Student 1
Ima Student
Instructor Erin Reaume
ENGL 1302
1 April 2021
Sexist Language in the Twilight Series: Outline
I.
Introduction
II.
Thesis statement: Stephenie Meyer perpetuates gender stereotypes through
the use of sexist language throughout the Twilight series. This is
conveyed through stalking and controlling language, retrograde female
roles, and exaggerated gender stereotypes.
III.
Body Paragraph
A. Claim: Edward repeatedly asserts control over Bella by stalking and
spying on her.
1.
Evidence: After “Edward discovered he had a potential rival in
Mike Newton, and the resultant feelings of jealousy inflamed
his desire for Bella to the point that breaking and entering
seemed a reasonably good idea. That night he made his first of
what were to become nightly forays into Bella’s bedroom to
spy on his beloved while she slept. He later explained to Bella
what was going through his head that first night: ‘I wrestled all
night while watching you sleep, with the chasm between what I
knew was right, moral, ethical, and what I wanted. I knew that
if I continued to ignore you as I should, or if I left for a few
Student 2
years, till you were gone, that someday you would say yes to
Mike, or someone like him’” (Dunn 13).
2.
Evidence: Edward even has his family members spy on Bella
when he is not available. For example, in New Moon, he sends
his sister Alice to check up on Bella (New Moon 384).
3.
Evidence: “Elizabeth Hand is representative of feminist critics
when she argues in The Washington Post that ‘there's
something distinctly queasy about the male-female dynamic
that emerges over the series' 2,446 pages. Edward has been
frozen at the age of 17. But he was born in 1901, and he doesn't
behave anything like a real teenager. He talks and acts like an
obsessively controlling adult male’ (7) (qtd. in Silvers 122).
4. Discussion: These ideas demonstrate that it is acceptable and
even normal for a male to control his girlfriend or wife.
IV.
Body Paragraph
A. Claim: The values that Meyer promotes seem retrograde, indeed, if we
consider that Bella is depicted as a traditional 18th or 19th century
1. Evidence: “In the traditional Gothic the virgin was always
under threat. It is important (but may be strictly coincidental)
that the heroine of Meyer's saga is named Isabella--the name of
the heroine in what is often taken to be the first true Gothic
novel, Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). While the
Student 3
earlier Isabella is constantly besieged, the Meyer version
presents a different kind of sexuality” (Nayar 70).
2. Evidence: Nayar explains how Bella behaves like the
threatened teenage heroine of a Gothic novel, driving the male
character near insanity with her sexuality. “Isabella consents to
the pain and the threat, thus making the relationship smack of
SM. Unlike the heroine of a traditional Gothic with little
agency of her own, Isabella volunteers herself to Edward’s
supposed brute masculinity” (Nayar 71).
3. Discussion: This evidence demonstrates that the novel uses
archaic, anti-feminist language to paint the character of Bella.
V.
Body Paragraph
A. Claim: Bella is childlike, and often represented as both physically and
mentally inferior.
1. Evidence: Edward frequently refers to or treats Bella as a child.
When he first met Bella, Edward tells her later, he considered
her ‘an insignificant little girl’ (Twilight 271). Later he calls
her ‘little coward’ (Twilight 279) and ‘Silly Bella’ (Twilight
281).
2. Evidence: “When he rescues her, Edward uses language that is
more patrimonial than romantic, though clearly, Meyer blurs
the two discourses. For example, after rescuing Bella from a
group of would-be rapists, he tells her to ‘prattle about
Student 4
something unimportant until I calm down’ (Twilight 163) and
then takes her to a restaurant, where he orders her to eat and
drink, his voice ‘low, but full of authority’ (Twilight 166). In
response to his commands, Bella ‘sipped at [her] soda
obediently’ (Twilight 169). Meyer's diction—‘prattle,’
‘obediently’--clearly connotes a power dynamic in which
Edward makes important decisions and Bella, though often
grumbling and pouting, almost inevitably submits” (Silvers
125).
3. Discussion: By using this connotative language to describe
Bella, Meyers shows young girls that women are inferior to
men.
VI.
Body Paragraph
A. Claim: Bella and other female characters are vocationally inferior,
whereas Charlie and other male characters are depicted as
domestically inferior.
1. Evidence: Bella’s father Charlie is a police chief.
2. Evidence: Edward’s father Carlisle is a skilled surgeon who
saves lives.
3. Evidence: Even Bella’s stepfather, Phil, is a professional
baseball player.
Student 5
4. Evidence: Bella’s mother Renee is “childlike” and chooses to
move to Florida with her young husband over maintaining
custody of her own daughter (Twilight 4).
5. Evidence: Renee and Edward’s mother, Esme, are both
essentially housewives, with no professions of their own
outside the home
Evidence: “Never fully recovered from his divorce to Renee,
6.
Charlie has not changed the house since his ex-wife left him.
The same family photographs hang on the walls, and Charlie
has not learned even rudimentary cooking skills. Bella
immediately takes on the domestic chores for her father,
volunteering to do all the cooking and laundry, and thereby
stepping into the role that her mother rejected” (Silvers 124).
7. Discussion: This language perpetuates anti-feminist
stereotypes.
VII.
Body Paragraph
A. Counterargument: Some might argue that in Bella, Stephanie Meyers
creates a courageous, independent female character.
B. Rebuttal: However, through Bella, Meyer demonstrates that marriage
and motherhood are the highest achievements in a woman’s life.
1.
Evidence While Bella is most interested in losing her
virginity, Edward withholds sex from her until she agrees to
Student 6
become his wife. She ultimately forgoes college, and caves
into his demands.
2.
Evidence: “Seifert writes that Bella becomes ‘a traditional-and boring--teenaged mom’ and that she and Edward are
revealed to be ‘tepid and unenlightened people’ (24)” (qtd.
in Silvers 129).
3.
Discussion: Clearly, this evidence shows that while Bella
may be courageous, she is not independent.
VIII.
Conclusion
A. Call to action: Before recommending the Twilight series to adolescent
readers, consider the sexist implications of these novels.
B. Concluding statement: By using sexist language and gender
stereotypes throughout the Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer sends a
disturbing message to young girls.
Student 7
Works Cited
Dunn, George A. “You Look Good Enough to Eat: Love, Madness and the Food
Analogy.” In William Irwin, Rebecca Housel, Jeremy Wisnewski (ed.) Twilight
and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality. Wiley
Blackwell, 2009. 13.
Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. Little, Brown and Company, 2006.
Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. Little, Brown and Company, 2007.
Meyer, Stephenie. Breaking Dawn. Little, Brown and Company, 2008.
Nayar, Pramod. "How to Domesticate a Vampire: Gender, Blood Relations and Sexuality
in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight." Nebula, vol. 7, no. 3, 2010, pp. 70-71. Academic
OneFile,
www.researchgate.net/publication/47347976_How_to_Domesticate_a_Vampire_
Gender_Blood_Relations_and_Sexuality_in_Stephenie_Meyer%27s_Twilight.
Accessed 27 Mar. 2011.
Silver, Anna. "Twilight is Not Good for Maidens: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family in
Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Series." Studies in the Novel, vol. 42, no. 1-2, 2010,
pp. 121-138. Literature Resource Center, doi: 10.1353/sdn.2010.0009. Accessed
25 Mar. 2011.
Student 8