are all JUST MYTHS. Being a feminist means you believe in equal political, economical and social rights for women - such as equal paying jobs, universal daycares for mothers, and paternity leave for mothers to be at their jobs.
In terms of Twilight, Bella is choosing to get married and give up having a career, much similar to the role of a housewife of the 1950's and is anti feminist. She clearly makes choices. She is just making bad ones. If any of your friends made choices like these, you would most likely be concerned for them and the obsessive quality of their relationship. But because this same idea of choosing to drop everything is associated with dating a VAMPIRE, there is some sort of appeal to it that makes it sexy. Don't get it. As well, marriage is subjective; one can get married whenever they see fit in life, as long as it is for the right reasons. We are not claiming to know what these right reasons are - but to basically give up her life in Forks as soon as she goes there so that a sparkly vampire can sweep her off her feet just because he is Edward - and on top of that be so willing to give up 1) a career and education 2) friends and 3) family and mortality is painfully obvious not for the right reasons.
As well, the fact Stephanie Meyer is claiming that because Bella is in a fantasy world she is making different decisions than she would in a normal world is pointless. It strays away from the question whether Bella is anti feminist or not because the truth of the matter is that the character of Bella is a role model for teen girls and even millions of adults across the world... meaning she has an impact on the public.
Team Alice!
- Response by U Of A Students
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