Final Post: Twilight an 50 Shades of Grey Revisited

Most women who read the contemporary novels Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray would not likely view them as sexist novels that are demeaning to women and portray them as inferior to men. However, when one views these novels from an analytical perspective, it becomes apparent that the female main characters represent women as being unprofessional and dependent on men. The portrayal of women in both novels also emphasizes the idea of viewing women as sex objects.

            When I was younger and less critical of literature, I read the entire Twilight series. At the time, I was young and impressionable, and I found the story romantic and the characters compelling. However, upon rereading it when I was older, I was astounded to notice several sexist themes that had not come to my attention in the past. One of those was the main character Bella’s lack of professionalism, which manifests itself in the absence of professional goals and a remarkable unconcern for her professional future. In the novel, Bella and her boyfriend Edward, who happens to be a vampire, are high school students living in Forks, Oregon. After the two begin to pursue a serious relationship, the author pretty much stops mentioning Bella’s schoolwork completely. Most juniors in high school who want to pursue a successful future are very concerned with college plans. However, Bella seems not to care about college at all; after meeting Edward, maintaining their relationship becomes her top priority. This novel’s target audience is young girls in middle school and high school. Considering the high rates of teen pregnancy in the United States (thirty-four women out of every thousand between the ages of fifteen and nineteen will become pregnant each year according to CBS News), I hardly think it’s a good thing for young women to be reading a book about a female character who abandons her academic goals and responsibilities to pursue a romantic relationship.

            50 Shades of Gray also includes an alarming lack of professionalism on the main female character’s part. The main character, Anastasia Steele, is a recent college graduate with a job as a book editor. Even though she has just begun her new job, she spends most of her time at work texting her boyfriend Christian Grey. The author does not discuss any of the details of the character’s supposed “dream job”, and Anastasia’s career is largely irrelevant to the story. In fact, her boyfriend often meddles in her professional life. After Steele is sexually assaulted by her boss, a topic which will be further discussed later on in this post, her boyfriend buys the company she works for and makes her the head editor. Therefore, the novel is promoting the message that women are professionally inferior to men and that their success in the workplace depends on male assistance.

            Both novels feature female leads that are incredibly dependent on the men in their lives. In both cases, the women are portrayed as weak and require male assistance. In Twilight, it is understandable that there would be some situations in which Bella would need Edward’s assistance; after all, he is supernaturally strong and she is only a human. However, he becomes domineering over every facet of her life. For instance, she depends on him to remind her when she should be eating more, and he becomes her sole transportation to school even though she has her own vehicle. He also handles all conflict situations caused by the disproportionate and unrealistic number of additional males who pursue romantic relationships with her.

            Since 50 Shades of Grey actually began as a Twilight fan-fiction, it makes sense that it would have a lot of the same patterns. Anastasia becomes increasingly dependent on Christian; like in Twilight, he urges her to eat as though she cannot remember to do so on her own, although she obviously did not starve when she was single! She also depends on him financially. He buys her a new car when hers becomes unreliable, and provides her with sleek, professional clothing to wear to her new job, a wardrobe that she would probably be unable to pay for herself. In both novels, the female characters protest these overtures initially, but always in a faux-pouty, pseudo-determined, halfhearted manner.

            Finally, in both novels, the female characters are portrayed as sex objects. Readers are probably assuming that this is the portion of the post where I discuss the phenomena of a BDSM lifestyle and how the sexual component of 50 Shades of Grey is demeaning to women. I’m not going to say that. In fact, the sexual components of the book are proof of how far women have come. They can now freely admit to and express their sexual preferences, no matter how unorthodox. Furthermore, one of the female characters in the novel is a dominatrix, the ultimate symbol of a sexually powerful female. However, Anastasia is portrayed as a sex object in another way.

            Throughout the novel, all the men in Anastasia’s life are attracted to her, despite her self-proclaimed plainness. Her coworker, her close male friend, her boss, and the man she interviews for professional reasons, Christian Grey, whom she later begins a romantic relationship with, are all attracted to her and make sexual advances towards her. Most due so in an incredibly forward, sometimes lewd, manner. Her encounter with Grey is especially demeaning; she enters into it with the intention of their meeting being an important professional encounter and leaves all a-flutter with sexual desire and romantic notions, all thoughts of professionalism abandoned.   

