Why I am no longer a Twilight fan

Well I'll admit it. I started reading the Twilight series when I was fourteen and was sucked in, but recently after seeing Kristen Stewarts terrible acting in the Twilight and New moon movie (she helped me realize what a crappy character Bella actually was as well as showing me that she acts the same in every movie I’ve seen her in), I noticed some disturbing things and I re-read the books to investigate. What I found made me hang my head in shame because I consider myself to be a strong, intelligent, woman. How on earth did I fall for this? But then I reminded myself that a lot of strong women I know loved it as well including my own mother who is the strongest woman I know.
I discovered that Bella (who previously I didn't pay too much attention to because I was pretending it was me who was all in love with Edward) was weak, spineless, and EXTREAMLY selfish. She claims that she is not materialistic, but goes on to insult the appearance of Eric (the character who offers to help her out on her first day of school). She then goes onto write off every human character who is friendly to her. Then she claims she is in love Edward after like three conversations all of which Edward is telling her 'hey I want to kill you.' Every time she manages to tell off Edward for his behavior (like when Edward took her car engine out in Eclipse so she couldn’t see Edward and he tells her if she doesn’t want him in her room to shut the window. She shuts it which is SO reasonable, but the opens it as wide as it will go) she backs down after a few seconds. She leads Jacob on because she NEEDS a man to take care of her.
What really turned me off of the series was the truth about Edward...he was EMOTIONALLY abusive not to mention a stalker(I recommend watching Buffy vs. Edward it’s great!). I think that this was so hard for me to notice before because growing up I along with most girls were taught never to let a man hit you, but we weren't really taught to recognize emotional abuse (I was especially mad at myself for not noticing Edwards abuse because my aunt's husband is incredibly emotionally abusive and I’ve seen this behavior for years.) The quote that really stood out to prove this is in chapter five of Twilight:
We were near the parking lot now. I veered left, toward my truck. Something caught my jacket, yanking me back.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, outraged. He was gripping a fistful of my jacket in one hand.
I was confused. “I’m going home.”
“Didn’t you hear me promise to take you safely home? Do you think I'm going to let you drive in your condition?” His voice was still indignant.
“What condition? And what about my truck?” I complained.
“I’ll have Alice drop it off after school.” He was towing me toward his car now, pulling me by my jacket. It was all I could do to keep from falling backward. He'd probably just drag me along anyway if I did.
“Let go!” I insisted. He ignored me. I staggered along sideways across the wet sidewalk until we reached the Volvo. Then he finally freed me — I stumbled against the passenger door.
“You are so pushy!” I grumbled.
“It’s open,” was all he responded. He got in the driver’s side.
“I am perfectly capable of driving myself home!” I stood by the car, fuming. It was raining harder now, and I’d never put my hood up, so my hair was dripping down my back.
He lowered the automatic window and leaned toward me across the seat. “Get in, Bella.”
I didn’t answer. I was mentally calculating my chances of reaching the truck before he could catch me. I had to admit, they weren’t good.
“I’ll just drag you back,” he threatened, guessing my plan.
Yeah girls that is NEVER okay to let a guy do that to you. It is NOT romantic! There are many more examples throughout the series that I could name cough*Eclipse when Edward steels Bella’s truck engine to make sure she doesn’t go and see Jacob* cough., but for now I digress. Moving on to Jacob.
One how is he 'in' love with Bella because she is so one dimensional and just plain WEAK (I’m not saying physically I mean emotionally). Anyway I liked Jake until I re-read Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. When Jake forces a kiss on Bella THAT IS NOT OKAY. In fact it is SEXUAL abuse and if you say he's only 16 that is not an excuse. In fact it's terrifying because that behavior could escalate further. Later on he blackmails stupid Bella telling her he will get himself killed if she doesn't kiss her (even when I was a fan I thought that was a horrible plot device-I mean what kind of IDIOT would fall for that? Oh right Bellasue). In Breaking Dawn Jacob is all torn up about this non reciprocated love and he takes it out on people which is immature but not a total sin, but what irks me is how he still is mean towards Leah who had a worse situation. I mean come on Jake, Leah's ex-love actually chose to love her back and was engaged to her and she was an indirect cause to her father’s death. Any hope of me liking Jacob again upon my re-reading totally ended when he 'imprinted' on Renesmee. For those of you, who argue that imprinting is not sexual and Jake will be whatever Renesmee needs until she is older, well you JUST proved my point. He is placing himself in her life and forming a connection with her. This is the DEFINITION of Child grooming. If you don't believe me here is what the dictionary has to say about it:Child grooming refers to actions deliberately undertaken with the aim of befriending and establishing an emotional connection with a child, in order to lower the child's inhibitions in preparation for child sexual abuse. Imprinting is for the purpose of creating a stronger wolf so yes it does lead to a sexual relationship and no little Claire and Renesmee have no choice because they are being raised to love these men and trust them. In Breaking Dawn Jacob is talking to Quil and thinks the following:Though I did think it sucked that he had a good fourteen years of monkitude ahead of him until Claire was his age — for Quil, at least, it was a good thing werewolves didn’t get older. But even all that time didn’t seem to bother him much. This proves that when Claire reaches a certain age she is expected to enter into a Sexual relationship with her 'uncle' Quil. Anyway you spin it it's wrong. Imagine if some 17 year old told you he wanted to marry your 3 year old one day. Would you let him around your kid? I don't think so. At least not if you were a good parent.
