Gender in the Twilight Movies
About a week ago, I watched all the Twilight movies. Don’t ask what prompted me to do this to myself, because frankly, I have no idea. I’m going to blame it on the fact that I’ve hardly left my house for over seven months. I won’t lie, I enjoyed the films, because they are hilarious and have interesting enough plots that I didn’t get bored. However, I found that there are many things about the Twilight movies and books that are problematic, the most prominent being the way gender plays a role in Bella’s and Edward’s relationship. There are several ways in which Twilight plays into toxic tropes of heterosexual relationships. First, Edward has a lot of power over Bella and her emotions, especially since Bella has such an unhealthy obsession with him. Edward does many inconsiderate things to Bella: he abandons her during the second movie which takes a huge toll on her, but visits her in a weird ghostly apparition (which is never explained) driving her into further emotional t...