Last weekend, after missing an office meeting, I spent the whole afternoon staring at the television wrapping up the movie Twilight. Though I've seen it already, it felt the first time that I really got curious about the characters especially on clumsy Bella of course.
In Huffington's article Bella Swan: Role Model or Not?, it was asked if Bella is a good role model. Sadly, while she has a multitude of very good traits, the positive doesn’t exactly outweigh the negative.
The Other Side of Bella
Like all characters, Bella Swan has to have faults. On the first pass through Twilight, it appears that the only one she has is her crippling clumsiness, but on closer examination, a few somewhat disturbing underlying personality traits come to light.
For starter’s, Bella has very low self-esteem. While this is a condition that plagues all teenage girls at one time or another, Bella is self deprecating more often than not, putting herself down, even in her thoughts. Her love interest, Edward, is constantly described as perfect and when Bella measures herself next to him, she finds herself woefully inadequate.
Even in such small things a working together in biology class, while the two are taking notes for their assignment, Bella doesn’t want to ‘ruin’ the work they’re doing with her handwriting because his is so elegant and beautiful and hers is not.
This could be seen as the author trying to reaffirm for the audience that everything about the hero of the story is perfect, even his penmanship, but it’s at the cost of the heroine’s self worth. The same theme recurs so often that it‘s downright discouraging.
Bella reminds the audience repeatedly just how ordinary she is, especially when comparing herself to the boy she loves. Yes, Edward Cullen is extraordinary and wonderful, but Bella should be allowed to be the same, even if she’s just a regular girl.
Bella’s self-confidence is bolstered by Edward’s love for her, but this message is a double-edged sword. While it’s fantastic that she can see herself through his eyes and understand that someone thinks she’s exceptional, it’s sad that she doesn’t believe it until he tells her so.
Still, this is an accurate depiction of how a teenager’s self-image often is, so Meyer should be commended for getting it right--even if the message it sends is somewhat questionable. It looks like a girl is only special if someone of the opposite sex thinks she is.
One of Bella’s most worrying personality traits is just how easy she is to walk on. None of her protestations throughout the book stick: when she defies or argues with Edward, he always wins--not necessary because his argument is valid, but because she backs down. Bella is not entitled to any opinions that clash with her boyfriend‘s.
The relationship that is central in Twilight is, at first glance, everything a girl dreams of, but digging a little deeper, it’s actually rather abusive. By default, Edward is right, Bella is not. If Bella shows any sexual aggression, he freezes her out; if he does the same, she swoons because it’s so overwhelmingly magnificent.
If Bella forms an opinion opposing Edward’s, she changes it to match his almost instantly. When Edward ‘teases’ Bella, it’s accepted, even though his words poke holes in her ego.
Bella sees Edward as perfect, constantly reminding the audience of that perfection and just how lucky she is to have him, never acknowledging that perhaps she deserves to be loved by someone attractive. All these things are depicted as okay because Edward loves her, meaning he’s instantly forgiven for his behavior on the basis of his love alone.
More disturbing still is that, in their worship of Bella, teenage girls desire this kind of relationship, without ever seeing how detrimental it is to the heroine of the novel.
Bella is not a strong female character. She bends to someone else’s whims regularly. When she does do something on her own, the results are always disastrous and she’s scolded: she should have listened to the boy she loves instead of thinking for herself.
This gender inequality is a prevalent theme in Twilight and with each subsequent reading, it jumps out at you more and becomes even more troubling. Bella is handed off from the care of one male to another, from her father saving her life by putting chains on her truck’s tires immediately to Edward pulling her out of the way of an out of control van.
She doesn’t even walk to classes on her own, usually accompanied by either a minor male character or her love interest. When she acts without the guidance of a man, she winds up in dangerous situations that she must be rescued from--again, rescued by a man.
In this day and age, the damsels in distress of centuries past are just that: in the past. Women are allowed to be strong; women are strong. Bella is not allowed to have a spine in Twilight and she is not allowed to think for herself without learning a painful lesson for such behavior.
Bella is weak, even submissive, pure and simple. She’s very smart, and she’s allowed to be smart, but her will is never her own. It would be excusable, even an excellent plot device and show of emotional growth, if she had started weak and developed strength through the story, but she doesn’t do that.
In Twilight, the gender roles are very clearly defined in a very old fashioned sort of way. Girls are eternally the princess in need of rescue; boys, their knights in shining armor. It’s a story as old as the oldest fairy tale, and perhaps, since that’s the foundation that Twilight is built on, that’s the point and the appeal; but it’s hardly a positive, progressive step forward.
The passive but kind Cinderella, waiting for her prince charming to come save her from the mundane life she lives, isn’t usually considered a good role model for girls.
In the great scheme of things, Bella Swan, waiting for romance to make her life something exceptional rather than grasping at individual happiness with both hands, probably isn’t either.