            Twilight shares this phenomena. Although Bella is described as an average girl, from the moment she arrives in her new town, the majority of her male classmates are enthralled with her. Although their intention are never clearly defined, they literally do not know her at all, so their sudden interest cannot be reasonably attributed to her personality. She too is portrayed as a sex object.

            Most women probably feel that literature has come a long way from colonial times, where the bible was the only best-seller. However, it is my hope that these astute observations can open women’s eyes to the fact that the genre of contemporary literature does not portray women in a realistic, or respectful, light. If this is how two of the most successful novels of the past five years are portraying women, I shudder to think of all the other examples of sexism that may be cluttering our bookshelves, I urge women everywhere to think before they financially support an author who is contributing to the continuance of demeaning portrayals of women in modern literature. We have come a long way, but we are not there yet. 

Thus far, I have primarily discussed the role and portrayal of women in American literature in the past. However, for the rest of the week I will be exploring the way in which the sexist themes found in dated works are still present in modern literature. Many readers may be surprised to hear that. After all, this is the twenty-first century and America is a very progressive nation. Surely American literature today is not demeaning to women! However, that is not the case.

            During my discussion regarding this phenomena, I will be focusing on two novels in that Twilight sold forty-five million copies in the U.S., and according to businessinsider.com, 50 Shades of Grey sold sixteen million copies. Ironically, despite the fact that these two novels are both incredibly sexist, their target audience is primarily women. I will continue to explore this idea in more detail later this week. For now, I leave my readers with links to two hilarious video clips of parodies that illustrate my point regarding the sexism of these novels. The second clip is especially interesting because it shows what the second Twilight movie would have been like with two female leads fighting over a guy! Quite humorous, and a thought-provoking concept!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKWIqRAW_WI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF1khHrHxeY

            

Lady Authors

           The overall goal of this blog is ultimately to explore the portrayal of women in American literature in the past, the impact said literature had on society, and how literature today portrays women. An important component of that is to discuss early American women authors. Their work allows us to gain insight into the minds of women who were struggling with discrimination during that time. By discussing the lives and work of female authors, one can also view just how deeply women were affected by the sexism in their society during the 17^th, 18^th and 19th centuries.

            Anne Bradstreet was the first American woman writer to actually publish her own book, a collection of her poems titled The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. In actuality, America was not yet a free nation at the time when she wrote and published the book, but it counts as an example of American literature nonetheless. The book was published in England in 1650 and became quite popular there, although colonists themselves were fairly apathetic toward it (Woodlief). Ann’s views were considered feminist for her time, but she would not seem so to the modern woman. Ann was a puritan, and her writing reflected that, most of her poems focused on topics like childrearing, childbirth, her love for her husband, and her faith (www.annebradstreet.com). However, considering the time period she was born into, she can hardly have been expected to rock the boat too severely, and at any rate, she certainly paved the way for women of the future.

            Anne’s book is significant largely because she was the first published American demale writer. However, her work itself was not terribly visionary. After her triumph, there were many American women who published books throughout the 16^th and 17^th century. Most of them wrote poetry, educational materials, or books for children. None of them really stood out as dynamic authors (Smith). However, during the 18^th century, two standout American female authors emerged: Emily Dickinson and Harriet Beecher-Stowe.

            Emily Dickinson was a young woman who lived in Amherst, Massachusetts during the 18^th century. Dickinson’s written correspondences provide valuable insight into the mind of a female intellectual during that time period. After returning home from the Mount Holyoke Women’s Academy, where she spent her last year of schooling, she was obliged to return to the family home and assist with domestic tasks. She wrote in correspondences to a friend that she was discontent with this turn of events. Her poetry itself also presents several themes related to the plight of women in a patriarchal society (www.poetryfoudation.org). In his article Feminist Argument: Emily Dickinson’s Portrayal of Women in Society, journalist Michael Mathews points out two of her poems in particular, Success is Counted Sweetest and The Bustle in the House, offer insight into the perspective of women in 18^th century America. Success is Counted Sweetest focuses on feelings of isolation, of being separated from society, which was a feeling many of the powerless women in America must have harbored. The Bustle in the House tells the story of a household preparing to mourn the death of a loved one, and it focuses on the menial household tasks the women of the house must complete, illustrating their subordinate position in the home (Mathews).    

