Twilight's Bella Swan: Role Model or Not?
My life has been very much about The Twilight Saga: New Moon recently -- I saw the movie last week, followed by an afternoon with the cast (well the majority of the players anyway - Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner and Robert Pattinson were all there). During one event -- a press conference with Kristen and about 25 reporters - I couldn't help but think the young star, who plays the series' heroine, Bella Swan, is a bit like her character - flustered, self-conscious, but witty and thoughtful. Kristen is petite and fidgets a bit -- on this day she wore three rings to fumble with. When it comes to her character, she stands behind her assertively: "She's awesome and she doesn't know it. She's confident but not arrogant. She has a lot of innately female qualities. She's fickle and unabashedly so..."
Someone asked whether Kristen sees Bella as a good role model, taking into account her reckless behavior in New Moon. (For those of you who need a quick plot recap, the only way Bella can "channel" her lost love, Edward Cullen, is when she's doing something careless, like riding a dirt bike, hanging in the bad part of town or jumping off a cliff.)
The 19-year-old actress reacted as if insults had been hurled at her best friend: "I'm so defensive of her," said Kristen, who acknowledged that she thinks "Bella's a great character for girls to look up to - not even look up - she's normal." So, she's more someone to relate to, less of someone to aspire to be. In response to the question, Kristen argued that while she doesn't condone near-death stunts, she said, "Be extreme and go for it. You live once." I get it - sometimes, we all need to do something crazy to deal with our overwhelming emotions.
What do you think? Is Bella a good role model for young girls who treat these books like the Bible? On the one hand, she is very honest with her feelings, good in school and seems like an all-around good kid (ya know, minus the vampire boyfriend issues). On the other hand, she's a glutton for rash behavior that not only endangers herself, but at times, endangers her best friend Jacob Black. Whether you're a tween or a parent, do you think Bella Swan is a good influence or role model for girls?
On Monday, I'll be heading (along with screaming rabid teenagers) to hit the red carpet at the movie's premiere in L.A. I'll report back on that, followed by a review of New Moon.
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Absolutely. It seems like girl on girl bitchiness is at an all time high. Shows like Gossip Girl, The Hills, reality shows competing for men. Shows like The Bachelor are awful, you hear grown women talk about they've always dreamed of the 'fairy tale', wanting to be a princess and live happily ever after. Then when the yelling and pushing starts, that's supposed to be entertainment.
I identified with Bella, and my mom says I was always an adult in a childs body (I'm 39 now) and I used to get so angry that young girls were dismissed as all being dumb and still had the whole virgin/whore double standard to deal with. I can't wait for my niece to be old enough so I can show her Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Bella as smart, strong, equal to men, and a stong sense of self, not to just follow what everyone else does.
Bella's relationship with Edward is codependent and somewhat abusive. This book teaches the middle school girls who read it that you can tell a boy loves you because he's violent, obsessive, nosy and controlling. Creepy.
You haven't read the books, that's obvious. You've heard other's opinions and are repeating them like a parrot.
Shows like the Hills where they fight over men, and suffer from verbal, emotional and sometimes physical abuse. Choosing boys over friends. Shows like Gossip Girl where material things are what is important, portraying highschoolers like they're in their 40's. MTV is the worst. They make it look like everyone over 12 are having random sex, or portraying it like it's cool. Girls in degrading competitions. And I don't know how many times I hear the girls say "Oh well, that's just how they are" when a man cheats, lies, or is passive-aggressive, uses them etc. I've written to MTV about the Hills and The City, and how they portray unhealthy relationships as normal. The girls throw up their hands and say "well what can you do" and maybe you'll have one person who tells them it's not right, they shouldn't accept it.
Edward was never violent to Bella. He protected her because people were trying to KILL HER. He wasn't telling her not to hangout with her girlfriends, or telling her there's something wrong with her, and how to dress, what to eat.
I've started trying to read them but I'm struggling
I began reading this series several years ago when I began to hear some buzz about them but before they were really popular. I found them entertaining enough to read them all, albeit a bit formulaic. When I was reading Twilight I was intrigued because I hoped the author's point was to write a blistering satire on teen love. A girl who is so taken with her boyfriend she is willing to risk death and ultimately give up her life so he'll like her? Hilarious! I was hoping the outcome would be she would mature and come to her senses. No such luck, ultimately it is a modern day harlequin romance. Bella is no role model because she is willing to give up all of herself (a normal life, her family, and finally her humanity) to be with a boy. This is not a good lesson for girls.
