Last night I got the chance to go out with some girl friends. Thanks ladies! We had a good time shopping a little, dinner and then a movie. The movie that we saw was the newest Twilight movie and while it was enjoyable it is not my favorite. I read the series and enjoyed getting lost in the story but have always felt like something is wrong (other than the reality of vampires). I read a friend's blog today and I think she has an interesting point and I would like to share her blog entry so try and be open-minded when you read it and just give it a think...
from a victim advocate...
I hope this doesn't ruin the story for anyone and that my friends will still be able to read/watch Twilight and be able to escape reality for awhile and come back to healthy relationships and teach their sons/daughters respect for all (even wolves ;) ).
Thanks for sharing my blog Katie!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to ruin the books or movies for anyone either because I love them too! I just feel really lucky to have been raised by a mother who taught me about entitlement, gender equality and victimization through power and control. Some young teens do not have that education, even with new updated curriculum in the schools and I worry for them. Distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy relationships is becoming more difficult.
As a parent to a young toddler, this is not far from my mind...even at his age.
Last night was a lot of fun Katie! :) Thank you for sharing this, it definitely got me thinking and moved me to share my own thoughts. Please indulge me! :) I did take the time to read your friend’s blog (with an open mind) and there are just a few things that struck me. I completely respect her line of work and her view based upon her own life experiences. I know the system well, and have had a lot of involvement with it myself; so my eyes are certainly open to the cycle and signs of abuse. I respectfully want to say I feel the opinion of a completely desperate abusive relationship represented by these characters is a bit far-reaching from a slightly cynical point of view on the topic itself. Okay, so I'll give you Edwards jealousy toward Jacob (especially in the beginning), but he came around because he realized how important that relationship was to Bella. This is shown to the point of her kissing Jacob while Edward was engaged to her with no “violent” or “controlling” repercussion. I'll also give you the "stalking", him always being around her in reality would surely be a red flag. The sex though I have to disagree, for Bella it was passionate, it was beautiful, she hadn't been with any other man this way and she wanted to be with her HUSBAND! I think quite the contrary that this represents a beautiful and healthy (as healthy as vampires can be I guess!) relationship for young women to look toward. She surely was not beat or scared of anything Edward did. Using Bella, for the sake of conversation, I think it's unfair to reduce her to a "victim" status. She proves time and time again that she has the strength to handle herself as well as Edwards shortcomings and the troubles they face together. She's a strong, independent, quirky young woman who merely fell in love and in the light has shown commitment and dedication to a choice; which is undeniably what our own generation lacks today. Eleanor Roosevelt said "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent", well Bella never consented to that and I feel that is not the pull of what's being represented in this series, therefore I cannot agree that she is in any form a victim. I also have very strong feelings about abuse and our culture, as Rhonda said, “glamorizing violence” and ignoring the exhausting numbers of abuse in our country alone. This is all alive and real, the whole point of me commenting was merely to loosen the slack on the pendulum a little bit; the same way a defense lawyer can turn a victim into a suspect, almost any occurrence can be shifted to suit a particular argument. So for the sake of argument, I stand that this series meets somewhere in the middle of an idyllic romance and an ad campaign for battered women.
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