In Noah Berlatsky’s article, “Twilight vs. Hunger games: why
do so many grown-ups hate bella?” he brings to our attention that women can
only choose between power and desire in order to live their life. Berlatsky
uses Bella and Katniss as examples of both by implying that throughout the
twilight series Bella is described as passive, but towards the end she becomes
powerful once she turns into a vampire. While Katniss is strong and powerful
during the games but at the end of the day all she really desires was love and
to have a family. Having this in mind brings up the question,” why can’t the
two be together”? A lot of men now and days contain both power and desire so
why cant women? Reason being is that depending on where you came from and how
you were brought up can take a huge toll on that. For instance, if we all had
to live in a world like Katniss we would have to be forced to be strong and
powerful because at the end of the day you are fighting for your life. And the
same goes for Bella when she has nothing else better to do then to find love.
In the end I don’t think Bella is only passive, she just appears to the
audience that she is when in reality she isn’t. Both Bella and Katniss show a
sense of passiveness in different ways that the other character doesn’t, so I
would have to say their both equally strong and passive in their own special
way.
What’s crazy though is that they only say Bella is a
discomfort when it comes to feminity. It seems that women rather be seen as
strong on the outside and passive on the inside, rather than the other way
around, simply because women do not want to be seen as just weak. They feel
like they deserve the right to be called strong just as much as he men are
called strong.
I think it is very true that on the outside, the two series have very different protagonists. When compared to each other, they seem to be complete opposites, wanting the very thing that the other already possesses. In this way they almost complete each other, which does create one similarity. They both end up in pursuit of what they don't have. The issue that is brought up in the essay because of this, is the concern over which protagonist actually connects with the audience. In the essay it is suggested that Katniss actually ends up being more likable because she has more masculinity, which begs the question, is that view actually acceptable in the eyes of society? Because of the huge success of Katniss, it's probably safe to say that it is. The problem I'm seeing is that it hardly represents the character of most normal women, which leads me to ask a question of my own. Is this view of a strong and talented woman actually setting unrealistic standards for the average woman? I'm not a woman so I don't know how I'd react to that but it seems to me that the media and society is really starting to distort what it means to be feminine and for those who believe they are more feminine, there may be more of a tendency to feel insecure.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with you in the sense that Bella is not given enough credit from the audience or even specifically by the author, Berlatsky. I would argue with you however the conception that Bella and Katniss are equally powerful and well, as Berlatsky put it, butch. I think while yes, Katniss is the prefect representation of a strong, intelligent, cunning, manipulative, compassionate, fierce, and all together leader-like woman Bella is just too far on the other side of the spectrum to touch this form of womanhood. Bella is soft and meek and altogether passive. She made become some typically frightful and strong creature, but her character has yet to convince me that she can act in a tough manner like Katniss. I aspire to be like Katniss because the age in which I have grown up has glorified a woman who can be both compassionate for the ones they love, but also fight for them in the same way. I’d agree with you that a big part of this was the way in which I was raised. I do think that this desired personality trait can most definitely stems from what my brothers taught me about tough and the fixation on not being “too girly”. This is something I again agree with you on. Women do not want to seem weak, but rather a strong and independent person much like how men are perceived. Overall I would say that yes, Katniss is liked or even idolized over Bella. I would even go as far to say Bella has become the standard in which fear is brought about when it comes to the perception of weakness. Berlastky was right, grown-ups hate Bella.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the point that Bella and Katniss are actually two opposites and Berlatsky and critics ty to compare them as if they are the same. The only thing that makes these two women similar is that they are women. Though Bella is passive in the movie, she was never actually in that much danger where she had to defend herself like Katniss. If push came to shove all women or anyone for that matter would have to adapt to their lifestyle and develop ways to survive. I believe that throughout the series both women grew in many ways as movies went on Bella became stronger and learned how to survive better even before her vampire powers came along. However, she did use these powers to her advantage as she had something to fight for. Though I have not seen Hunger Games after reading the article it seems as if Katniss grew to as her need to fight and be brave diminishes and finds love. It is at this point roles reverse and each character adapts to her needs. In all I do believe that Berlatsky did a great job of exploring both character personalities I the beginning of the series and their development/changes at the end of the series.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on your point where it depends on where and how you were raised to be strong and powerful. Because yes if I was raised where Katniss grew up I would definitely fight for my life and family and that would be my only choice. As Bella, I would probably be the same, fragile and just trying to look for love just like every other teenager. In society, being fragile is not what girls strive for. They want to be strong and independent just like Katniss, not “girly” like Bella. But with that on the outside there are also those inner feelings that contribute to oneself, which is where the true side of both Bella and Katniss came out. They both end up in their own version of strong, whether that means having kids and being with someone who evens out their fire, or saving her family from death by becoming who she really was meant to be. I think that the author, Berlatsky, did a good job of explaining what was liked and disliked about the characters but then going on to explain how they developed into basically each other. The flipped roles, so both of them are equally strong but passive.
ReplyDeleteYou're right in that Berlatsky does use the timid Bella and the "Butch" Katniss as polar opposites. Berlatsky claims that they are this way because this is the way they came to be. Both want either power or desire because they already have one but lack the other. I like how Berlatsky conclude her blog by essentially saying that women didn't need to be so polarized on the subject. Being a powerful women doesn't mean you can't be lustful as well, there can be an in between.
ReplyDeleteI will nitpick just a bit though and point out that you claimed "I don’t think Bella is only passive, she just appears to the audience that she is when in reality she isn’t". However, you never really gave evidence to support that claim which is fairly important since it goes against most of water Berlatsky was saying. All the same, it is great that you challenged her view with your own.
I agree that both series have two different leading female roles. While one is passive and sort of reclusive, the other is powerful and resourceful. Noah Berlatsky says that women can only choose between power and desire, and I disagree. Like Racquel said, “a lot of men contain both power and desire, so why can’t women?” This is a gender norm that isn’t addressed as often in my opinion: women should be able and capable of doing everything and even more than males do. I understand, however, your point of saying that your environment will reflect outwardly on your personality. With Katniss, she had to be strong in order to support those around her, whereas with Bella she was sort of protected by her father most of her life, so when she came into the vampire world she was out of her element. I also agree, however, that both Bella and Katniss show passiveness in different ways. Katniss is passive towards things that she can’t control, she sort of pushes them out of her thoughts. Bella is passive in the sense that she isn’t outspoken on her thoughts in general, she kind of keeps them to herself. I agree, women would rather portray strength outwardly rather than passiveness because they want to be seen as equals towards their males counterparts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and the rest of the people commenting on how both Katniss and Bella are given two completely different scenarios. Yes, one is passive and one is powerful. With that being said, Katniss was given the chance to fight for her family and so she took it. She is a complete bad ass in The Hunger Games. Bella on the other hand was not a bad ass in twilight. She was always moping around and just always seemed depressed. I would also have to disagree with the author calling Bella a “girly girl” because I never saw her as a girly girl in any of the twilight movies. If we had to compare the two I would say that everyone should want to be like Katniss. The Author stated that she was Butch but I didn’t think of her like that in any of the movies. She was strong and could do anything that she put her mind to. Girls should want to be strong and powerful like that and personally I don’t feel like Bella brought anything to the table. Overall this is mainly my biased opinion between the two movies because I was not much of a Bella fan so I did agree with a lot of what the author had to say.
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