How can a fictitious character even truly BE a role model? She isn't a real person, and to me, one has to actually, you know, exist, in order to be a role model.
I was going to read all the Twilight books until my sis sent me this link from a former LDSer who had this amusing "deconstruction" of the books. It's a great read if you have some time to spare. I might still read the books, although I doubt it. Anyway, from watching the first movie and reading this "Twilight: Stonefied", I feel like I've gleaned the main gist of the series. And to answer the question if Bella is a good role model, no, but the books are so much fun to make fun of. Enjoy!
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In the novels, Bella Swan is a superficial, vacuous, spoiled, Mary Sue who judges people entirely on their looks and falls in love with Edward Cullen simply for his appearance and nothing else.
The movies do improve her character to a certain extent, but no, she is not a role model.
The entire theme of the books is that obsessive superficial love is cool, and that controlling boyfriends are "hot" and for that Stephanie Meyer has a lot to answer for.
I decided to read the series to see what all the hype was about and I had just gotten out of the hospital; I wanted something to take my mind of my problems. I was shocked to read about a girl who is so insecure that she cannot look at herself in the mirror on her wedding day! The second book has Bella so distraught over the loss of Edward there are blank pages indicating how out of it she was. I understand teenage heartbreak but Meyer really went out of her way to have Bella breakdown over Edward. Young girls should know it is okay to have a broken heart but not to the point where they stop living. If I had a teen girl who read the series we would have a frank talk about self confidence and self love. Bella is no role model.
I thik it's about time we stopped this 'teens meet, fall in love forever' storyline, from tv to cinema to books. Most people do not meet the love of their life when they're 14 or 16. These are the years when they date a few guys (or girls) and meet possessive people, kind people, bad lads, nerds, nice guys, good lookers, not-so-good lookers, drinkers, religious types, controlling types, easy types, and finally, after they've got a bit of experience under their belt (and no, I don't think that HAS to mean a lot of se xual experience) they get a set of values into their lives that they want to look for in a life partner. THEN, with that, they might stand a chance of settling down with someone they respect and love, and sho values them for the same reasons.
Amen.
"Bella so distraught over the loss of Edward there are blank pages indicating how out of it she was" ...
The point is that this is not a natural relationship, it is supernatural. Bella and Edward are supposed to be eternal soul mates. This is FANTASY, it is a story you read when you want to escape reality. The characters are not supposed to be "role models".
Myers might not have meant for Bella to be a role model but the teenage and tween girls that have read the books do look up to her. It doesn't matter if someone wants to be a role model, sometimes they are thrust into the position. I have two teenage cousins that have read the books (I have also but only up to the middle of the third book) and I have talked to them about Bella. Bella is not a strong female. She's weak and depends on her boyfriend for everything. She can't live without him. No teenage girl should look to that as a way to live her life.
I would love for my daughter to date a Vampire, one thats wealthy, hot,I will let you know when it happens. Can't fiction just be fiction, Bella Swan to me is not a role model, the young women isn't real. Edward is not real.The story is a story.
I would have to concur with you on this one. Fiction is just that, fiction, with some tenuous ties to reality here and there. I would not think that Myers was attempting to create a role model for teen girls when she wrote these books (I have only read two, still waiting for the paperbacks), but rather a version of the types of books that my wife loves to read, aimed at a much younger market. She shouldn't be considered a role model anymore than Nancy Drew should have been.
Like it or notCharacters in books, including Nancy Drew, *are* role models for young people, and at least the Nancy Drew I read about was a good one. Someone told me that Nancy has devolved into more of a Bella Swan-like character who has to be "rescued" by her boyfriend Ned and go running to her father for advice all the time, but when I read it she was independent, self-confident, and able to get herself out of a jam.
Hermione Granger (or even Ginny Weasley, a character in Harry Potter about whom I'm not too enthusiastic), or Lyra Belacqua from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (who starts out with a *lot* of flaws but, unlike Bella, matures during the course of the books), could kick Bella Swan's butt without even breaking a sweat.
I love the Twilight books and I am a parent. I do NOT think that Bella is a good role model for a young girl due to the co-dependency of her relationship with Edward. Bella is a good kid and a typical teenager but she becomes too obsessive of him. I would not want my daughter to place that much emphasis on her 'first love' relationship and lose too much of herself in the process.
Would you like your daughter to make the same choices as Bella? Do you wish you had made similar choices as a young adult?
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