Guest blogger Filmi Girl: Appetite and deprivation in the Twilight series

10th December 2009

Guest blogger Filmi Girl: Appetite and deprivation in the Twilight series

posted in Anorexia, Body Image, Eating Disorders, Feminist Topics, Guest Blogger, Mental Health, Television & Film |

You may remember guest-blogger Kara (a.k.a. Filmi Girl) from her great post on the whittling waistlines of Bollywood actresses. Now she’s back with a guest post on the body image struggles inherent in the popular Twilight series, specifically Bella’s desire to rid herself of her human body and the disturbing descriptions of physical sensations and appetite. I’ve read a lot of feminist critiques on the Twilight series, mostly concerning the books’ not-so-subtle messages of abstinence and the unbalanced relationship dynamic between the main characters, but Filmi Girl’s is a new take I haven’t yet seen before. It is, to say the least, food for thought.

Filmi Girl writes:

Imagine you’re reading a story about a girl starting over a new high school. As she enters the cafeteria, her eyes are drawn towards a certain group of kids – all physical perfection and effortless cool.

“They weren’t talking, and they weren’t eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them…As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray – unopened soda, unbitten apple – and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway.” (Twilight, p. 18-19)

To me, this doesn’t say ‘vampire’ as much as ‘pro-ana.’

While I don’t think that Stephenie Meyer, author of The Twilight Saga, was deliberately encouraging young women make an unopened soda and unbitten apple their lunch of choice, the scene is an early indicator of the twisted relationship with appetite that runs through the whole series. There are plenty of disturbing facets to The Twilight Saga, from Edward’s abusive behavior towards Bella and the imprinting which seems more like child grooming, that have been looked at in depth but I haven’t seen much on appetite – or rather, Bella’s desire to rid herself of her appetites.

For those gentle readers unfamiliar with the tragic tale of Bella Swan, resident of Forks, Washington, let me give you a crash course. Bella, age 17, moves to Forks, Washington at the beginning of Twilight. At her new high school, she meets and develops a crush on a mysterious student – a student who finds being around her intolerable and yet won’t leave her alone: (the pale Adonis) Edward Cullen. In a fit of self-loathing, Edward reveals his true self to her. He takes off his shirt in a patch of sunlight, his chest sparkling with the glittery skin of a Meyer-verse vampire. But while Edward is a predator, built to feed on the human race, he has adopted a lifestyle referred to as “vegetarianism.” Edward only eats non-human animals and compares the experience to a human living on tofu, keeping their hunger at bay but never being fully satisfied (this is Meyer’s take on vegetarianism, not mine). Bella gradually moves into his world, getting to know his “family” of like-minded vampires (the Cullens), until one day she catches the attention of a particularly vicious vampire named James who is moving through the Cullen territory and decides to make a meal of her. Bella flees to Phoenix under the protection of Cullens but despite their best efforts, is still captured by James. Edward and his family rescue her and kill James but not before James has a chance to deliver a giant bite to her arm, that will kill her. Edward bravely sucks out the vampire “venom,” knowing that he will kill her if he cannot stop himself in time. He does. Bella lives and returns to Forks, still infatuated with Edward.

In the second book, New Moon, Edward leaves Bella – telling her that he no longer loves her – and Bella works her way into a deep depression. She emerges from it with the help of her good friend Jacob Black, a Quileute Indian boy who lives on the local reservation. Jacob and Bella develop a genuine friendship, although it’s hinted that Jacob feels something more, but are interrupted from furthering their relationship by Edward, who under the false assumption that Bella has died, is going to kill himself by provoking the Volturi, a sect of vampire nobles – the vampire drama queen equivalent of “suicide by cop.” Bella, still feeling the pull of obsession towards Edward, goes to stop him. Edward is saved and reveals that he had left Bella for her own good and that he never stopped loving her. Bella forgives him and returns to Forks with Edward. Jacob isn’t so quick to forget and vows that he will not let her throw her life away. Eclipse, the third book, follows the love triangle and Bella’s desperate attempts to become a vampire, which at times sound chillingly like preparations for suicide. At the end of Eclipse, Bella discovers she loves both men – but Edward more and ends with Bella still human but engaged to be married to him.