            Harriet Beecher Stowe’s work offers insight of a different kind. In fact, rather than portraying American women as oppressed, Stowe takes a very different tact. Her acclaimed novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published for the first time in 1851, is the fictional account of the lives of several slaves and slave owners. I actually read the novel myself, and while it contained a multitude of characters and themes, I read it with the portrayal of women in mind. I found that Stowe’s portrayal of women differs dramatically depending on their race. The black female characters are portrayed as oppressed yet strong, proud despite their bondage. One such example of this is the scene in the novel when a mother and her teenage daughter are being sold at auction. The daughter is desirable to several white men in the crowd due to her beauty (Stowe). In that scene, Stowe makes it clear that black women in America suffer oppression, and that their worth depends mainly on their labor value and their appearance. However, white women during that time also commonly suffered the same conundrum, albeit on a less sever scale. Stowe chose not to acknowledge that. In fact, the main white female character in her novel is Evangeline, daughter of the eventual owner of Tom, the slave who was sold away from his family. Evangeline is portrayed as a pampered, well-educated little girl. Although she dies young, it is clear that her guardians encouraged her to pursue her dreams and that she had been given access to plenty of schooling (Stowe). Stowe fails to acknowledge the fact that during the 18^th century, many white women were pigeon-holed into being housewives and mothers. They, too, were sold at auction, in a way. There is an obvious disparity in the accuracy of Stowe’s portrayal of women of different races in her novel.

            In summation, although early American women writers were definitely pioneers of a sort, and although the fact that they wrote at all was undoubtedly progressive, as a whole they tended to portray women of their time exactly as they were: powerless, perhaps discontent to be so, but powerless nonetheless. Although, considering the time period in which they lived, if they had taken a braver approach and offered portrayals of women that defied social standards, their work would likely have never been published. I look forward to my next post, where I will begin to discuss contemporary literature, and whether it has progressed from the narrow-minded depictions of women that characterize historical texts.    

 

Sources:

Woodlief, Ann. "Ann Bradstreet." www.vcu.edu. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/webtexts/Bradstreet/bradbio.htm>.

"Anne Bradstreet ." www.annebradstreet.com. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.annebradstreet.com/>.

Smith, Gwen. "17th and 18th Centuries ." www.library.unt.edu. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/women/17th.htm>.

Mathews, Michael. "Femenist Argument: Emily Dickinson's Portrayal of Women in Society." www.yahoo.com. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012.

"Emily Dickinson." www.poetryfoundation.org. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/childhood_youth>.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin." www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org. N.p.. Web. 27 Nov 2012. <http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/utc/>.

                                             

Stowe, Harriet B. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Fairfield, IA: 1st World Publishing, 2004. Google Book Search. Web. 2 Jun. 2009.

 

 

 

Connection to Modern Life: The Bible's Effect on Women Today

               My first blog post addressed the most prevalent piece of literature in early America: the Bible. Today, I wanted to briefly come back to that with respect to modern life. As I discussed in my previous post, the bible had a profound effect on colonial women and American women during the 16^th through 19^th centuries, particularly during colonial times. Their apparel and overall modesty, although not specified in the bible, was an issue which dominated religious teachings during that time.

                Obviously, many women no longer adhere to those principles. However, there are lots of religious American women who still allow the bible to govern their lives in many respects, one of those being how they dress. Our culture as a whole has moved away from that, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still a great many women who believe that being modest is their duty to men everywhere. The following two youtube videos are just a couple of the numerous examples that I found of modern American women whose lifestyles are clearly still effected by the Bible.  One point that the woman in the second video comes back to again and again is the fact that she believes it is the woman’s responsibility to ensure that men are not tempted by her style of dress. I think that this goes back to the topic I discussed in my post about the Bible portraying women as the “guilty” sex, as though all sin is inherently their fault somehow. In summation, the Bible remains an influential text for many women today, more so than we may realize. Tune in tomorrow for my post on early American women writers!

