Edward Cullen, stalker? Yes, but so is the hero of 'The Graduate'

Thanks ash. I wanted to add some more comments to this as well. Owen, in your article you talk about how vampires stalk people. It’s the natural thing for them to do. And you point a finger at Dracula and say “See! There’s a vampire who stalks people too! It’s natural!” Fine. It’s natural for vampires to stalk people. But are you saying that Dracula is the equivalent vampire to Edward or should be? Dracula is a villain. He never loves any of them women he mind controls with his magic powers and then rapes and eats. Dracula isn’t attempting to protect Lucy or the other characters in the book, and never (in the book) claims to love any of them. Edward, on the other hand, is supposedly in love with Bella, yet treats her with abusive behavior and you’re saying that’s ok because other vampires do it. Dracula and Edward are not in the same situation. Again Edward can do whatever Stephenie Meyer wants him to do. He’s a fictional character. But your article reads like your defending Edward’s abuse of Bella because one of the greatest villains in literature also treated women badly. Plus you talk about how your list is of “heroes” who treat women badly and then you list Tom Powers (one of AFI’s 50 greatest Villains of all time). How does that work? Plus when was Broadcast News’s staff relations on par with domestic violence and terrorism? How does King Kong (another villain) equate to Edward’s treatment of the woman he “loves”? Or playing “In Your Eyes” equal the same thing as almost killing your girlfriend on your first date and making her afraid of your reaction to finding out she hung out with friends? When was Jimmy Stewart ever anything but a man going through serious psychosis and trauma and CLEARLY in the wrong when it doomed Kim Novak to her death? When is it not clear in The Graduate that everything Ben is doing he’s doing out of rebellion rage and in the end regrets? None of these examples are of “heroes,” or if they are you’re blowing up their actions to try and show the flaw in our thinking Edward is being abusive. You even comment that we’re being the “love police.” Well, I got to say a) we’re not, Bella and Edward can be in love, so can anyone, but when a woman is a clear victim in her relationship, we stand up for her. And b) actual police would have arrested Edward years ago for his abusive behavior. Bella’s father would in reality have the guy in handcuffs in a second. Movies have been violent and degrading towards women since their invention. But since about the 70′s there’s been feminist reaction and now we have more equal partner relationships in movies then ever before. Movies can and do still depict couples where the woman is treated unfairly, or the guy. But these are usually now seen as “warning” movies. Like “little girls, don’t go out with men like Tom Powers or they’ll beat you.” Or you have movies like Mask where Jim Carrey treats Cameron Diaz well, while her ex, Peter Greene, treats her like dirt. However in Twilight the guy treating her like dirt is the good guy. Again, it’s just weird that you’re defending degrading women, abusing them, and teaching our children that it’s ok to keep your boy/girlfriend from seeing their friends, using examples that don’t correlate well at all with the subject, and trying to make fun and make light of violence against women. And lastly Sound of Music is not an example of coercive sexual harassment as no one was coerced. Maria and Count Von Trapp both fell in love with each other the moment they meet, the act of coercing never occurs.

When does Edward put Bella down he is always telling her how great he thinks she is? He doesn’t let her drive because he knows he’s a safer driver than her and doesn’t want her getting hurt in an accident. He doesn’t threaten her he just tells her how dangerous it is for her to be around him which is the truth.