Now onto female characters in the series. Stephenie Meyers argues that Bella is not anti-feminist because she makes her own choices, but the only choices she ever makes are the ones Edward lets her makes. She chooses to get married at 18 because Edward forced it on her or she wouldn't get any sex from him. She has a child at 18 becoming the very embodiment of what she didn't want(I’m not even going to comment on what an epic fail plot device that was in terms of chromosomes and sperm issues ). Stephenie Meyers goes on to say that not everyone can be a slayer (referencing Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is my favorite show of all time!) implying that sweet, innocent, Bella is more relatable with her huge flaws of clumsiness and blushing (as someone who is somewhat clumsy and who blushes I say HEY! These aren't flaws there endearing damn it!). The thing about Buffy is that to me Buffy was relatable. She was a superhero, but at the core of the show she was a normal girl trying to live her life and do some good and I think most girls, most people can relate to feeling alone, and wanting so badly to do the right thing and struggle with yourself and are several characters on Buffy who aren't supernatural like Xander who managed to dust the occasional vampire and he actually had a personality and was attracted to strong women who could make their own decisions (did I mention I LOVE this show). So no Mrs. Meyer your character doesn’t have to be a slayer, but she does need to be three dimensional. Bella is not the only female character who is portrayed as weak in the series. In fact I don’t think there is one. We have Bella's mother Renee who is portrayed as flighty and immature and who makes Phil (Bella's stepfather) the center of her life (hum sound familiar). We have Emily who stays with a man who attacked her and slashed her face (it's okay though because she MADE Sam mad so it's all her fault) and she sits around the house making food and cleaning house (I have nothing against stay at home mother my grandmother was one, but she was strong willed and had a life outside of the title of mother and wife). Then we have Embry's mother who is a single parent and it feels like Meyer's character’s are punishing her for being a single parent by not letting her own son tell her what the heck going on. It's not like anyone would believe her if she did go spouting off about werewolves but whatever. Next, we have Leah who could have been fantastic if Meyer's didn't just stick her in the stereotypical role of scorned woman. She wasn’t allowed to grow as a character and we got no explanation of why she was the only she wolf. What annoyed me most about Leah and Rosalie’s character portrayal was the fact that they were somehow less female because they couldn't have kids. That's a bad message to portray. What about the women who are sterile or the women who just chose not to have kids? Are they not fully female? For those of you who argue that Alice is a strong female character...if you compare Alice to actual strong female characters like Buffy, or Detective Olivia Benson, or Donna Pinciotti she doesn't stack up. Her main hobby is shopping (which isn't bad unless it's your only 'hobby'.) Even her power of mind reading is faulty and unreliable at best unlike Edward and Jaspers gifts who are always accurate. And God forbid Jane could actually be one of the rulers of the Volturi right?
The last point I will make is the writing it’s self. The flowery purple prose (term used to describe literature where the writing is unnecessarily flowery. It means that the writer described the situation (or wrote the entire book, passage, etc) using words that are too extravagant for the type of text, or any text at all. basically, over-describing something. with stupid words)reads more like a bad fanfic and the books don't really have a plot. Take Twilight for instance. No real danger occurs until James shows up in the last hundred pages of the book and there was no build up for James in the first place. I think Stephen King wraps it up best when he said: “Both[J.K] Rowling and Meyer, they’re speaking directly to young people…The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.” In fairness to Stephenie she is new at this and maybe as she goes on as a writer she will become better. She’s already done better with The Host. My main message to her would be when I say I want strong female characters I don't mean physically strong. I mean emotionally strong. We don't need anymore damsels in distress (and I’m not saying it’s wrong for someone to get saved when their in danger). We need more Buffy’s, Willows, heck even Cordelia’s. We want Hermione’s not Rosalie’s. I'm tired of books that don't have good female characters to relate to!
In closing, I would like to thank you for reading and say that I didn't intend for this to be an attack on the series. I just wanted to point out why I myself was no longer a fan. Have a wonderful day!
-Missbrunettgirl