A reader writes:
Bella as any kind of feminist!? Oh, spare me! And I say that as a high-school librarian, embedded in every major teen novel enthusiasm out there. I inwardly cringe every time a kid comes in asking for one of the Twilight series and have to almost forcibly stop myself from admonishing: "Forget reading! Why don't you go home and watch a few episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer instead?"
I mean, Bella is a girl so in love with her guy that she wants to die. What kind of message is that?
Not to mention the whole series is a second-rate ripoff of Joss Whedon's series, which was far smarter, far funnier, and a hell of a lot deeper both philosophically and in its understanding and portrayal of teen angst. In fact, there's a classic line from Season 2, when Angel, the vampiric love of Buffy's life, has turned evil and made it his mission to destroy Buffy. In an epic stand off between the two of them, when it looks like she is on her last legs, he taunts, "No weapons, no friends, no hope. Take all that away, and what do you have left?" Buffy pauses, turns, stares him dead in the eye and says, "Me." Then proceeds to kick his ass.
That is a feminist heroine.
The Dish 