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Jessica Jones offers a conscious metacommentary on this. You can see Killgrave constantly attempt this re-centering — the ‘what about me and my pain’ — only to have Jessica systematically shoot these attempts down.
Yes yes yes.
The problem comes in that Twilight’s readership have likely never been in a romantic relationship themselves and therefore their perception of what a relationship should be like is influenced by the media they consume such as books, television, films and magazines, not to mention real life situations eg a child growing up in a family whose parents have a healthy and loving marriage/relationship are likely to hold that as the standard on what a good relationship should be like.
I wouldn’t blanket Twilght’s readership as such. Ever hear of Twilight Moms? They are rabid. I read it and I’ve had romantic relationships. My mom read it and she has had romantic relationships. Same with my friends and a good % of the readership. And I can tell you first hand that until I really began to think about it, I thought Twilight WAS a love story. I was blinded by it, just like everyone else. It’s only cultural perception that thinks Twilight fandom is *only* or mostly young inexperienced girls who “don’t know better.” But that’s far from the truth. It’s not a matter of experience. It’s a matter of the systemic and continuous perpetuation that when it comes to romance, women should expect X where X = being made into objects of male desire and that they should accept several questionable practices like stalking, abuse (emotional and physical).
As for this “blank slate” approach being brilliant…well. I guess, but it’s literally how all YA supernatural sagas are written (and I’ve read probably 85% of them…) where the girl is almost a blank slate for reader insertion and the “hero” is a deeply troubled antihero with a lot of manpain who treats the girl somewhat roughly but how it’s deeply romantic.
Most shows that depict a woman in an abusive relationship would do their best to show why she should get out the relationship and how she can do that.
Mmm. I disagree with “most.” There’s a reason why rape culture is *such* a big topic in criticism right now and it’s not because most TV shows are combating it. It’s because they keep perpetuating it, some to huge extents (ONCE) and some to lesser ones.