Modern day vampirism in media has taken the subtle thoughts and ideas of feminism portrayed by classic vampire literature and transformed it into a blatant disrespect and degradation of women. Perhaps the clearest example of this can be found in the Twilight novels and movies. The thing that interests me most about this is that TONS of females ranging from teenagers to the elderly flock to these movies and pre order their tickets. Do these people just not understand what is being so obviously portrayed in these movies and novels or is it that they understand and have just been so absorbed into the way society views women and their roles that they just don’t care? These people are falling into the system that continuously puts women lower than men, a system that states that women NEED men in order to survive and attain happiness. They love watching this fantasy where a helpless woman is rescued by her knight in shining armor. The essay titled TWILIGHT and PHILOSOPHY – VAMPIRES, VEGETARIANS AND THE PURSUIT OF IMMORTALITY discusses and analyses some of these issues of gender roles and femininity.
Bella is one of the main characters in Twilight, and she truly displays the stereotypical misogynistic view of what a woman should act like. “Bella has no identifiable interests or talents; she is incompetent in the fact of almost every challenge.” (133). This quote sums up Bella’s character throughout all of the novels and movies. She is just an average, clumsy, high school girl but the issue is she has no motivation or desire to be a strong woman. The essay states “Her only areas of skill are cooking and doing laundry, which she does without complaint for her father, who is incompetent in the kitchen in spite of years of living alone” (133). Bella simply accepts her role as a woman, without any questions of why society has developed to a point where women are worth nothing more than performing mundane tasks and pleasing the men in their lives. With the introduction of Edward Cullen into the story, nothing changes in terms of the way Bella views herself. She is extremely insecure to the point where she wants to sacrifice her life and soul to become an immortal vampire. This displays that is she is perfectly content with serving her role as a woman for eternity; a frightening prospect. If women ever wish to have true equality then people like Bella Swan must want it and fight for it. On the other hand, Edward is portrayed as ultra-powerful and extremely manly. His clan of vampires has made the decision not to drink human blood, and yet he still finds himself craving human blood. This could be interpreted as man’s rebellion against rules and establishments and yet another testament to the strength of men. The men are powerful yet the women in Twilight are seen as “empty conduits of masculine desire and valued for their propensity to self sacrifice” They can’t exist spiritually without the existence of a man to support them. When Edward leaves Bella, she describes the sensation as “empty space left behind” and essentially becomes worthless. “Men make history, fight the wars, and produce the great works of art.” (135). Women are supposed to be weak, docile and subservient. An interesting idea brought up in the essay is that there is a significant contrast between the ideas of women and the expectations of strength and independence associated with becoming a full functioning adult. One may bring up the fact that Bella is a main character in the novel and thus she innately has some power or importance associated with her. Upon examining this further we see that the only reason Bella is viewed as important is because the “masculine gaze confers meaning on her otherwise empty existence” (136) She is infantile in comparison to the men in her life. In fact Edward continuously tells her how “breakable” she is. Also she constantly strives to become a vampire in order to close the bridge of inequality. She sees that the women, who are vampires, have supernatural powers just like the men. What kind of message does this send to young girls? Of course every kid has wanted to be a superhero at one point or another but by innately stating that in order to bridge the gap of inequality, you must become something supernatural just tells people it is even further out of your reach. Nobody has ever been a vampire or a superhero in the sense of supernatural powers and people know this.
In conclusion, on the analysis of modern day vampirism in literature and media, we can see a clear degradation of women and femininity. It is important to bring up that women today have made strides throughout history to shoot for equality between genders. Studies say women have better grades and a higher enrollment in the world of academia. In school they tell females that they can become whatever they want and inspire curiosity and motivation. Yet at the same time, any person in the United States could turn on a TV and within minutes, see a degradation of women. They are brought down to a point where a woman’s worth comes from her looks. Even those of us who oppose this idea end up falling into it. People will subconsciously apply value and worth to people they have never met before simply based on the way they look. The media creates a contradiction for women and often creates internal conflict and turmoil. Lynn Philips describes how difficult it is for women in today’s society by saying “A good woman is both pleasing in the traditional sense: passive, pleasant , childlike, and subordinate, bent on self-sacrifice; and together, meaning she knows who she is and what she wants sexually and professionally, and goes after it.” (26) Although women have made huge strides, they have a long way to go in fighting for equality. Recognizing degradation and standing up for themselves is the key to progression in gender equality.