Perhaps it takes someone who has struggled with her own appetites to view Bella’s quest for vampire-hood (if that is the correct term) in quite this way. Vampire stories have traditionally mined crevices of human desire that are not socially acceptable, substituting blood lust for passions unnamed, such as homosexual desire (Carmilla, 1872) or, more recently, general teenage restlessness and ennui (The Lost Boys, 1987). But the Meyer-verse vampires Bella is infatuated with actively battle their own unacceptable hungers – living off of non-human animals instead of allowing themselves to be physically satisfied. The life of a Cullen is filled with self-deprivation. As Edward himself says, “I can’t be sure, of course, but I’d compare it to living on tofu and soy milk; we call ourselves vegetarians, our own little inside joke. It doesn’t completely satiate the hunger – or rather thirst. But it keeps us strong enough to resist. Most of the time.” (Twilight, p. 188)

Leaving aside Meyer’s views on vegetarianism, we are clearly meant to find Edward’s heroic resistance to his own physiology to be admirable. It is never suggested that the Cullens could eat donated human blood, either from willing victims or from the hospital. Human blood is a forbidden food. And Edward’s morbid pull towards Bella seems, at times, less like romance and more like a dieter eyeballing a particularly delicious slice of cake. He gets a perverse satisfaction from abstaining. “‘Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet,’ he whispered. ‘You have a very floral smell, like lavender… or freesia,’ he noted. ‘It’s mouthwatering.’” (Twilight, p. 306)

And Edward’s thirst appears to be his only physical desire. All evidence in The Twilight Saga points to Edward being a 100+ year old virgin. Bella is the one pushing their sexual relationship and Edward keeps her from pushing too far. In Eclipse, Edward does initiate some sexual touching with Bella but it is only as prelude to his marriage proposal and he gets more aroused by the sight of Bella wearing his engagement ring (although Bella feels it weighing heavily on her hand) than by Bella herself. Edward is master of his physical desires – more superego than vampire.

Bella is constantly comparing herself to Edward and finding herself lacking. She is uncomfortable in her own body, a feeling extremely familiar to this former 17-year old girl. It’s made more painful to the reader because everything is written from Bella’s point-of-view. In the first book, especially, the reader is treated to endless descriptions of Edward’s physical beauty contrasted with Bella’s self-loathing descriptions of her own clumsiness or her plainness or her fragile human body. Edward is described as a statue of Adonis come to life – cold and hard to the touch, but physically perfect. Bella wants nothing more than to be just like him. She is already asking to be turned into a vampire by the end of Twilight and Eclipse has her begging and pleading with Edward to perform the deed.

Through the course of the three books, Bella tries and tries to rid herself of her human desires. She rarely eats. Although she cooks dinner for her father, she doesn’t take any enjoyment in it – it’s a duty and one she dispatches with little thought. In one memorable scene, to me at least, her father takes her out for a celebratory dinner and not only is Bella ungrateful for the gesture, she doesn’t actually eat her food. She waits until her father isn’t looking and then tucks bits of her hamburger into her napkin. Perhaps she is unconsciously echoing Edward, who spends his time at the school cafeteria doing exactly the same thing. She is not yet a vampire but is already abstaining from food and physical pleasure.

Bella’s sexual desires are another thing she is made to feel ashamed of. While the supposed erotic chastity is a big selling point, I never saw it. Instead a mutual desire to take things slow, Edward withholds his physical affections. He explains to Bella that he might devour her if he allowed himself to go too far but that doesn’t stop Edward from chastising Bella for wanting to explore her sexual drive. In one particularly vile scene in Eclipse, Edward snuggles up to her on a giant bed only to pull away when she begins to reciprocate he tells her, “I was just trying to illustrate the benefits of the bed you don’t seem to like. Don’t get carried away.” The benefits of the bed being only available after marriage, which she does not want.

This shaming of Bella just makes New Moon, in which the character of Jacob Black takes the forefront in the narrative, more frustrating, as the book shows the reader what Bella would be like free from the influence of Edward. The chapters of New Moon are filled with food and physical pleasures. Bella eats muffins and enjoys an outdoor spaghetti party. Bella holds hands with Jacob and accepts warm and friendly bear hugs. She goes hiking with Jacob and walks. Edward would literally carry her when they went places. Under the calming influence of Jacob, Bella begins interacting with her school friends and the pages of New Moon show a Bella much more sympathetic and human than in any other book in the series. The tragedy of The Twilight Saga is that the promise of this Bella, who grows up and accepts herself, is thrown away as soon as Edward enters back into the picture.

