New Moon racism

By this being missed I think the guy proved his point about
Unconcious Sexism and Racism

http://blog.oup.com/2009/12/racism-new-moon/

I didnt even know because I didnt see it that the black
vampire died in the second by the werewolves.

 

Wow that was insightful. Thanks for posting.

 

Very good article.

I think if you want to look at the source of the bigotry, you might want to consider the author is a devout Mormon, a religion that isolates teens from their peer groups simply for admitting to sex and originally said black people could not be baptized in their church. Is this really so shocking?

 

No but I'm amazed that I missed that. Its very clear now.

 

Yes. Spoilers ahead, BTW, although I seriously doubt you'll read the series:





Edward tells Bella he is incapable of controlling himself during sex and after he takes her to the marriage bed, he so badly injures her she is covered in bite marks and blood. Now if that isn't allegory to discourage girls from sex, I guess I'm just a suspicious idiot.

The little heroine is just incompetent in general... And of course Jacob "the Injun" Black could never win her heart... He's a minority, fergawdssake! :roll:

 

No I actually did read all four books and saw the first two movies. I write fantasy as a hobby so I've read all the Harry Potter Artemis Fowl Percy Jackson and the Olympians, I'm always trying to keep my ear to the ground of what's popular.

Yeah and thinking back to the racial remarks they made against each other like Jacob calling edward a blood sucker and Edward calling him a dog the blood sucker comments were an illustration of what vampires needed to do to survive and was hurt humans not like the conscending dog remarks that just had a superiority tone to it. I especially don't like the big menancing "Injun" falling for the little white girl angle either. No way he could find a girl of his age to enjoy love with but he had to wait for the next 7 yers for the girl to be an adult. That's just plain creepy.

 

Very cool. Stephen King says if you don't have the time to read, you don't have the tools to write. That's very admirable.

Bottom line: It's radical Mormon allegory. I don't care, but you know, I just wish Meyer was more forthright in her motivations of writing it. We should all strive to gain a piece of what the morally, physically, emotionally, and intellectually superior WM has to offer, and that's the only possible path to happiness. Perhaps I'm giving her too much credit and it's just her subconscious spewing it out...

 

I gotta cosign everything Bonzai is saying. I only saw the first movie, but it was saturated with Mormon allegory. If I had a daughter, I'd actually be a little uncomfortable with her watching it. We'd have to talk a lot about it.

 

Not to mention the main character Bella Swan had absolutely no backbone. I understand being in love at the age its pretty much all consuming but damn how about a little self esteem. What happened to the message of girl power from the 90s?

 

Which is fine because like religion humans tend to make ideals in their own self image. So maybe she likes the idea of a worldly man attractive and rich man coming in to save her from her life. A man who will pick the plain girl because there's something about her. Did you notice how much she resembled the main character. Very average looks.

 

Neither of them were beauties, in my opinion. Just perpetuating more longstanding myth, I guess.

 

I think people will find a hidden message in anything if they look hard enough. I've read the Twilight series, as has my daughter, and we have both seen the movies as well. I see no racism, I think the stories unfold in a predictable fashion. Laurent was killed because he was about to eat Bella, literally, not because he happened to be black. Furthermore, the majority of the 'evil' people in the books are white. I do think it's clear that the author's Mormon background influenced her writing. It's a series aimed at young women, yet the main characters both save themselves for marriage, that's not the typical message in a lot of books aimed at that demographic because sex sells.

As for the suggestion that the books don't promote an image of young women as strong and independent, it's about a vampire... the vast majority of vampire lore centers around the vampire as this ever-vigilant, untouchable, protector of whatever mortal falls in love with him. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, Twilight... same circumstances with different people. You pretty much always got a girl who can't stay out of trouble who falls in love with a man who has to 'save' her all the time. I've seen several analysis of why this type of fiction is so appealing to women, and the most popular theory is that we like the idea of immortality and never aging. Personally I think that's bullshit. Though it's not a popular notion, and it's not one most women are willing to admit to, I think the appeal is that somewhere out there is a man who could literally compel anyone he wants to do as he liked and he chose you, plain little old mortal you... and he can keep you safe, there is almost no one or no thing he can't best in his quest to save you from harm's way. Now personally that really isn't appealing to me, I'll save my own self thanks anyway, but it's an appealing thought to a lot of women whether they're willing to admit to that or not.

Oh and lastly, on the subject of the sex in the book resulting in physical damage to Bella, that's the only way that could have played out, so I have no issue with it as it appears logical to me. Again in pretty much all vampire lore the vampire harms his human at some point, usually with much regret. IMO this is used allegorically to illustrate that choosing to go against the grain requires a sacrifice, there is a price to be paid. Furthermore, the fact that the women willingly and sometimes enthusiastically choose to pay that price with their own pain reinforces the concept the 'love conquers all'. That is the central theme, after all why else would anyone seek out, pursue doggedly, and defend with their lives something that essentially wants to kill them and drink their blood? If that's not a case of love is blind, I don't know what is. I'm an open minded person, and I do believe that love can be blind, but in my case it's not stupid. I might give the vampire a chance, but you can be damn sure I'd have a nice sharp stake under my pillow, and at the first inkling it was about to go South and I was going to become dinner, I'd stake him fast. Yet these women don't, in fact they'd prefer to let him kill them, and wouldn't hold it against them if they did... again reinforcing that 'love is blind' message.

Essentially it's all fiction, I take it as such. I choose books and movies as a form of escapism. I don't need something to prompt me to think, I do that too much now. If I'm seeking entertainment, I want precisely that, to be entertained. I liked the books, my 18 yo daughter started reading them at 16 and didn't pick up on any of the things mentioned here. She also saw them for what they are, pure fiction. If you raise your kids with common sense and a good sense of self, nothing they read or watch is going to have a profound negative impact on them.

 

lol

Come on. I think a lot of you are looking waaaaay too into this.

Its just a movie about sparkley gay vampires.:smt102

 

I wonder how Ms.Rice and Meyer had a hold on WW in love with vampires?

 

Angst. Lots and lots of angst.

You could sell anything to teenaged girls if you wrapped it up in a thick layer of angst. Hell, you could sell it to most grown Women the same way.

If you recut the Three Stooges so there was about a half an hour between scenes in which each of the Stooges looked out a window and felt frustrated over unexpressed longing you could make Women love even that. You'd piss off untold millions of men doing so, but it would sell to Women.

Angst. It's like intangible chocolate. Or shoes. We just like it.

 

That is a lot of books sold on Angst.

 

I don't get it either the writing isn't that good or imaginative.

 

Neither is the quality of porn.


Btw, if you ever combined angst with porn, it would make gagillions of dollars.

 

I smell a partnership a brewing lol

 

I didn't know there were even black people in Twilight for it to be racist. :-?