Vampires Are The New Fashion Models

Nearly any sort of exposure to current popular culture would lead you to the recent Twilight/vampire craze. Targeted toward preteens/teens, Stephenie Meyer created a book series that has manifest itself into a myriad of media and propaganda (films, T-shirts, fan pages, action figures, etc.). For those unfamiliar with the series (in my own short summary) it is a story about Bella, a plain-looking awkward girl who moves in with her cop father in his small hometown of Forks, meets and falls in love with Edward, a forever 17-year-old vampire who lives with his adopted vampire family and their continuous adventures of love and near-death (for Bella) experiences. For a more detailed (and perhaps less apathetic) summary of the series you can read up on the series at Wikipedia.

Having read all four novels and viewed all three films, something I have picked up to be crucial to Meyer's story is the unmistakable perfection of a vampire. Perfection of beauty. Perfection of movement. Perfection of sound, scent (except from the werewolf perspective) and skills. Perfection that everyone wants to be: the ideal. To be fair, the majority of the four novels are read through Bella's perspective who could have a skewed view of vampires if you believe the whole "love is blind" cliche. However, I would argue that is not the case considering the many examples including the still idealistic dialogue from other characters, humans and vampires alike. Before Bella has ever met a vampire she recognizes the Cullen's (Edward's vampire family) perfect beauty. Further more, even if Bella were the only one to see the vampire perfection her perspective becomes the audience perspective. We view the vampires as she does, which can be none other than the most perfect form of beauty. Through this idealistic perspective our society learns much about the often impossible body they are supposed to achieve (Bordo). A structure of looking is created and particular bodies viewed as natural is reinforced (Robertson, July 12, 2010).

First, we need to look at a few characteristics of a vampire (according to the Twilight series and movies only). What I would consider most critical to this discussion is the vampire's pale skin. Using whiteness or pale skin for the ideal form of beauty contributes to a racialized gaze already present in our culture. Most frequently in film the only representations of people of color are either not to be idealized or a white-washed version of themselves (examples: light skin, straightened/dyed hair, etc.). This representation presents a new way to idealize whiteness and to create invisibility around it as a race. Because there is no reason vampires should be race specific, the fact that they are all presented as "beautifully pale skinned" says something about the unmarked identity of the white person (Robertson, June 23, 2010). Separate from the books descriptions of vampires, the movies cast one black actor to play a role of a vampire, but of course he is a villainous vampire who is killed off in New Moon, the second in the series. Discourse around the vampires skin includes its likeness to diamonds (high in value) and greek Gods (which in itself is idealistic of whiteness).

But cultural norms represented in Twilight do not stop with race. Twilight produces knowledge about gender roles and sexuality as well. Meyer uses the immortality (another example of their perfection outside of Bella's perspective) of vampires to reinforce conservative views of gender and sexuality. Each vampire has a mate in which they are nothing far from desolate without. These relationships are permanent and always heterosexual. Edward's "traditional" 1800s born character requires marriage before sex and in discussing the topic with Bella basically says he won't do anything else to "damn her soul" (which clearly sex outside of marriage is deserving of damnation). Because the majority of the vampires introduced in this series were born "long ago," that gives them the ability to stand true to their paternalistic views, which no matter their age are being reinforced present day. Bella's clumsy and awkward personality and her male counter-parts' strength and immortality in Edward's case and quick healing in Jacob's is an example of how the "weak" female/"strong" male dichotomy is naturalized. Although male and female vampires are equally strong, these characters stayed true to gender norms: Carlisle, the head of the household father; Esme, the sweet nurturing mother; Rosalie, the gorgeous high-maintenance girl (whose only desire is to be a mother and wife); Emmett, the strong, adrenaline-junky, sports loving, sexual jokes making guy; Alice, the dainty, sweet, shopping lover; Jasper, the charismatic leader; and of course Edward, the classic male saver-of-the-day romantic hero.

Another quality of a vampire considered ideal is their size. The only mention of "big" is never in reference to fat, but rather to bulk or muscle and the only thing plump about these characters is perhaps Rosalie's lips. Descriptions include "thin in the extreme" and "lanky" (but lanky obviously just meant skinny because the same character had "fabric [that] clung to his perfectly muscled chest"). The thin bodies cast in the movies are no contradiction to the importance of keeping fat taboo. There is an important focus on the vampires diets not including real food, but rather blood and their constant struggle to not eat what they want. Edward often chooses to go hungry and stay with Bella instead of going to hunt (choosing love over food is something that is quite relevant in such a fat hating society). Although seemingly quite positive that the Cullen's choose not to indulge their ultimate desire, human blood, it speaks to discourses about fatness and simply "resisting" the food you really desire in order to gain things like love and status.

The Cullens, besides their perfect features, have the "perfect wallet." It seems so strange to me with all the inhuman characteristics of vampires, they did not lose the "need" to be a consumer. Although in some ways their money is representative of years of hard work, their insistence for nothing less than the best is problematic. Their things, even more than their beauty, are representative of their power and status. The Cullens have nice things, fancy cars, gorgeous only-worn-once outfits, and an incredibly large house all of which is looked upon as necessary to reach perfection. They are even more beautiful because they have the accessories to match their bodies; money is the finishing touch that makes them all the more untouchable.

We can also see the effect of Bella's internalized gaze. Constantly living next to the ideal beauty of a vampire is in some ways a parallel to people living next to the media's projected images of beauty, yet nothing is mentioned of the negative effects of Bella's poor self-image and constant desire to become a vampire and stop being her awkward self. No matter how the others see her, Bella is self-conscious of her body and movement in comparison. On more than one occasion vampire's bodies are compared to something you would only see "on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine" and the figure you would see "on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue."

If we are to look at all bodies as Twilight looks at vampires our gaze is quite narrow. It is no surprise that the jump from magazines to vampires is so simple. If inhuman qualities are perfection then we will never be able to live up to them. If you don't eat, sleep, breathe, or age....you could be perfect too.

Bibliography

Bordo, Susan. (1997). "Never Just Pictures." Twilight zones: The hidden life of cultural images from Plato to O.J. University of California Press.

Robertson, Lindsey. "Privilege." June 23, 2010.

Robertson, Lindsey. "The Body and The Gendered Gaze." July 12, 2010.