I was at a family friend's house the other day (not you MH so don't worry, your house was cool.) and i saw these two little kids, who i usually find adorable, loving siblings to each other, battling it out for a bag of chips and the wii controllers to play rabid rabbits or whatever.
this thing. (actually the room looked like her house, so i choose it.)
At any rate, the older brother didn't want to let his sister eat chips OR play games, you i told him off (he's like 6 and she's 2) and he wanted ME to play with him instead, so i let her play with me (the thing was a shaking and controlling thing, so i told her to shake it while i moved. Blood Hell those games require co ordination.) and he got all huffy so he said he was "going for a bike ride" in his backyard and he took the Pringles with him.
So i was playing very happily with the little girl, playing the games she was denied to play because her brother didn't want her to, and he got very upset when he came back in, face all crumbed over.
I get the food thing, every one loves pringles. But what i don't understand is how they were fighting so much about a TWO PLAYER GAME. There are only two kids. Why didn't they get along in a two player game??? I mean, i have two siblings, so we usually go by a winner continues system (which my brother doesn't like, cause he always looses) but that would create more room for arguement i understand. But in a two player game, how can they argue? There are two controllers, the older boy is ALWAYS going to win, so he doesn't have to worry about that at all. So why didn't he let her play? I thought this was rather unfair, and i wondered why i don't think i ever had these arguements as a kid.
And then i realised that WE DIDN'T PLAY WITH CONSOLES.
When i was younger, we ran around with dolls and wands and fake wings and tea sets and fought dragons and jumped on the couches and threw pillows at dragons trying to avoid lava, knocking over vases and breaking remotes and having to stand in corners for an hour for being rowdy. We coloured in and made up stories and put on Barbie fashion shows (i don't like Barbie now, i really don't condone it for young females, it's been statistically proven to alter their concepts of beauty, which is bad for young forming female minds)
At anyrate, it's hard to fight with each other when you are going off to battle to save you other sibling who has to be dying of some sickness and come galloping back with the cure, or design a killer fashion show or kill pirates or whatever. (btw we all had super powers.)
It's sad to me when i see babies playing on iphones, when four year olds have facebook, and when the only book twelve year old girls have read are teen romance novels based on Twilight and twilight itself.
Speaking of twilight, i read this article which i found so true.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/twilight-girls-learn-to-give-up-all-for-love-20091118-imfx.html?autostart=1
In terms of role models for future generations, i'm finding serious lacking in the female department. And it seriously concerns me when girls like 6 years of age want to find a perfect vampire boyfriend, to turn them into immortal vampire beauties.
seriously.
What are the values that this book is espousing? Nevermind that the writing is awful and there is no plotline and character development, THIS IS IT. Bela is willing to KILL HERSELF for a man, ready to reject and outlive her family for a man, all to eager to see her boyfriend than study (not ONCE is an exam mentioned, hell she lives in a shell for six months, not caring about life at all after Edward leaves her. what kind of a concern for her future is that?) all she cares about is Edward, and looking young and beautiful for the rest of her life.
Then, she marries at 18 years old to a guy who is practically her over possessive stalker (he watched her when she slept BEFORE she expressed intrest in him) and has woo hoo and has a baby, which btw the baby is potentially deadly and is not allowed by vampire rules because vampire babies are WRONG AND DANGEROUS but hey, bella says eff the rules my boyfriend is hot. And decides to have the baby, which puts THE WHOLE FAMILY at risk of death.
So to sum up, Bella is a bad role model because:
1. She doesn't care about bettering herself
2. She only cares about being beautiful
3. She doesn't care for her "immortal soul" as stated in the book, because she is willing to do everything for Edward and vampire beauty
4. She gives up everything for a guy. (not that i'm banging on love and all. I'm just saying that you need to have self respect and PERSPECTIVE.)
5. She is selfish and manipulative. (c'mon, jacob vs edward? more like how to hurt two people who love you more than they should and more they deserve.)
6. She's unbelievibly stupid.
Thankfully we do have one heroine of our era that is worth it, with a movie hype almost as brilliant.
Hermione Granger.
