Prompt 3: Lauren Schneider

The very popular series, Twilight, creates stereotypes and gender roles through the main characters Bella and Edward. The main female character in the movie is Bella Swan who is portrayed as a weak, clumsy, and fragile girl. It also shows her as being “clingy” to Edward and very dainty. She is often shown crying or upset over something. Edward always has to be very careful around her because of his strength and her weakness.

Edward is seen as the perfect man in Bella’s eyes and much of society’s. Disregarding the vampire characteristic, Edward seems to be a stereotypical man in society. He has huge muscles, his face is flawless, and he is not clumsy or weak at all. He does not cry or show very much emotion other than anger. He easily loses his temper and gets in fights a lot with Jacob, the other main male character. Similarly, Jacob is also a stereotypical man, disregarding the werewolf feature. He has tan skin, a perfect body, and is very strong. He is also shown to lose his temper easily and get angry. Both characters are protecting Bella, once again showing her weakness. It shows that she cannot protect herself and needs a man in her life to do it for her. Although Bella tries to tell them she can do it herself, they do not listen to what she has to say, they just do it anyways. It shows how little power she really has thus showing to society that men have more power over women.

I never really thought about the gender roles and stereotypes portrayed in the Twilight movies because just like the rest of society, I was paying more attention to the romantic plot between Bella and Edward than the underlying stereotypes and gender roles of men and women. However, if society was to look more at the stereotypes and gender roles shown in this movie, they can easily be seen. Women are shown as weak and with little power while men are shown as strong with lots of power. The stereotypes and gender roles are very strong in the Twilight series.