So i just had a thought while rereading twilight, but it seems kinda weird that Bella’s mom is positioned as a neglectful mother, and all round a flaky person, and she’s a single mom+left a man. I feel like there’s another layer of mormonism+misogyny there, but maybe I’m just reading into it?
It just seemed before MS that renee was probably neurodivergent, especially because she keeps hopping from hobby to hobby and has rlly bad memory. I related a lot to renee, and i have ADHD. But the negative parts of renees character didn’t even come out until MS, and i feel like if smeyer wanted to stab single mothers she wouldve just done it in the original series? But there is just smth rlly weird about it
Idk~~~~~ need another opinion
@fuckmeyer pls help; i trust ur brain more than mine.
no, i agree w/ u! imo there are a few reasons why renée’s character shifts in midnight sun (MS):
1) @fckyeahitslauren knows what’s up: renée was originally positioned as “harmless harebrained mom who’s close w/ her daughter.” smeyer re-calibrates renée in MS to respond to critics & fans who picked up on renée’s awful parenting
2) MS is in edward’s pov who, besides being a pessimistic prick in general, gets a negative first impression of renée thru bella
3) bella actually has a warped view of her mom bc renée’s brain is weird (this also serves as an in-world explanation for bella’s vamp gift):
No one seemed to notice the ringing mental broadcast, yet everyone was compelled to help her [Renée]. Somehow, they were picking up on her need, and unable to ignore it. […]
This gave new dimension to what Bella’s life with her mother must have been. No wonder she had been so protective, so nurturing. No wonder she’d given up her childhood to take care of this woman. (MS, 712-714) [ugh smeyer just beat ur readers over the head w/ a stick next time u wanna make a point that loudly]
you def are catching some misogyny & i agree there’s sth there. in some ways renée is a stereotype of the single mom: irresponsible, careless, selfish, etc. but like many women in the series, bella & renée’s stories mirror each other imo for another reason:
“I’m not that girl, Edward. The one who gets married right out of high school like some small-town hick who got knocked up by her boyfriend! Do you know what people would think? Do you realize what century this is? People don’t just get married at eighteen! Not smart people, not responsible, mature people! I wasn’t going to be that girl! That’s not who I am… .” (eclipse, 159)
they have similar stories, but bella’s is the “good” story: a young virgin binds herself eternally to one soul thru a kept promise to god; marriage (aka immortality) & parenthood frees her. renée’s is the “bad” story: young girl gets swept off her feet & rushes into marriage, parenthood/marriage makes her feel trapped (instead of free), so she divorces & raises bella w/o a father present. renée’s story serves as a warning to bella. it creates tension for bella & edward. but renée’s life is cast in a negative light also in part to make bella’s situation look better.
smeyer does this a lot w/ bella & other women. bella, who represents the “good” example of xyz, is compared to “bad” examples: renée, leah, rosalie, etc. (each is different in their own respect)
i think you’re right. there’s misogyny happening on a micro scale that we see in renée’s character. imo renée’s characterization also illustrates on a macro level how some female characters are pitted against bella in order to justify bella as good (& therefore deserving of edward)
tl;dr imo renee’s character warped for several reasons in MS. but i believe the misogyny you’re seeing also plays into the broader fact that smeyer tends to cast other female characters in a negative light to make bella seem better than she is
Just to add re. The ADHD thing! Both me and my mum have ADHD and I do see a lot of us in Renee. As I grew up in with my mum, like Renee, hopping from job to job with a bunch of hobbies and side projects. But the way Smeyer went wrong is suggesting that someone who doesn’t follow a traditional career path and is more adventurous couldn’t also be a responsible care giver. Like I couldn’t imagine my mum leaving me alone for weekends while she went away or making me do the taxes for her like Smeyer has Renee do to Bella. Like that is very much abuse and smeyers suggestion that it stems from renees implied neurodivergency is kind of distressing. Of course this is all implications and not in the text, so it could all be me reading too much but also… It IS Smeyer. That being said it is very likely she is totally unaware of the implications and just thinks that any single mother would be like Renee… so hmmmm to that
a couple things to consider:
as someone with ADHD, depression, and anxiety, to say a neurodivergent person can’t be abusive is, in the kindest terms, disingenuous
renee is not the only single mother in the series (esme and tiffany call were both single mothers and are written as good parents)
renee was ALWAYS written as neglectful of bella. she never FORCED bella to pay the bills, do the laundry, cook their meals – she just FORGOT, and bella, being the ~*saintly*~ protagonist she is, picked up the slack without complaint.
it should also be noted that bella still loves renee and still considers her a good parent. she acknowledges that, while renee wasn’t much of a provider, she tried her best to support bella emotionally. she memorialized her in renesmee’s terrible name.
my opinion is that renee is smeyer’s attempt at a nuanced female character – an incompetent but loving parent – as well as an explanation for why bella is such a ~*mature*~ old soul type.
mfw i look back on discourse from the height of the Twilight Renaissance
besties it is 2024 & we are LANGUISHING without critical analysis
Girl dont even worry i stg ill make a video essay one day
