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modernwizardLeonard 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
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