Links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOkFEsyfjl0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73d27V2riW0

Can You Paint With all the Colors of the Wind?

            We’ll be deviating a bit from the chronological order of events in order to discuss a critically important piece of literature which was read by many colonists, and many Englishmen, and generally accepted as a truthful account. The text I am referring to is John Smith’s numerous, lengthy accounts of his explorations, of which many versions were published in both England and the colonies during the 16^th and 17^th centuries (Townsend 52). His romanticized story of Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief Powhatan, and the way she saved him from execution, heavily influenced the way Native American women were viewed. Furthermore, his fanciful account, which has in fact been disproved, led to some very interesting modern interpretations.

            The original story goes something like this: John Smith, English explorer, is kidnapped by an Indian tribe. He is brought before Chief Powhatan, who orders that he be executed. However, just before he reaches his demise, the chief’s beautiful, tender-hearted daughter throws herself over his body, shielding him from harm. Touching as such a tale may be, scholars believe it to be untrue. For one thing, there were many legends preceding John Smith’s story which had the theme of an explorer narrowly escaping execution only to be rescued by the local ruler’s innocent, yet alluring, daughter (Mills 2). Smith was most likely borrowing material from stories he’d heard. Furthermore, it is almost impossible for his story to be true, because he failed to include it in his earlier accounts of his explorations! He published numerous books in 1612 about Virginia and his experiences there, but it was not until 1624 that he published the story of his so-called encounter with the Indian princess. Conveniently, all those who could have refuted his story were dead by that time! Not to mention the fact that Pocahontas, portrayed as a strong, independent woman with an ambiguous attraction to Smith, was merely ten years old at the time (Townsend 52).

            Smith’s portrayal of Pocahontas made sense given the time period in which he conceived it. Women in 16^th century England and colonial America were supposed to be subservient to men. Native American women had much more independence than Caucasian women. They were unabashedly strong, they had influence within their societal groups, and their style of dress mirrored that of their male counterparts, designed for comfort and efficiency, with no regard to modesty. Englishmen did not know what to do with that, and so they played up the sexual side. Thus, Pocahontas is depicted as a kind of benevolent goddess. Many artistic renditions of her depict this; she is often shown baring her breasts or otherwise suggestively unclothed, and her features are regularly shown as Caucasian or vaguely Middle Eastern; the strong features of the Indians tend to be neglected entirely.

 

 

 

 

            Which brings us to another topic: The modern rendition of Pocahontas. The portrayal that is most relevant to my generation would probably be the Disney animated movie. I remember watching the first film and the sequel numerous times throughout my childhood. Even as I grew older, I always remembered those films fondly, believing that they were excellent examples of children’s movies which had strong, non-stereotypical female characters. However, considering the movie through a different lens, I am forced to see how very wrong I was about that.

            It goes without saying that the Disney film lacks historical accuracy. Regardless, it is the portrayal of Pocahontas that I want to focus on. I’m not sure why the animators thought it was appropriate to depict her as a dark-skinned Caucasian girl dressed in a slutty Indian Halloween costume, but that was apparently the aesthetic they chose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In both movies, Pocahontas is scantily clad, even in snowy weather. Furthermore, her womanly physique further exacerbates the historical inaccuracy of the movies. Most aggravatingly, although the movie allegedly purports the message that one must follow one’s heart, it appears that Pocahontas is living by a different ideology, one that goes like this: Follow the men in your life. First, she sacrifices her place in her tribe for John Smith, and then in the sequel, she embarks on a journey to England with John Rolf, apparently to save her people, although how her actions are contributing to that cause is unclear.

            Obviously, John Smith’s romanticized account of his first meeting with Pocahontas was fabricated, most likely to increase the sales of his book. After all, she did become a household name in her own right after moving to England with her husband, John Rolf (Townsend 129). However, Smith’s rendition had further-reaching implications. His falsification continues to influence modern interpretations. I’d like to see a remake of the Disney movie, one that showed the real Pocahontas, and told the truth about the unfair and manipulative way in which she came to be an Englishwoman. Alas, I fear the lie has proved so entertaining that no one would be interested in learning her true story.

