Womanizing Bella
Brendan Monroe
Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Opinions
Unless you've been living in a cave over the last year, you have no doubt witnessed the hoopla over what the entertainment industry has so subtly dubbed "The Twilight Phenomenon." This "phenomenon" has culminated due to the collective screams of teenaged girls worldwide at the release of the second film in the series, "New Moon."
Female sexuality, according to Stephenie Meyer, the author of the "Twilight" saga is a dark and treacherous road that can only get you into trouble; we need not look long through the saga to prove this. In "Twilight" and "New Moon", Bella wants desperately to bed her hot hunk of a guy, vampire Edward. It does not appear that the two are in fact in love so much as desperately in lust at the thought of blissful vampiric copulation and, sadly, since Bella is doomed to live life with the non-blood suckers, the desperate duo must abstain from the sacred act, lest dear Edward fall prey to the overwhelming desire to bite her.
Bella decides in the first installment (after making some pouty faces) that she does not care if sex with Edward will kill her because, well, he is just so damn gorgeous! She reiterates this multiple times by repeat-edly letting on that she would die for him. "Twilight" is then, essentially, a film about a young man's fight to practice abstinence amidst temptation and request, except that… oh yes, Edward is not a young man at all but a 100-year old vampire just hiding in the guise of one. That is comforting. So what the "Twilight" saga is essentially about is an old man's desire to have sex with a teenaged girl who so desperately wants him. One wonders what the reaction may have been if gorgeous Edward had not been played by hunky Robert Pattinson, but perhaps by Woody Allen or the universally dashing Peter O'Toole - except that come to think of it, both men have played this role - Allen in real life and Peter O'Toole in the 2006 film "Venus," both situations widely derided. Of course neither of these men had the good fortune of being a 100 year-old vampire lusting over a 17 year-old. That somehow, is okay. It must have something to do with the blood sucking. Or perhaps it has more to do with author Stephenie Meyer's adherence to the notoriously patriarchal Mormon faith. This would explain the creepy age difference between the characters, echoing what is in some circles still standing Mormon tradition. It would also go a long way in describing Bella's all-consuming desire for a man to validate her.
Female sexuality, according to Stephenie Meyer, the author of the "Twilight" saga is a dark and treacherous road that can only get you into trouble; we need not look long through the saga to prove this. In "Twilight" and "New Moon", Bella wants desperately to bed her hot hunk of a guy, vampire Edward. It does not appear that the two are in fact in love so much as desperately in lust at the thought of blissful vampiric copulation and, sadly, since Bella is doomed to live life with the non-blood suckers, the desperate duo must abstain from the sacred act, lest dear Edward fall prey to the overwhelming desire to bite her.
Bella decides in the first installment (after making some pouty faces) that she does not care if sex with Edward will kill her because, well, he is just so damn gorgeous! She reiterates this multiple times by repeat-edly letting on that she would die for him. "Twilight" is then, essentially, a film about a young man's fight to practice abstinence amidst temptation and request, except that… oh yes, Edward is not a young man at all but a 100-year old vampire just hiding in the guise of one. That is comforting. So what the "Twilight" saga is essentially about is an old man's desire to have sex with a teenaged girl who so desperately wants him. One wonders what the reaction may have been if gorgeous Edward had not been played by hunky Robert Pattinson, but perhaps by Woody Allen or the universally dashing Peter O'Toole - except that come to think of it, both men have played this role - Allen in real life and Peter O'Toole in the 2006 film "Venus," both situations widely derided. Of course neither of these men had the good fortune of being a 100 year-old vampire lusting over a 17 year-old. That somehow, is okay. It must have something to do with the blood sucking. Or perhaps it has more to do with author Stephenie Meyer's adherence to the notoriously patriarchal Mormon faith. This would explain the creepy age difference between the characters, echoing what is in some circles still standing Mormon tradition. It would also go a long way in describing Bella's all-consuming desire for a man to validate her.
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