2/25/2023 0 Comments Racial ambiguity vampire diarieAnd I could forgive it when I was a pre-blackness, pre-Butler fledgling but it is too obvious for me to ignore now.*Īnd yes, this IS the decisive unfeminist element. In Fells Church, Virginia? Meredith is ambiguously “olive” but otherwise the absence is obvious. ![]() Most important, there are zero people of any color. ![]() And Elena’s immense focus on getting a man (Stefan), keeping a man, or spending time only with her man played closer to a Bella-and-Edward pattern of intimate relations than I like to admit. Those who do not fit this image are pointed out for some reason: Bonnie has short curls but she recently cut her hair Meredith is olive skinned but “elegant” and “exotic ” Caroline’s curves and sensuality seem to foreshadow the betrayal and scheming she will eventually be at the center of. Their “beauty” in the books is premised on typical genre tropes–long, flowing hair, slender bodies, white, translucent skin, etc. Elena, Meredith, Bonnie, and Caroline are fashionable, beautiful, and just domineering enough to get the guy but not scare him off (of course, they each need rescuing at some point). Much ado is made about the way clothes and clothing mold to the bodies and personalities of our young protagonists.īut the main female characters are Magical White Women and there is nothing feminist about that. If fashionable is a feminist trait for you, then this book is also “feminist” in that regard. Consensual and non-consensual sexual interactions of the fanged and unfanged variety run through the series, as they should in any YA novel, and the “bad guys” (Tyler and Damon) play their role by getting all rapey and forcing intimate interactions. And Smith’s Vampire Diaries are “feminist” in the sense that the main character is female, aggressive ( especially in pursuit of her main man, Stefan), sexual (if “sinking fangs into” isn’t a metaphor for penetration, I don’t know what is) is a leader in her community and that her leadership comes from a strong work ethic, ability to organize on the ground and the way she commands attention. I spent the weekend re-reading Smith’s series.* It reads just as well as it did when I was a young adult. I was stupid, ignorant and wrong all at once. I was convinced the casting was all wrong and a little pissed the disgusting success of Meyer’s Twilight was the only reason anyone even seemed interested in L. And when the CW series started, I was determined not to watch because it couldn’t possibly be as amazing as the books were. I cut my tween Sable Fan Gyrl teeth on the original Vampire Diaries trilogy (plus one post mortem) by L. I spent a good chunk of my Thanksgiving break falling into the CW’s Vampire Diaries (thank you In the process I turned Little Sis, T the Great and Nuñez Mom into fangirls and addicts. ![]() Bonnie (Kat Graham) and Emily (Bianca Lawson) in CW's Vampire Diaries
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