twilight adventures: part two

In the words of Rage Against The Machine: know your enemy.

It's in your head now right?

All this talk about KONY 2012 has highlighted the incredible power of social media. People have been quick to jump behind the cause because the campaign video clearly identifies the baddie. We want to stop the baddie. But by seeing the situation in a one dimensional manner like this, there is a possibility that we are ignoring other notable issues, like our apathy towards social injustice that requires more from us than passing on a video and wearing a wristband. This is not to say that Kony isn't evil, but that often by focussing on a person like this, we are blinded to other evils lurking in the background.

I feel this is very much what is happening with the popularisation of vampires and other ideas with some sort of connection to the occult. It seems that many are on the defensive at the mere mention of Edward Cullen. The same treatment was given to Harry Potter, I still remember pastors standing up and condemning those who were reading the books (pushing those people into secret lives of undercover book clubs and naughty giggles). For some reason, Narnia and Lord of the Rings were acceptable despite the wizardry, witches and magic.

But as far as these books go, the presence of these evil buzz words often blind us from what the real danger is, and as far as I can tell, this is exactly what is happening with Twilight.

I’ve always found the concept of romantic love a confusing one. How do you know if you really love someone? What is this feeling supposed to be like? How is one supposed to behave (or not behave...) within a romantic relationship? What we need is a walkthrough, some sort of guide – a love textbook if you like. A way to navigate these tricky waters. It seems that trashy teen romance books have risen to meet this need. Twilight is more at home in this category, rather than the supernatural.

So, you open up your Stephanie Meyer textbook on love and begin to be educated on how it is all supposed to work.

It turns out the way that it presents the role of the female within romantic relationship is really unhelpful. Bella is apparently a plain looking girl, pretty clumsy and above average at being socially awkward. Nothing special. But Edward, a god-like being with outrageous good looks is infatuated with her. He is ever present (even in her sleep), always there to rescue her, he is ridiculously attentive and is always fussing over her needs. Clearly this was the real reason he had to be a non-human.

Bella, in turn, is not required to compromise outside of choosing to love a sparkling, albino forest fairy over a regular guy. She is the passive recipient, and he is the faultless guardian angel. Never once does Bella ever have to work hard to keep the relationship afloat. Essentially it is about waiting to be noticed and then pursued. It is infatuation, not admiration or anything else.

And so the role of the male is to be the saviour, and the role of the female is to be helpless until saved. If you translate this into an embodied understanding of love, all girls are being told that life only begins when found by a guy. And if this hasn’t happened, buy some chocolate and a box of tissues and find a movie in which you can vicariously live a story in which Channing Tatum takes his shirt off a lot and cries when you don’t love him until you agree to grow old together.

What a one dimensional picture of life.

What a disempowering story to live out of.

What a narrow understanding of what the good life is.

What an unrealistic set of expectations.

Which forces us to ask the question – where is the true picture?

What is love?