Dear WaPo (or, why I try to avoid this paper and just can't)

[caitri]

The Post has published one of its perennial articles in a series I have titled "How to Drive Caitri Insane." The latest piece, by Leonard Sax, explains why feminism is dead because of the Twilight series. Because, as we all know, romance novels are the *pulse* of what is going on in popular culture:

Despite all the modern accouterments in the "Twilight" saga, the girls are still girls, and the boys are traditional men. More specifically: The lead male characters, Edward Cullen and Jacob Black, are muscular and unwaveringly brave, while Bella and the other girls bake cookies, make supper for the men and hold all-female slumber parties. It gets worse for feminists: Bella is regularly threatened with violence in the first three books, and in every instance she is rescued by Edward or Jacob. In the third book she describes herself as "helpless and delicious." [...]

Three decades of adults pretending that gender doesn't matter haven't created a generation of feminists who don't need men; they have instead created a horde of girls who adore the traditional male and female roles and relationships in the "Twilight" saga. Likewise, ignoring gender differences hasn't created a generation of boys who muse about their feelings while they work on their scrapbooks. Instead, a growing number of boys in this country spend much of their free time absorbed in the masculine mayhem of video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Halo or surfing the Internet for pornography.

Got it? Feminism makes men want porn!! *headdesk*

Look, the books are written by a fucking Mormon housewife, okay? So they are automatically skewed to the right. And the popularity is a combination of healthy marketing, the gaping hole that is the lack of a Harry Potter installment to look forward to, and a readership consisting of adolescent females who having nothing but WB/CW castoffs thrust upon 'em.

Wild and crazy idea? Let's have some kick-ass female characters in literature! (Meg Cabot, I *know* you are reading this!)

(This may be wishful thinking on my part.)

Anyhow. This article has inspired me to find a session to discuss this with my Buffy class.

Peace out.

Comments

[100wordspermin.livejournal.com]

I would LOVE to know what your Buffy class things about all this.

Personally, all I have to add is a heartfelt "Amen to that!". Your analysis of why Twilight was the crazy dark horse success is spot-on; I saw it happening at the ground level, so to speak, at the bookstore.

[caitri.livejournal.com]

This spawned sufficient discussion at work that we pulled out the relevant book to find the damning quote. Here is the full quote, in context: "And then there was the fact that I was being hunted by known and unknown parties. I'd rather not sit around, helpless and delicious, waiting for one of them to catch up with me."

A co-worker also pointed out that the article writer has written several books blaming feminism for boy's underachieving grades etc. Biased much?