Oh, Bella

Katelyn Temple
Jeannina Perez
February 17, 2010
WST 3015

Oh, Bella

For this assignment, I chose to watch a current movie almost everyone has seen, Twilight. I would like to start by saying, I did not read the books and I do not like this movie. I chose this film because of Bella and her character as a whole. “The single most visible signifier of identity is physical appearance” (Kirk and Okazawa-Rey 94). This is the approach I took when watching this film. Appearance tells us more about a character then we realize.

Some may call Bella “naturally beautiful” and yes, Kristen Stewart is pretty but the character Bella can be classified as dull in every sense of the meaning. Her clothes are dark and loose on her thin body, her hair is never styled, she drives a very old orange truck, and every other aspect of her life seems to be just as dull. Her body language and speech are frail and awkward. The amazing thing is, from the minute she walks into school, Bella is a magnet. Boys pursue her and she immediately makes friends. “They [girls] are supposed to be passive, swept away, overpowered,” (Kilbourne 237). With Ms. Kilbourne words, one would assume Bella would be passive and overpowered.

From the minute Bella sees Edward she is a little girl experiencing her first crush. Starring, flirting, and most of all, pursuing him with a vengeance. Edward barely gives her the time of day but when he shows her attention, she latches on. Granted, Edward does save her more then once but when he isn’t being her prince, he is talking down to her, confusing her and even tells her they should not be friends.

As far as sexuality goes, this movie is filled. Bella wears dark, loose clothes until the one scene she is laying in her bed in underwear. Edward appears and they have their first kiss. Secondly, Jessica and Bella are friends but from the minute Bella appears Jessica is jealous. Another example is when Carlyle turns Edward into a vampire. The scene depicts Edward in pain. When Carlyle turns Esme, she seems to have an orgasm. Finally, there is the prom. The first time we see Bella in a dress is also the first time we see her with her hair and makeup done.

Bella and her friends are typical. Not too tall and of normal body size. Surprisingly none of her female friends are blonde. The female vampires on the other hand are all beautiful. Even Victoria, a bad vampire. I am told by a friend who read the book that turning into a vampire naturally makes a person beautiful; symbolism here is amazing. The “villains” of the movie, even though we like the Cullen family, are all good looking while the humans look natural. The vampires are sexy while the humans are average.

Bella’s group of friends is diverse in an ethnic way. Some characters are single but by the end of the movie most have found partners. For example, Eric and Mike both asked Bella to prom. Mike ends of with Jessica and Eric ends up with Angela. All of the characters seem to be heterosexual and intelligent. And almost every character seems to be interested in romance.



(536 words)


Works Cited:

Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add". Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2010. 231-238.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. "Identities and Social Locations." Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 91-103.