This week I’m at the Slayage Conference and like any conference you have great conversations, experience chance encounters, and learn surprising tidbits. Yesterday I was reminded how much Whedonites dislike…yeah…that’s a polite word for it…the Twilight series and pretty much everything about it. In fact, one of the attendees was wearing a T-shirt saying “And then Buffy staked Edward. The End”.
Surprising tidbit of the day was when it was pointed out that Bella and Edward met all 15 criteria for an abusive relationship as defined by the National Domestic Violence Hotline:
- Telling you that you can never do anything right
- Showing jealousy of your friends and time spent away
- Keeping you or discouraging you from seeing friends or family members
- Embarrassing or shaming you with put-downs
- Controlling every penny spent in the household
- Taking your money or refusing to give you money for expenses
- Looking at you or acting in ways that scare you
- Controlling who you see, where you go, or what you do
- Preventing you from making your own decisions
- Telling you that you are a bad parent or threatening to harm or take away your children
- Preventing you from working or attending school
- Destroying your property or threatening to hurt or kill your pets
- Intimidating you with guns, knives or other weapons
- Pressuring you to have sex when you don’t want to or do things sexually you’re not comfortable with
- Pressuring you to use drugs or alcohol
So now you know. Don’t read abusive fiction and don’t get yourself into a situation where a vampire can abuse you. And if you have to walk alone in the dark, carry Mr. Pointy.