De-Romanticizing Rape Culture – Twilight’s Toxic Masculinity and Why Fanfiction Does It Better

a photo of a female-presenting person holding a black book in front of their face, the spine of the book has been edited to read "Fanfiction", on the back it says "Fanfiction.net" and "Archive of Our Own", on the front a shiny red apple has been edited in.

Twilight hasn’t aged well. In my opinion, contributing factors are the shifting social consciousness, the rise of feminism since the #MeToo movement and the neverending toxic masculinity and sexism the books are infused with.

In this blog post, I’d like to talk about a few controversial scenarios which occurred in The Twilight Saga; how women are subdued, as seen in the female Cullen’s traumatic back stories that have been glossed over and reflected in Bella’s bland personality, and how fanfics have the power to eliminate problematic behavior and plots, expand storylines that can be empowering and improve the original story by rewriting it while staying canon – twenty years after the first book has been released.
In this blog post, I’d like to talk about a few controversial scenarios which occurred in The Twilight Saga; how women are subdued, as seen in the female Cullen’s traumatic back stories that have been glossed over and reflected in Bella’s bland personality, and how fanfics have the power to eliminate problematic behavior and plots, expand storylines that can be empowering and improve the original story by rewriting it while staying canon – twenty years after the first book has been released.