If Bella is Joan of Arc, who does that make Edward? Gilles de Rais?

[gogmagog]

Well, I'm finally back in Iowa City. My bus ride to Kansas City was remarkably smooth and fast, so I should have known the corollary was that the ride back would be hellacious, and in fact it was; snow, ice, and fogged bus windshields basically meant that I got into Iowa City over an hour later than scheduled (and I was scheduled to get in at 2 in the morning!), and then I had to catch a taxi home. Six-plus hours on a bus in the middle of the night is pretty awful, especially when you're expecting five-and-change, and at times it felt like the public transportation equivalent of the Bataan Death March ("okay, only two more hours on the bus...oh god my butt is falling asleep and I can see my breath"), especially since I had to make sure to stay awake until I could get off at Iowa City. So basically I didn't get home until a little over an hour ago.

Also worldserpent linked this post decrying the Twilight-bashing, and the OP in comments defends the act of reading Twilight as a feminist reading practice (or at least comparing it favorably with feminism). I AM NOT JOKING. YOU THINK I AM, BUT I AM NOT.

So yes, I was condescending because with any kind of luck, eventually society as a whole will stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves for the problems they reap. This month its Twilight; last month Judy Bloom. Before that it was feminism making women uppity. It used to be Susan B. Anthony and a while back it was Joan of Arc.

...BELLA SWAN, FEMINIST HEROINE; LIKE SUSAN B. ANTHONY IN A WAY, AMIRITE

(It even has bonus wank where basically seperis repeatedly misinterprets what everyone is saying because she takes any criticism of Twilight's message as "ZOMG ARE YOU SAYING FEMALES AREN'T ALLOWED TO HAVE KINKS," and a new version of Godwin's involving accusing people of supporting female genital mutilation. It's wankilicious!)

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

If Edward were Gilles de Rais, that would make Twilight a helluva more interesting!

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

True! Though if I had to choose historical figures for them to parallel, I'd choose the HISTORICAL Bella and Edward - Edward II of England and his wife Isabella (later called "the she-wolf of France"). He tended to neglect her for his male "favorites" (huh huh huh), and she left him for another guy, and she and her lover worked together to depose him, imprison him and then probably kill him (legend says through a red-hot poker up the butt).

[tastystirfry.livejournal.com]

god you're just another member of the womyn hating patriarchy. Does the idea of a strong, independent, sexual womyn scare you that much? Womyn have the right to marry vampires and have DISTURBING, BONE BREAKING ROUGH SEX and horrible, literally back-breaking baby deliveries, and if you don't like it you're just gonna have to DEAL.

GIRL POWER.

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

Clearly I am a misogynist womyn-hater! Imagine that, thinking I'm wanting girls to get healthy relationship messages but really STIFLING THEIR KINKS IN AN EVIL UNFEMINIST SORT OF WAY, ZOMG.

[tastystirfry.livejournal.com]

Next you'll be telling me you don't support a womyn's right to paint with her menstrual blood (http://community.livejournal.com/blood_art). God, when will you ever learn to respect womyn!!!

[yoshitsune.livejournal.com]

EWWWWWWWW. (And only a little part of that ewww is from the fact that it's menstrual blood; the rest is just from the fact that it's BLOOD AT ALL. Though doesn't menstrual blood also have sloughed-off, dead tissue in it? Wouldn't it start to smell and/or rot after a certain amount of time?)

On the other hand, some of that art is pretty good...if it weren't made with MENSTRUAL BLOOD EWWWWW.