“I’m tired of this. From now on I’m
Switzerland, ok?”
This film is much like its
predecessor; better written, shot and acted than the first, but based around a
disturbing and dangerous piece of socially conservative ideology, namely the
whole “no sex before marriage thing”, which is a reckless and immoral thing to
tell the young girls at whom this series of films is aimed.
The early scenes include a lot of
talk about marriage, including a line where Bella describes it as an “institution”.
Let’s make on thing clear; it is no such thing. A marriage is a declaration of
love and commitment between people, whether gay or straight. It’s private. It
should NOT be an “institution”, regulated by the state. It’s usually those on
the right who want to privatise things, but I say we should privatise marriage.
The state has no right to impose itself on something so private. I hate it when
right-wing politicians talk about stuff like tax breaks for married couples;
this is Stalinist social engineering.
Don’t worry: I’m off my soapbox
now. I still hate that controlling wanker Edward though. Yay for Charlie and
his much-needed offer of pepper spray! This film essentially picks up most of
the pre-existing plot threads and puts them in the context of Bella’s high
school graduation. Edward’s behaviour towards Bella looks more and more
disturbingly controlling (NOT kinky, whatever Fifty Shades of Grey may have been based on: this is just
straightforward emotional manipulation shading into abuse). As Jacob rightly says,
he lies to her. It’s looking depressingly certain that Bella is doomed to fall
under Edward’s creepy spell, though. Jake is jealous, but the whole force of
the narrative is against him. Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t have a
massive fight for the position of alpha male, but there can only be one winner.
I really don’t like the scene in
which Edward warns Bella that sex with him would be a dangerous, violent thing.
The subtext is that sex is scary, bad, and to be avoided except for the strict
purpose of begetting children from within wedlock. Bollocks. Nor do I like
Rosalie- she dreamed of the sort of life that social conservatives approve of
for women until becoming a vampire (for which read pre-marital sex) ruined her
life forever. This is dangerous stuff. Stephenie Meyer may seem cool, and put
Muse in every one of the movies somewhere, but the ideology she’s peddling is
deeply, deeply dangerous.
Bella explicitly declares herself
to be a virgin. Edward declares himself to be “old school”. Patriarchy, much? I
may be burdened with a Y chromosome, but the Twilight films are really, really awakening my inner feminist.
Sadly, though, we end with their wedding being arranged. This is NOT a happy
ending.
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