Post Article Says That Twilight Saga Embraces Traditional Gender Roles Causing Further Divide of Gender Differences

This Washington Post article by Leonard Sax, whose previous works have included, “Why Gender Matters” has written an op-ed piece that states that Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga seems to buck feminist ideas and embrace traditional gender rolesand this has somehow contributed to the success of this series.

It has been reported that Meyer’s readership is not as broad as JK Rowling’s whose readers included teens and adults of both genders. The crux of the article as I interpret is to say that despite teen girls being taught that gender roles do not matter in today’s society, Stephenie Meyer comes along and gives us Bella Swan, a young teen-age girl who is constantly being saved by her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen.

This is fiction after all. I do not find Meyer’s character of Bella Swan indicative of anything meaningful. While the author of the op-ed piece makes his arguments clear, I think he is really reaching here in thinking that Bella Swan is some type of representation of anti-feminism. As a narrator in this series, Bella was annoying and whiny and constantly pining after a century old vampire who could have easily made her his dinner. I slowly grew disenchanted with the series when the love story became encumbered with forced contrivances.

I find the Twilight series to be uneven in it’s character development and plotting. The oft used “love triangle” plot device that is used here and elsewhere was somewhat a deal breaker for me. The plots often ventured into the ridiculous and unless you’re a teen, the teen-age angst was high enough to make one quit at New Moon. I don’t know. I just find Bella Swan such a bland character that to tack on any meaning behind her actions or the dissection of her world to be fairly a waste of time.

As with anything that is popular in pop culture, there’s hidden meaning to be found in almost everything that has captivated a segment of readers. For me, there’s fiction and then there’s reality. I think the media sometimes tend to think that people do not know the difference. Hopefully, someone can address this article because I find myself lacking any type of motivation to do so.