To be clear, Stephenie Meyer DID appropriate and rewrite the culture of an EXISTING Native American tribe and romanticized the physical abuse of a Native woman in her book and her portrayal of Native characters (especially as a Mormon white woman) is cause for criticism.
I agree that there is a lot of internalized misogyny and sexism at play with how vehemently everybody attacked Twilight while nobody criticizes the sexism and racism prevalent in Game of Thrones, but as a Native woman who has experience with domestic violence...
it is very disheartening to see that any time criticism of Twilight comes to light, whether it's talking about domestic violence and abusive relationships or the sexism that sparked the contempt for the author and the franchise, the Native characters are rarely brought up...
and the Native woman whose face is literally torn to shreds by her fiance for rejecting his advances is NEVER mentioned, analyzed, or acknowledged.
I get that this isn't necessarily what Lindsey Ellis is talking about in her video but from a Native perspective, what Stephenie Meyer did when she rewrote an entire history and culture and then romanticized an abused, disfigured Native woman is incredibly racist.
And it hurts when people who criticize Twilight for it's misogyny, sexism, and elements of abuse never mention how Emily Young was nearly killed by a man who is her "soul mate" and the narrative shifts around how bad her disfigured face was FOR HIM.
And when you consider that Native women (as well as other women of color) often have to choose between their womanhood and their culture/race when it comes to domestic violence within their community, this is all the more insidious.
So while it's important to talk about how society's contempt for young girls looking for escapism and fantasy is definitely a problem and a double standard, the contempt I felt along with other Native women was pretty valid.
Native men are literally reduced to animals who cannot control themselves, who prey on children, who attack women, who lash out in jealousy, and it's romanticized by a Mormon white woman who made money off of racist and sexist tropes.
This isn't an attack on Lindsay Ellis or The Mary Sue and I hope this doesn't come out that way. But I couldn't stay quiet about this after watching the video. She makes several valid points that I agree with but I don't think I'd ever bring myself to apologize to Meyer for this.
When we analyze Twilight and the impact it had, especially on a younger audience, Native characters played a crucial part in the story and the way they are portrayed is something that I don't think should be overlooked. And it's sad that it usually always is.
When you talk about teenaged girls being the target audience, Native teenaged girls are part of that audience. And their experience is most likely going to be vastly different from the white Twilight Moms and their daughters.