The final scenes of Eclipse show Bella having a vision of her happy, human life with Jacob. She turns it down in favor of a life of constraint and prohibition with Edward. Bella will never be full again.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Anorexia, Body Image, Eating Disorders, Feminist Topics, Guest Blogger, Mental Health, Television & Film. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On December 10th, 2009, Filmi Girl said:

Thank you for letting me get this off my chest! It’s so clear to me from reading The Twilight Saga that Stephenie Meyer has some major food/body issues.

Maybe it just takes someone who has also been there to notice it…

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 3:14 pm

2 On December 10th, 2009, facultades said:

I never read or seen the films, and the more critical analysis of it I read, the less I feel the need to read it.
But I once was a ana-wannebe, and from what you write I could easily be reading this to be “inspired” to not eat. Thank you

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 3:45 pm

3 On December 10th, 2009, Sandy said:

I hate Twilight, though I did only watch the movie. As movies goes it was more of a B class to me, the acting horrid, no chemistry..

However the more I read excerpts and opinions of it (both for and against) the more I hate it. I hate “weak woman” stories and this is just the epitome of it for me.

With that said I never saw it from this point of view and I thank you for writing it. I always thought that SM has some issues.

What freaks me out is that soo many girls like these books and will want to be Bella..

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

4 On December 10th, 2009, Geri said:

I’ve read these books and found that scene where Bella didn’t eat to be a little disturbing.
However, this exceprt:

“They weren’t talking, and they weren’t eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them…As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray – unopened soda, unbitten apple – and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway.” (Twilight, p. 18-19)

Doesn’t say “pro-ana” to me. I read this as an indicator of abnormality, that not eating was a sign of something being off, not right – and the ‘graceful lope’ too – this is a sign of abnormality: a runway walk is artificial, very far removed from real life”

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 6:28 pm

5 On December 10th, 2009, Anna said:

This is a brilliant post! I haven’t really thought of all the shame and eating related subtext in the book, but now that you point it out it’s glaringly obvious. Bella is shamed all the time! It’s absurd!

Also, Meyer said that she doesn’t describe Bella specifically because she wants the reader to be able to take her place in the novel, but there’s a constant mention of how fragile and skinny she is.

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

6 On December 10th, 2009, Anna said:

Also, you keep hearing about Team Edward and Team Jacob. What about Team Bella? I am now Team bella. I want Bella to be her own person, who’s happy and doesn’t need external forces to make her live her life.

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

7 On December 10th, 2009, Marcia said:

All this and it’s terribly written, too.

posted on December 10th, 2009 at 9:05 pm

8 On December 11th, 2009, C said:

@Anna: I strongly agree with you there. I believe that the whole Twilight Saga teaches girls that they need to have a guy in their life to be complete – it is just one of the things that irritate me about Twilight.

This a really interesting post; I never really noticed the whole food thing that much and it made me think.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 5:38 am

9 On December 11th, 2009, Emerald said:

I haven’t read any of the Twilight series, but I get what you’re saying. As Rasputina’s song ‘Transylvanian Concubine’ put it: “You can never be too rich or too thin”.

Ironic, I think, that thinness has become tied up in the vampire mythology. Old-school vampires naturally abstained from normal human food, but if I remember Dracula rightly, their blood feasts made them plump and healthy-looking. By Victorian standards, and I think that’s the crucial point; it’s about fashion. The way an author makes the undead glamorous and attractive tells you a lot about what constitutes those qualities in the culture they’re writing in. In this case, rather disturbingly so.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 5:54 am

10 On December 11th, 2009, Filmi Girl said:

@Anna I’m with you on Team Bella. I actually did identify with her quite a bit – she’s quiet, studious, serious, and a bit of a loner – which maybe made it that much more horrifying to me that the story progresses the way it does. What’s nice about when Jacob enters the story is that Bella actually engages with the world around her…

@Emerald That’s certainly true! And don’t forget that Edward himself – as the symbol of everything perfect in the Twilight world – is basically on an eternal diet. A diet that he can never break or else people die. He is eternally unsatisfied. (No wonder he’s so crabby…)

