Wash. Post article: Twilight's popularity proves that we are so over feminism.

[modernwizard]

Leonard Sax argues that the great popularity of the Twilight series among hetero women <25  constitutes proof that we should abandon the ridiculous feminist ideal that men and women should be treated equally. He says:

The fascination that romance holds for many girls is not a mere social construct; it derives from something deeper. 

And what is this "deeper" something? It's an essentialized gender binary in which women are passive, cuddly and nurturing and men are aggressive, violent and death-dealing.

So basically his argument is that girls still like Twilight because they are biologically programmed to like it; ergo, feminism has failed.

The huge amount of interest in the Twilight books demonstrates only that romance is popular; it does not demonstrate the reasons behind the popularity. Sax' conclusions of romance as biologically innate and feminism as a stupid failure represent unwarranted leaps of logic. In fact, I could just as easily argue that the popularity of the Twilight series rests on the culturally constructed assumptions that the target readers -- hetero girls -- are expected and environmentally conditioned to like romance. 

Some people should actually learn how to formulate coherent thoughts before they're allowed to write for public consumption. :p

Comments

[ship2shore.livejournal.com]

Ugh.

[(Anonymous)]

I've known plenty of men who are quite flattered to have a woman play the agressor.

This Sax-person is a moron.