New Moon: Is Twilight's Bella Swan a bad role model?

Tens of thousands of teen girls will line up to watch Twilight: New Moon this weekend, but feminists and academics are concerned that Twilight heroine Bella Swan, a teenager who falls in love with a vampire, presents them with a poor role model. Does Twilight: New Moon promote unhealthy relationships? (Watch the trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon)

Bella is bad for young girls: The character of Bella sends a "dangerous" and "discouraging" message to young girls everywhere, says Krystal Clark in Screen Crave. The "constant influence of the male figures in her life," especially vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen, leaves her with "no identity of her own." The film's "nonchalant attitude" toward this is harmful, especially to "women in her age group who are starting to date for the first time."

“Twilight’s Bella Swan is a feminist’s nightmare”

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Falling in love is not anti-feminist: These "quote-unquote feminist arguments" against Twilight are getting tiresome, says Catherine Connors at Beliefnet. People say Bella sacrifices herself for Edward, but don't forget she "fights hard" to "carve a space in this world" for their love. And in the end, she "gets what she wants," despite what Edward wants for her. "Why does love necessarily mean sublimation?"

“Why New Moon (and Twilight) just aren’t as bad as people say they are”

Twilight promotes conservative values: The values of the Twilight world are more “1809 than 2009,” says Hank Sartin in Time Out Chicago. Bella and Edward must remain chaste in case he loses control of his “insatiable bloodlust.” If feminists must get worked up, this “abstinence-only message coded through vampirism” is worrying evidence of a “conservative response to the radical changes in sexual politics of the last decade.”

“Twilight sucks”