Sources:

N.d. n.p. Web. 14 Nov 2012. <http://blog.encyclopediavirginia.org/2012/05/09/pocahontas-saves-john-smith-or-a-journey-in-art-history-that-includes-some-big-words-anime-and-a-few-odd-sports-references/>.

Tonwsend, Camilla. Pocahontas and the Powhatan Dilemma. New York, New York: Hill and

WMills, Kay. From Pocahontas to Power Suits. Plume, 1995. Print. ang, 2004. Print.

Photos: Google images

Women in the Bible

My long-awaited first post is sorrowfully overdue. To my nonexistent readers, I apologize. Without further ado, let us delve into the topic of the bible during colonial times, its portrayal of women, and how that portrayal influenced society’s expectations of them. Furthermore, the bible’s influence on women in this day and age must also be discussed. Unfortunately, there are still a great many people who abide by its principles quite literally.

            According to constitution.org, the bible was “the most influential piece of literature in Colonial America” (constitution.org). In the early days, Americans were consumed with the building of a new nation, and scholarship was not always the first thing on their minds. However, since the colonies were largely comprised of puritan individuals seeking a haven in which to practice their religion, the bible remained a critical part of everyday life. Although historians lament the difficulty of obtaining a true measure of literacy in early America, some tentavie statistics exist. For instance, it is estimated that around sixty percent of white men in New England were literate between 1650 and 1670 (Lynch). However, obtaining knowledge regarding the literacy of women or minority groups is almost impossible. After all, slaves were not permitted to read, and for a long time women were not encouraged to do so, though they were not explicitly forbidden from it. It was considered highly important to educate one’s son, and highly improper to educate one’s daughter. However, the bible was one book which everyone got exposure to, for even those who could not read were bidden to listen as passages were read aloud to them in church, and in those days, church was widely attended.

            The bible’s ubiquity was not a good thing for women during the colonial period. From the very beginning, the bible establishes that women are inferior to men, that they are meant to live their live as men’s subordinates, and furthermore, that they are innately selfish, stupid, and unable to deny self-gratification. The story of Eve illustrates this plainly. Eve, the first woman on Earth, is created as an afterthought, to serve as Adam’s companion. She is made from his rib (an aspect of the story which has inspired countless modern-day jokes!), and Adam bestows her name upon her, further exerting his authority as her master. This turn of events is ironic; after all, life springs from the wombs of women. Therefore, it seems strange and unlikely that man should be the first sex to appear on earth. Later on, Eve transgresses. Her famous eating of the forbidden fruit establishes the stereotype that women cannot resist temptation, that they are duplicitous, and furthermore, that they lure men into transgressing with them (Harris).

            Unfortunately for colonial women, their society was led by the bible’s teachings. Thus, women were denied education. They depended on their husbands to provide for them due to the fact that society prevented them from being self-sufficient. Women did not have a voice in the government during that time, either. The ideology that the female gender was synonymous with duplicity proved to be deadly for some women. For example, witch hunts were prevalent in America throughout the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries. Out of all the individuals convicted of witchcraft, three-fourths of them were female (brittanica.com).

            The novel The Witch of Blackbird Pond offers an interesting, if fictional, portrayal of the way in which the bible’s ideology affected the treatment of women in colonial society. It relates the story of Kate, a young girl who travels from liberal Barbados to a stringent puritan settlement in America to live with distant relatives after her guardian dies. Religion plays a huge part of the way in which the townspeople relate to women, and the standards to which they are held. As a result Kate, with her elegant clothes and educated mind, is mistrusted and eventually prosecuted for witchcraft, an offense which she is completely innocent of, of course.

            In summation, I provide you a link to a blog post in which one Christian American man shares his standpoint on women and modesty. Let me be clear: I am not sharing this link to criticize the author of this blog. She is a very religious woman, and as a result, many of her beliefs clash with my own. However, she is also a very good person who works very hard to serve those less fortunate than herself, which I wholeheartedly believe in doing. Same goes for her husband, the author of this post. The post in question is merely an example of how the portrayal of women in the bible leads to inequalities in the way they are perceived today:

http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2010/08/anthony-shares.html