Has anyone else noticed that Bella doesn't eat often, and in fact is setting a bad example to impressionable young girls?
I think this is irresponsible on the part of Stephenie Meyer. Whether purposeful or not, now that Twilight is a cultural behemoth, Bella being a thin (115 lb) heroine who doesn't often eat and when she does, only takes a few bites, is not a healthy example for females at the nadir of their self-esteem and self-image.
book:
a) Bella sometimes only has a soft drink for lunch. WTF?
b) Bella is 115 pounds. Sorry, not realistic for many teenage girls/young women.
c) When she does eat, Bella often only takes a few bites; or is too excited to eat; or says she is not hungry.
movie:
d) In the first lunch scene, Bella only eats a celery stalk; ironically, while mocking eating disorders (by saying, flippantly and glibly, "you could always do...eating disorders" when suggesting newspaper feature topics to Angela)
e) Have you noticed how thin Christian Serratos (actress portraying Angela) is?? Not that Bella/K-stew/Christian have eating disorders, but the combined effect of these aspects is very unhealthy for the self-esteem of girls and sets a very low weight standard.
Also Bella never exercises, so she must also have very low muscle mass. Unhealthy!!
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You seem to be a stable fan of twilight so I won't goad you into an argument (I respect all opinions and interests) but did you really expect anything else from Stephenie Meyer? I mean, this woman wrote Bella initially as a fantasy and as a 40 year old mother of three she fantasized about being a perfect, petite, teenager in love with a vampire. Her image of teens is very skewed and idealistic and that image is passed on to every person who reads the books (girls desire to be like that/boys think that's what they should want) Bella is a small girl who can't take care of herself and constantly needs to be rescued and protected by Edward -- she might as well be a child (don't even get me started on the incest themes *ahem, jacob*)
ReplyDeleteThese are all interesting observations.
ReplyDeleteThis is a underlying message (whether or not it's intentional) I never noticed in Twilight, though I am keenly aware of others. Such s those manthadarling listed.
I love the concept of your blog, even though I personally don't care for Twilight. I like to dissect and analyze pop culture for it's hidden messages and values.