I’m going to ask the question at the forefront of everyone’s mind when “Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined” was released: Does that mean there’s a pack of badass female werewolves roaming the forests of Forks?
While this idea excites me, author Stephenie Meyer focuses more on a strict interpretation of the gender binary, rather than explore its greater possibilities.
The point of the novel is to prove Bella was never a damsel in distress, and the stereotypical gender roles Meyer assigned to her protagonists are mere coincidence. Instead, there are now two books with not enough plot for one, but enough problematic gender roles to last a lifetime.
This reversal done right might have had some important things to say about proscribed gender roles and equality, but all it really does is reinforce some laughable gender traits. Unfortunately, Meyer isn’t laughing.
The only upset of gender roles is that Beau’s lady love, Edythe, does the rescuing. While this is a good first step, Meyer negates it by going out of her way to prove that Beau’s a dude in distress, not a damsel. She emphasizes his masculinity with references to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, muscle flexing, and other dude-approved actions. At face value, there’s nothing wrong with having these traits, but it has little tie to the Bella that Beau is supposed to represent, which begs the question of why Meyer felt the need to add these masculine traits.
By making a more stereotypical masculine version of Bella, Meyer makes a damaging distinction about gender roles. Rather than changing the gender of Bella but keeping her interests and personality in tact, Meyers emphasizes that a female protagonist, who has often been criticized for being too passive, cannot become an equally weak-willed male protagonist without some changes.
In other words, he’s not a realistic man unless he likes sports.
The message of “Life and Death” is not that gender doesn’t matter to love stories, or for more critical readers, that men can also be abused in relationships. It’s that the difference between boys and girls comes down to a set of basic and uninspired binary stereotypes.
There’s more to being male than just liking wrestlers more than “Wuthering Heights,” and it’s unfortunate that Meyer relies on these stereotypes to draw a line between Beau and Bella, rather than any sort of serious inspection.
Meyer also could have gone further by altering the sexualities of characters. Although, maybe we should count our blessings that she didn’t botch that one as well. Still, there’s no representation of LGBTQIA+ characters in the “Twilight” series, and by changing the storyline with only an unimpressive gender flip, this feels like a wasted opportunity.
So where does this leave the rest of us humans, who are all haphazardly and randomly placed on spectrums of gender and sexuality, in Meyer’s original or reimagined “Twilight?”
Probably in Portland.
Reach writer Emma Bueren at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @EmBueren