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 7:57 am

11 On December 11th, 2009, spacedcowgirl said:

Filmi Girl, thank you for this analysis. Some of the aspects you brought up–like how Edward is sort of the ultimate “self-denier” and gatekeeper of Bella’s sexuality–have been bothering me, but I appreciate you bringing everything into focus especially with respect to how it relates to appetite for food. There seems to be a long history in YA literature (of course I can’t think of any examples right now, it just feels very pervasive to me) of heroines who don’t eat and are weak being considered examples for pre-teen and teenage readers to look up to.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 12:37 pm

12 On December 11th, 2009, Samantha said:

“They weren’t talking, and they weren’t eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food in front of them… As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray – unopened soda, unbitten apple – and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway.”

Well they are vampires, they are graceful & attractive & they don’t eat human food.
If that were a description of a gaggle of normal highscgool girls I would be offended, but this is fantasy.
I have gotten frustrated with Bella’s desire to not be human, but I identify with that desire whole-heartedly. Edward rages against the thought of her becoming a vampire as well, mostly because he doesn’t want to lose the human things about her he loves so much, which she cannot appriciete.
Whether or not the author has body image issues is in the air for me.

But please, let’s not make mountains out of molehills.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

13 On December 11th, 2009, melponeme_k said:

I never could get past the first two paragraphs in the first Twilight book.

But as others pointed out before, Vampirism in fiction embodies all that we think is forbidden. What I find interesting is that up until Twilight, vampire fiction was all about letting go of inhibitions.

While Twilight has gone the route of asceticism. It makes me wonder if the author has let her religion into the mix. Supposedly she is a Mormon.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm

14 On December 11th, 2009, Bree said:

I believe Meyer’s religious beliefs are written into the series, hence the abstaining from sex and making Bella such a weak, submissive character.

What disturbs me most about the Twilight phenomenon is women my age and older, lusting after fictional teenage characters and the two young actors that play them. It’s one thing to be a fan, but many of these women really take it too far, with them holding signs that say “imprint me” and being even more rabid than the young girls the books are targeted to. It’s creepy.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 10:17 pm

15 On December 11th, 2009, Lauren said:

All the more reason to put down Twilight and pick up Harry Potter!

But I do have to say…

… Team Jacob! (or team Taylor rather)

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

16 On December 11th, 2009, Eleanor said:

This is a really interesting topic. I’m actually in the middle of the books and have been disturbed throughout how often Bella doesn’t have an appetite or is too upset to eat or couldn’t choke down the food or vomited. The author doesn’t dwell or her weight, but it is a given in the book that she is thin and I think her constantly not eating fills that view point.

posted on December 11th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

17 On December 14th, 2009, Alyssa (The 40 year-old) said:

AMAZING post!!!! I started to read “Twilight” but couldn’t take it. And I can completely see these books as a how-to on denying yourself your natural appetites and desires. UGH!
(FOR a GOOD vamp read, with lots of humor, sex, and shoes, check out the Queen Betsy “Undead” series by Maryjanice Davidson.)

posted on December 14th, 2009 at 1:34 pm

18 On December 14th, 2009, LoopyLoo said:

Great post.

“Also, Meyer said that she doesn’t describe Bella specifically because she wants the reader to be able to take her place in the novel, but there’s a constant mention of how fragile and skinny she is.”

She actually states the character’s height and weight in the first book and Bella-the-character weighs LESS than the (very thin) actress who plays her.

posted on December 14th, 2009 at 4:43 pm

19 On December 14th, 2009, Megan S. said:

Thank you so much for this post! I thought it was just me (recovered anorexic) reading too much into things. Glad to know that other people got this negative vibe toward appetites/eating from Meyer’s books.

posted on December 14th, 2009 at 4:53 pm

20 On December 14th, 2009, Lexie Di said:

I’ve never read nor have I ever watched Twilight.

I dislike books that are so rabidly popular. After hearing and reading about a.) the horrid writing b.)the blatant sexism and c.) the crazy fans, I decided I didn’t want to get into it at all. I have developed a hate for Twilight.

This makes it worse (though I only take it as face value as I’ve never read the series).

