Feminism And Vampires In Stephenie Meyer’s The Twilight Saga: Bella Swan's Ability To Make Her Own Choices

Stephenie Meyer argues that Bella Swan is a feminist character because “the foundation of feminism is this: being able to choose. The core of anti-feminism is, conversely, telling a woman she can’t do something solely because she’s a woman” (Wilson 207). However, using this definition of feminism, Bella Swan still is not a feminist character because she might not be making these choices of her own free will due to her controlling, abusive, vampire boyfriend with psychic abilities. She does not actually become a feminist character under this definition until she herself becomes a vampire and gets on a level footing with Edward in terms of supernatural abilities. The problem isn’t necessarily that Bella is making the wrong choices with her life; the problem is whether or not she’s making these choices of her own free will at all, which is unlikely given her circumstances.