Weird Fascinations Aren't Always Good Things

I have this weird fascination with the Twilight phenomenon. I have always been intrigued by things that cause mass followings. I was first exposed to the Twilight series while working at a summer camp where a good number of the teenage girls were wandering around campus all day clutching their copies of one of the four books. I didn't think too much of it then, but then the uprising around the movie started happening and I started paying attention. (I must note that I have not read the books, the writing was just too much for me, but I have seen the movie a couple times and read articles about Twilight when I see them).

I'm not going to go into the feminist implications of Twilight too much right now because there are several great articles out there about it (check out Bitch magazine or Ms. magazine). What I do want to talk about now is New Moon.

A little while ago the first trailer for the New Moon movie was released (see below). In the trailer, Edward leaves after an incident where his "brother" Jasper almost kills Bella. Bella is distraught. She lies on the floor of the forest for who knows how long. Showing that she apparently cannot live without Edward. After that, she allows the vampire Laurent to taunt her and call her "mouth watering" while she just stands there helpless.

From what I can tell from the trailer and the little that I know of the plot of the book, I can see that New Moon is not going to be any less anti-feminist than Twilight, not that I was expecting much. I just wish that people wouldn't idolize Edward and Bella so much. They have such a messed up relationship. Edward is creepy as hell and Bella is this meek, little excuse for a woman. Even just looking at the tag line for Twilight: "and so the lion fell in love with the lamb." Bella (the lamb) is portrayed as this helpless animal that has no agency of her own. She's not even falling in love. Edward (the lion) is falling in love with her.

I won't even pretend to say that I won't go see New Moon. I really do have this weird fascination with this phenomenon. I honestly don't see why people are sooooo obsessed with it.