I mean, I can see liking something. But the way I, myself, have seen fans act, it wouldn’t surprise me if some young person relpayed this lunch seen from the book every day at school just to look what the book tells them is “cool.”

posted on December 14th, 2009 at 5:11 pm

21 On December 14th, 2009, merri said:

I read the first three books because so many people raved over them. I really hated them. I didn’t even finish the last few chapters of the third book. I couldn’t stand reading about these people they were so annoying… bella was so incomplete without a man and edward was so ugh. Plus the writing was horrible. I can see how you could interpret the books this way. Any way you look at them though, they’re bad.

posted on December 14th, 2009 at 8:07 pm

22 On December 15th, 2009, Emerald said:

A late PS to this…I’m currently on vacation in the US, and in a bookstore coffee shop I was in yesterday, they were selling ‘special edition’ New Moon Godiva chocolate bars, in packaging to match the cover of the novel. Just struck me as kind of ironic…

posted on December 15th, 2009 at 10:58 am

23 On December 15th, 2009, me again said:

what a thoughtful post, insightful & shrewd.

SM can’t write slop up a dark alley. i am appalled that such bad writing was released and, subsequently, came to hold sway over so many insecure people.

****SPOILER ALERT****
the latest POS from that vile series, breaking dawn, goes beyond the beyonds – edward & bella finally get married & get to the physical side of things; but edward’s superhuman strength renders bella UNCONSCIOUS by the end of their encounter. bella doesn’t notice – she’s lost inside some blissful fantasy of waterfalls … or something. that’s right – she doesn’t even notice that she was “banged” (i would never call their activities lovemaking) into unconsciousness. i decided then that bella’s character is, simply, unhinged, & that SM is nothing but a not-so-subtly-disguised porn writer.

posted on December 15th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

24 On December 15th, 2009, Filmi Girl said:

@Lexie Di I’m always interested in things that are really popular! They must be hitting a nerve with something in our collective unconscious – whether it’s The Da Vinci Code or Twilight or Britney Spears. To me, “Twilight” just seems to exemplify so many things that are wrong with our culture – the food aspect just being one of many.

@merri My sister did the same thing! They were triggering too many unpleasant memories for her and she just put down “Eclipse” and walked away.

@Emerald LOL! We all know Bella would not dare touch a piece of choclate… tragic.

and @me again I couldn’t even bring myself to open the cover of Breaking Dawn, although I did spoil myself for everything that happens. My main interest in BD at this point is how much money they have to bribe Rob and Kristen with to act out some of those scenes! (You know what I’m talking about!)

posted on December 15th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

25 On December 15th, 2009, Geri said:

me again@ you’ve never fallen asleep after sex?

posted on December 15th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

26 On December 22nd, 2009, Twilight’s Bella Swan, damsel in distress? « The Thinking Junction said:

[...] as expressed in this post on The F-Word, Bella repeatedly shows a disinterest in eating & is frequently too upset to eat. [...]

posted on December 22nd, 2009 at 10:53 pm

27 On February 1st, 2010, Taylor said:

Twilight really does create eating disorders. The other day I found this post on MyLifeIsTwilight.com.

“Today, I realized that whenever I eat food, I feel guilty and regret it because I think it might make me seem unattractive to a vampire.”

As if airbrushed celebrities and models presented as having “ideal” bodies wasn’t bad enough for the self esteem of teenage girls. For a girl to stop eating so a FICTIONAL CHARACTER will find her attractive and fall in love with her, it’s just plain wrong. Bella and Edward’s relationship is based on physical attractiveness. We can see this from the extraordinary number of times Edward’s perfect looks are described, and not once do we get to know him. As a teenage girl, I know how impressionable a lot can be and unless the die-hards who do this for Twilight hear this from Stephenie Meyer herself, they won’t listen. This would be so much easier if Smeyer’s brother didn’t censor her fan(or hate)mail.

posted on February 1st, 2010 at 11:59 am

28 On February 2nd, 2010, Michele said:

Thanks for this interesting perspective. I linked to it here:
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/critical-analysis-of-twilight/links/10159354/title/appetite-deprivation-twilight-series

I hated Bella’s obsession with losing her humanity, and how she couldn’t be bothered to form a real relationship with anyone who wasn’t supernatural. Fear of aging is something very real and pervasive in society and Meyer’s books commend it. They tell you to keep fighting for eternal youth until you get it, rather than get over it and embrace maturity.

posted on February 2nd, 2010 at 1:23 pm