:)
GO JK ROWLING. THANK YOU FOR GRACING US WITH A HEROINE WHO IS A PERFECT ROLE MODEL FOR GIRLS OF THE 21ST CENTURY.
Hermoine Granger IS a good role model because:
1. She works hard.
She studies so much, she wasn't called 'the brightest witch in her year' for nothing. Hagrid even said 'there isn't a spell that our hermione can't do.'
2. She is cares about her friends
She tried to be there for Ginny with her boy troubles, told Ron off for interfering, and backed up Harry and Ron whenever they needed homework help.
3. She took care of her family.
She ensured her family stayed safe during the 2nd rising of Voldemort, she was never ashamed of where she comes from (mudblood and proud!) and she listened to her parent's opinions over her own (dental alterations, she could have magically reduced her teeth but she didn't because her father didn't want her too.)
4. She didn't go stupid over love.
When she was going out with Victor Krum, she still supported Harry in the Tri-wizard tournament. When Ron and Harry were having a fight in the deathly hallows, she backed up harry and stayed with him, because he, and the whole wizarding world, needed her, regardless of her feelings towards Ron. She knew what the right thing to do was, and she put her personal matters and feelings aside to do it.
5. She is a social activist.
She sees injustice and fights it. She wanted to instigate the DA, because she knew Umbridge was evil. She even cared about those who no one else noticed, and she fought for them. Even if it was a little misguided. (SPEW)
6. She had her own identity away from Harry and Ron.
JK didn't make Hermione just a side kick, a character to be noted and thrown away, even though she wasn't the main character. She wasn't stupidly love sick and did everything for love. She has her own personality, her own interests, her own character, and she FIGHTS. SHE FIGHTS FOR THE THINGS SHE LOVES.
The only time i can remember her being irrationally silly is that classic line. "I'm going to bed, before someone gets one of us killed. Or worse, expelled." And when Ron and her were having that love tiff, trying to make each other jelly.
But hey, i can forgive her. Twice in 7 books of kick assery.
In short, i hope young girls take Hermione as their role model, as opposed to Bella Swann.
hehe. One of the comments in the article said this.
I agree, when you start talking about the volatility of young people to film characters you sound like an old man shaking his cane angrily at the conversations of schoolchildren on the bus and wondering what the world is coming too with the younger generation and everything.
ReplyDeleteI'd always disliked the massive anti-twilight movement that emerged after its rise to popularity. It felt as if those who opposed the series were critical of it for no reason other than for the sake of being critical. And basically whenever I saw one of these facebook anti-twilight groups all I could think was "guys, there are worse books out there, why do you focus your hate on a single popular series?" and "How many of you have actually read the books?"
But your argument makes sense, because there's a reason to be critical. You can see the impact of the character on the intended audience, and how it could negatively affect them.
On the other hand, I doubt there'll really be much effect. Personally, I'm only influenced by the fictive characters that I consider cool, and you would find it quite difficult to find any amount of people who consider the character of Bella cool (even the hardcore Twilight fanbase prefers Edward). And Edward, despite his shortcomings, does have socially respectable qualities such as self-restraint (like you mentioned).
And in my opinion we shouldn't worry too much about the technology that the younger children have. There are probably lots and lots of older people who did the same as we were, and criticised the things we take and took for granted - television, plastic, a reliable hot water system, and stuff like that.
On a more positive note, I'm confident in our generation's ability to do some crazy stuff. Get ready for change, younger generation!
haha yup, our generation is going to make waves. :) I dunno, I guess I just feel bewildered whenever it comes to technological advancements. I don't even know how to use the television in my lounge room. If I want to watch anything I have to ask my 11 year old brother to help me change from tv to dvd. Which is quite pathetic when I think about it.
DeleteAnd I do see the whole anti twilight for the sake of being anti twilight. But I think is it also important to note that since most of the twilight fans love Edward, naturally they would look at Bella and see what she does to snag the guy.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYESSSSS SO MUCH LOVE FOR YOUR rant on Bella and praise of Hermione. Bella annoys the crap out of me. For all those reasons you mentioned, but also because (sorry I'm hugely biased) Kristen Stewart just made the character even more annoying somehow idk. haha
ReplyDelete