‘Midnight Sun’ Was So Misogynistic I Burned My Copy In A Trash Can
I just started reading Midnight Sun. I will admit, as an adult, it was with hesitation. However, the idea of reading the Twilight saga from Edward’s perspective was just a little too intriguing not to.
Once I got the book, I set aside some time. Just me, Edward, and maybe even a little Bella. But then by page 15, I was done.
Why was I done by page 15? Well, (spoiler alert) Edward was a creepy old stalker-man, and I just couldn’t take one more second.
So I took my copy outside and burned it in a trash can.
You see, there he was, sitting at his desk in biology class, seething mad at Bella. And why was our favorite sparkly vampire so mad at this poor helpless teenage girl who just wanted to make some friends at her new school?
Well, for all the things he hated about his own self. Like any good stalker would. Obviously.
And by things he hated about hisself, I mean he thought of all the ways he wanted to assault her. Let me say that again, for the people who missed it. He wanted to assault her, he thought about it again and again, rethinking it over and over.
What he could do to kill, maim, injure this woman, and so, so very much more. Ugh.
He was mad because he couldn’t stop thinking about how these things would give him the most pleasure. Pleasure, people!
And, that’s just gross.
I wanted to vomit. Honestly, it made me wonder why I had suffered through the first four books. Was it because I could pretend it was okay because he was a vampire?
What made me think this “love story” should ever end in anything other than a restraining order? To think that a teenage girl, or any woman for that matter, should ever be treated this way?
It was just so much more clear reading the Twilight story from Edward’s perspective. The way be blamed Bella for not being able to control his own urges. Basically, I was reading the vampire equivalent of “if a girl wears spaghetti straps she’s asking for it,” and that is just disgusting.
Midnight Sun is telling young girls that if you have a scary stalker, that’s fine, because he might actually be head over heels in love with you. Oh, and you might just fall head over heels in love with him, too.
But first you are going to have to cut off everyone and everything you know and love, because naturally that’s how true love works.
Not only is this totally not okay, this kind of think ingrained into a young adult’s schema is why girls stay with their abusers, it’s why women think they deserve what they get. It’s why men justify their actions.
And we made it a best seller?
I am absolutely horrified that we would sanction this portrayal of love. That we would tell girls this is what it looks like to be cared for and not obsessed over.
Do not purchase this book. Do not read this book. Do not make this the norm.
Our teenage girls deserve better.
Everyone deserves better.
Written by Christa Foster
