Bella Swan is Not Like Other Girls
The internalized misogyny and everything else we have to stop ignoring
It has been over a decade since Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight hit the shelves and sold millions of copies everywhere. In August of 2020, fans found themselves back in their favorite bookstores to get their hands on a copy of Midnight Sun. For the first time since the release of the series finale in 2008, the Twilight saga lived on. Now, however, from the perspective of Edward Cullen, brooding vampire and fan-favorite. Despite its popularity and my admitted guilty pleasure enjoyment of the series, reading Midnight Sun truly emphasized for me many issues within Meyer’s story. There’s one problem that stuck out terribly to me while reading this love tale about a century-old man yearning for 17-year-old Bella Swan, and it wasn’t the unfortunately problematic age gap. (Also, Meyer, what’s up with these age gaps? I know “imprinting” was supposed to be complicated, but you have to admit the Renesmee/Jacob story arc was creepy and highly insensitive.)
I hate to say it, but Bella Swan is not like other girls, and Edward (or should I say Meyer) made this very clear multiple times in Midnight Sun. She’s quirky, clumsy in the most charming of ways, she’s not interested in anything that her girlfriends are interested in, all the boys want her but she’s totally oblivious, she’s mysterious, and she always needs saving. It’s clear that only Edward can save her, and what's worse? Only Edward can really see her. 10 years ago I didn’t realize how unremarkably flat Bella Swan was, but now it’s glaring at me and I can’t ignore it. Bella is the blueprint of the type of girl a man creates, which is why it should be surprising that Meyer is not one.
Bella is without hope, her classmates are portrayed as silly teenage girls who are all too “immature” for Edward’s taste, (did I mention he’s over a century old?) Rosalie is upset because Edward thinks Bella is prettier than her, and even the waitresses are unbearable…I begin to wonder why Stephanie Meyer hates women.
The problem with glorifying Bella for “not being like other girls” is the implications that come with it. This is not a new concept to feminists like myself, but internalized misogyny is a prominent issue that thrives in stories like Twilight.
“I quickly realized why the posture looked unfamiliar to me. Normal human girls wouldn’t raise their faces to the drizzle that way; normal human girls usually wore makeup, even here in this wet place. Bella never wore makeup, nor would she. The cosmetics industry made billions of dollars a year from women who were trying to attain skin like hers.” -Edward, Midnight Sun
Let's be clear. There is no one type of girl to “be like”, and there is nothing wrong with the “traditional” concept of the girl (the one who loves pink and rom-coms, and wears makeup). All things traditionally feminine don’t have to come across as weak and undesirable or just lame. What entertainment needs is women who are unapologetically feminine, and men who aren’t glorified for hating women.
Furthermore, while I understand that Jessica Stanley is kind of an insecure jerk, I wish Meyer had not emphasized the catty “teenage girl-ness” of Jessica with such carelessness of the implications. Jessica is another unfortunately one-dimensional character, who despite serving no significant purpose other than to exaggerate Bella’s characteristics (or lack thereof), could have been more complex than the cliche that she is. Not to mention the fact that Edward spends a significant amount of time thinking about how much he hates her guts.
I cannot end this article without noting that while I have expressed my opinions on the unfortunate misogyny of the character Bella Swan, there are a number of controversies surrounding the Twilight saga, most of which are only coming to my attention now that the hype surrounding the series has returned via Midnight Sun. While many of us were much younger when the series came out, we have the opportunity now to look at it with more considerate and critical eyes. It’s time to have conversations about the fact that the Quileute tribe was exploited for Meyer’s story, Jacob’s lack of concern for consent (you remember the kiss), the absence of LGBTQ+ representation, and of course, the fact that Bella clearly was never a good character to begin with. 10 years later, Twilight has just not aged well. Meyer had every opportunity to patch up her mistakes, but Midnight Sun feels just as dated as the vampires. Perhaps Meyer made a quick buck out of the nostalgic pursuit we all ran to Barnes&Nobles for (myself included), but just as her dedication page has written, I have grown up since reading Twilight for the first time. And Stephanie, I don’t like it.
I resent the idea of contributing to the toxic ways of cancel culture (especially for a series that I have for many years loved without a second-thought myself), but I encourage readers to think critically of the entertainment they consume and open up discussions that can hopefully provide for more considerate content in the future. So, don’t “cancel”, have a conversation.
