Urge to smite things . . . rising.
Newageamazon likes to send me SMeyer quotes because I tend to respond angrily. So she sent me this one:
Meyer: I think she?s more of a typical teen than people give her credit for. She?s a little more withdrawn, she?s quieter. But there are so many girls out there that don?t know kung fu. And if a guy jumps out of any alley they?re not going to go at him with a roundhouse kick. When I was in high school I read, that was my main entertainment. There are a lot of people who are quieter, who aren?t having the Prada lifestyle or going to a special school in New York where everyone?s rich and fabulous. You know, there are normal people out there and I think that?s one of the reasons Bella?s become so popular.
I'd ask if she could've been any less subtle with the Buffy-dissing, but as poor Mark already knows, Meyer probably considers this the height of sparkly ninja-like subtlety.
But here's the awful thing. On one hand, she's right. I've helped teach some self-defense classes before, and have had the joy honor horror of trying to instruct girls who think it's un-girly and thus inappropriate/beneath them to be physically capable of self-defense. I've spent hours trying to drill into them that yes, if you want to defend yourself there's gonna be times where you've got to fucking hit something.
I don't know kung fu. I wouldn't roundhouse kick someone who hopped out of an alley at me--and I certainly wouldn't do it with all the giggling and clumsy haltingness of these girls at the Bella's Self Defense seminar @ Twicon, where girls could "learn to fight off evil vampires." No, I didn't make that shit up. Scroll down; it's on the right-hand side. There's so many things wrong with that sentence that I can't fully process it--I'll prefer to stick with SMeyer's "NORMAL girls don't defend themselves or hit people!"
Because initially, it looks like she's saying I fit in with normal. No kung fu, no roundhouse kicks . . . But kung fu wasn't what I trained in, and I generally don't throw roundhouse kicks because they're my weakest kick. I've got far more faith in my right cross.
But then again, my self-awareness extends beyond Bella's "Ppl are looking at me! Everyone's looking at me! Everyone's watching me, omg!" and I know from experience that a sparkly stalker isn't gonna pop out of the shadows and save my ass should I walk down the wrong street at the wrong time of night. Meyer states that the popularity of her series is its appeal to "normal" girls & women--ones who don't think or act like me. Probably ones who don't know how to hit something; potentially ones who would need saved due to their own incompetence, or because they were giggling and talking when I was trying to teach them how to defend themselves.
I'd wish enlightenment on them, but this particular kind of enlightenment is usually perpetuated by an extremely unpleasant wakeup call. Higher Power help 'em if and when that rolls around. Because yeah, any number of people are incompetent, whether it be because they're bound by defunct gender roles, because they can't look beyond what they immediately know in terms of personal safety, or because they just haven't found reason to care--but that doesn't mean they should revel in it. Nor should they talk shit about those of us who aren't happy being Shrieking Victim A or Damsel in Distress B. Those of us grounded in the real world--not in fairy tales and shitty romance novels--know how well playing those roles usually turns out.
Is it wrong how part of me was really insulted by the giggling at the fact that they were asked to kiap? Maybe that's because I associate that sort of thing with a large Korean man who could break you in half if he really wanted to, but mostly he just wants to drink sake and tell you stories about chickens having sex. And wow, that sounds like something out of a weird anime.
And I might be completely serious.
I mean, I'm not one of those people who are ridiculously into feminism, but no one (not even Stephanie Meyer) can tell me that I'm not normal because I could beat a guy senseless.
Just a knee to the groin and fist to the face, and gtfo.
Just SING!
Solar Plexus, Instep, Nose, Groin!
Yeah, I learned that from Miss Congeniality
WAKE UP SMEYER, girls can fight for themselves. We're not all helpless, mindless bimbos.
I've had guys who tried to touch me back off just because I stepped immediately back into a fighting stance.
And the thing is, the norm SHOULD be a girl who has some background in how to protect herself physically. The norm SHOULDN'T be that women are left with the impression that we are too weak to do anything to save ourselves, that we are helpless and should just remain homebound in order to be safe. The norm should be that, at some point as you're growing up, someone tells you "Hopefully you never have to use this, but here's how you get someone to stop from hurting you. And there's no shame in knowing this."
Normal girls would groin kick in an instant when they were in danger. If Bella finds it hard to simply lift her knee and aim for the package, then this series needs to be destroyed in a fire. And usually? I'm against burning any form of media.
Get a clue.
Srsly.
Is it strange that, for this type, there's embarrassment to be found in making angry sounds, but no shame at all in shrieking for help or relying entirely on someone else for safety, financial security, emotional well-being, so on?
I find it hard to believe that they were naturally that physically incapable.
(In the slap-a-bag case, it was the move where you slam your cupped hand over the person's ear--at very least hurting them, at most blowing out their eardrum. It's a happy sort of thing.)
URGH.
Sorry for the rant.