‘With great power come great
responsibility…’ how many times have we heard that in as many contexts? Truisms tend to do that, get repeated in
various settings. And here’s the thing:
they’re always true. And this case is
no different. Stephanie Meyer has been
“given” great power in terms of worldly influence because of her
pseudo-celebrity status. People (women,
mostly) sit up and take notice to what she says, what she writes and what she
represents. The problem is that she has
come to represent the LDS church because she is a member of that church. So for the millions of women world-wide (who
know the name Stephanie Meyer, acknowledging that there is a large portion of
them who don’t) who are also members of that church we take very personally
what she produces. I am one of these
women. Her writing, her movies, anything
with her name tied to it will be a representation to the world of what I
believe, of what millions of women world-wide believe. We want to be women of God. We want to stand for honesty, integrity,
morality, family togetherness, and love.
So it
was with great chagrin that I have watched her legacy play out in the
media. Her books were generally either
loved or hated. People have different
tastes so there is allowance for that. In
fact, although I haven’t always appreciated everything about her books I could
always say one thing: they stayed true to what we believe. The characters represented virtues similar to
my own and I never found anything incongruous with the LDS beliefs. Until the movies started. ‘Twilight’ the book was a delightful, quick
read full of (albeit admittedly strange) romance that—and here’s the kicker—was
CLEAN. Morally clean, I mean. I loved Edward’s “old fashioned” ideas of
abstinence. There was nothing gratuitous
or graphic. So I admit to being
disheartened when watching Kristin Stewart in the movie making out with Robert
Pattinson on her bed in her underwear.
Really? Come on, that’s not what
we stand for. I grimaced for Young Women
of our faith (and others) all over the world.
Disregarding
all that happened in the intervening years I’ll skip to the latest movie,
‘Breaking Dawn.’ While reading
Stephanie’s books I admit to being continually pleased at the cleanliness of
the writing, the themes, I felt there was even an almost subconscious influence
to teach young girls to be morally clean, to save their bodies, not get
involved in sexual activity. And in the
book ‘Breaking Dawn’ the main characters are married before they have sex. Totally in line with my beliefs. However, the thing I loved most about those
scenes – that they were clean – was totally wiped out with the production of
the movie. In the book I loved that
Stephanie glossed over the intimate moments between husband and wife, leaving
room for the individual imagination to take over, and only returning to the
marital bed the next morning. Nothing
gratuitous, nothing graphic. Perfect. And how dismayed and disappointed I was to
see that Stephanie Meyer, as PRODUCER, no less, allowed that basic virtue,
moral cleanliness, to be taken over by Hollywood and reduced to a graphic,
gratuitous, uncomfortable sex scene. Why
was it so uncomfortable? Because I’m a
Mormon, just like Stephanie Meyer, and she has basically just declared that I
think that was ok – desirable, in fact.
But she is wrong. I don’t think
sex scenes in movies are ok. I think the
public sphere is not the place for panting and moaning and naked bodies. I would be mortified if I had a teenage girl
who wanted to see that movie. I am
almost more horrified that a fellow Mormon would have the audacity to produce
that scene in a movie. Even as I write
this I am filled with anger.
Disappointment. Humiliation. Resentment.
(Strange words for a Christian to use, perhaps I should calm down for a
minute…)
Sadness. That is what I am left with. Great sadness that in seeing (many, many,
many) dollar signs, Sister Meyer has sold out.
She sold herself out for millions of dollars, and in doing so sold out
the rest of us as well. Congratulations,
you just found the price of your integrity.
So I
want to make it perfectly clear, I do not condone what was in that movie. Any woman who professes moral cleanliness
would not be happy with that movie.
(Yeah, you know that uncomfortable feeling you got watching that
scene? You know what voice that was and
shame on us for ignoring it.) Now I am
far from perfect, there are probably a handful of people that could rightfully
cast stones at me and the difficult thing for Stephanie Meyer is that there are
millions more that know her name and could cast stones if they wanted. But I will still not sit idly by and have someone
in the spotlight, someone who has let LDS women down, dictate to the rest of
the world what I believe. In all
probability I will never have that kind of spotlight but it doesn’t mean I
can’t have a voice.
