*Spoilers*
The Twilight series has been criticized as misogynistic. I am not going to comment on that, because I have not read (nor have any desire to) read it. I picked up Twilight about a year ago and got through about the the first two chapters, and then got bored. So on that topic I will defer to more knowledge and thoughtful people.
I do however watch movies, and it disturbs me whenever a misogynistic movie comes out, because I think there is a lot of that that comes out of Hollywood. And I think that people pay attention to it more than it is often articulated. So I was apprehensive when Twilight Saga: New Moon was released, knowing that the series had been criticized. I went to see New Moon without any real background on the series and what I saw was not expected at all.
First of all, there is the matter of a movie with a female protagonist winning not just the top of the box office, but becoming the third-highest theater gross of all time, with $140 million, including the biggest one day opening of all time, ranking up there with Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
Hollywood sexism is extremely elemental and fundamental. There are simply very few big budget movies that put women at the center of their plots, tell stories from womens' point of view, feature women as the strongest character, or have a woman protagonist at all. It's not that Hollywood doesn't make movies centered on women, it's that the big budget ones, the ones where an effort is really made to reach a wide audience, don't tend to have a womens' perspective.
For example, the films since 2002 or so have seen the rise of the comic book superhero phenomenon. How many of these superheroes were women? Hardly any. Romantic comedies, which once were the purview of women, have recently also been told from a male perspective, with the so-called 'bromance' and men usually given the funnier lines or the more sympathetic light. Pixar has now released 11 movies; how many of them feature a female protagonist? Not one (one is now in the works). While I have been private complaining about this for years, recently it has come to wider attention and the studio has started getting questions. In fact, how many of the top grossing movies of recent years feature a female protagonist? For 2009, that would be #6, for 2008, #7, for 2007, #15, before even finding one with a female protagonist.
From this perspective, Twilight Saga: New Moon is a breakthrough, it shows once again, as Titanic did, and as in another way Gone With the Wind and the Little Mermaid did, that it's possible to make a film with a female protagonist, and even around an almost all women audience, that will do very well at the box office.
But even this would not be good enough if the content was unabashedly anti- feminist.
I am quite relieved to say that I did not see it that way, at least not in this movie. The future movies will probably be, judging from the criticism the series is receiving
- What kind of character is Bella? She is deeply in love, she is a person who is left alone in the world for a good part of the film, and after being at first crushed to paralysis by abandonment, she eventually (with a little help from her dad) picks herself up and starts to get her life back together again. There's even the premonition of a "rebound guy". What kind of message does this send to young women? Doesn't it say, "No matter how much you're devastated by a guy who rejects you, you can't move on unless you learn to have a life of your own"? "There are other guys who like you who you could choose"?
- What is Bella's relationship with Edward? She is in love, but she isn't subservient to him. Early in the film, Edward goes away from her, making her promise not to "do anything rash", and in return he says that he'll never bother her or appear to her again. But when Bella discovers that by doing rash things (like riding a motorcycle or talking to a group of dangerous men) she can get to see Edward as a ghost again, she promptly disobeys him and does it. When Edward appears and reminds her that he asked her not to do anything rash, she throws it back in his face saying: You promised not to show up to me again!
The premise is one of equality: if he can't keep is promise to her, why should she keep hers to him? Bella's actions are also disapproved of by everyone around her (including her boyfriend), yet she does them anyway, because that is what she wants. No one who is a complete wilting flower would do that. Bella is headstrong.
In a misogynist movie, this headstrong risk-taking behavior on the part of a young woman might get her killed, or violently beaten, or otherwise "taught a lesson". But in New Moon, Bella is at the end rewarded for this behavior when Edward realizes he cannot live without her.
- Bella is unafraid to display her emotions. There is a scene in the film where she is in the vampire "headquarters", surrounded by hostile vampires, and hits one of them in the face. This starts a fight between the vampires.
- Bella saves her man. The traditional sexist movie tradition involves the man saving the woman, who usually has no agency or little power of her own. She is the object to be grasped at by the hero, who has exceptional powers. There is certainly that present here, but Bella is also given a chance to save Edward's life towards the end of the film just as he is about to kill himself.
- The guys in this film are more sexual than the women. The only woman here even slightly sexual is Bella, and she is never shown (e.g. Megan Fox in Transformers) as a sex object. In contrast, it is Jacob's character who repeatedly takes off his shirt in the film, and his brothers as well, objectified for a female audience. This is the reversal of the traditional "male gaze".
- Her power is very evident. Two powerful men seem to have their lives centered around her. If anything, it is an unrealistic devotion, which is perhaps why this is such a popular fantasy. In the traditional sexist film, the hero's girlfriend is often relegated to secondary importance to the hero saving the world, or something similar. Here, both Edward and Jacob have no higher purpose than Bella.
In short, I did not find this movie to be very misogynistic and in fact I found it to be quite feminist in many respects. Based on what's been written about the series, I fully expect the future movies to be more troublesome and probably misogynistic. I am not defending either the series or any other future movies, only this one.
So why defend New Moon? I think it's important to point out the feminist aspects of this movie because this is a highly successful grossing movie and popular among young women. I think we are at the point where it would be helpful for feminism to point out where its cultural successes may come from. Sometimes, they come from unexpected places. I think New Moon might be one such place. New Moon shows not only that a female centered film can be a cultural juggernaut, but that a feminist-friendly female centered film can be.