Calm yourself, Gail.
If you've read my last two posts, you know that I was quite...disturbed...over the portrayal of a female character in Stephanie Meyer's new book Eclipse. But even before I finished reading the book, I began to wonder whether a person whose personal belief system is offended by the book she is reading can make a rational judgment about it. Is this a bad book because I don't like seeing female main characters portrayed as weaklings happy to be cared for by men, happy to kill themselves for a guy? Quite honestly, what really bothers me is that Bella loves the situation she's in. Yeah, she's angsting like crazy over whether or not she's hurt Edward or she's hurt Jake, but the fact that she has no desire for a life of her own, doesn't realize it, doesn't care, seems outrageous and outdated to me.
But if I were a really good feminist, wouldn't I be fine with a woman being whatever she wants, even if what she wants is to spend a mindnumbing eternity doing nothing but basking in the glow of her fantasy man? Perhaps I am merely too attached to my concept of women as being capable of independent thought, ambition, etc.
There are two more books planned for this series. I may skim the next one out of morbid curiousity.
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