In the above Twitter thread, famed Young Adult fiction author John Green decries our society’s overwhelming scorn of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books.
While he makes a few valid points—for example, that it’s easy “to dehumanize the creator or fans of something extremely popular” and that we could probably find something better to satirize than “unironic love stories”—I take issue with his suggestion that just because a lot of people didn’t read any misogynistic undertones into the series, we should refrain from criticizing it.
Tens of millions of people might not have found anything wrong with the relationships Meyer included in Twilight, but that does not mean that those of us who noticed a problem should simply silence ourselves and allow a popular book to perpetuate harmful messages.
To answer Green’s question about whether our disdain for Meyer’s works might be more misogynistic than the stories’ content: NO. It’s not more misogynistic, simple as that. Misogynistic
It is oversimplified logic like Green’s that allows discrimination and other damaging behavior toward women (or other oppressed groups) to continue. Majorities can quite easily find themselves in the wrong: if those disagreeing with the majority never spoke up, society might never have made the same leaps and bounds toward equality that we have in recent decades.
Now, I’m not saying that we should avoid any piece of art or media that includes offensive content. (We might never watch another movie again if we tried to follow that rule.) We should enjoy stories that touch our hearts, but also recognize that no story is perfect. Recognizing the flaws in our books and movies and songs and paintings will help foster a more productive conversation about how we might change ourselves—and our world—for the better.
ADSENSE HERE