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Wicked Women in Twilight

The predominance of female antagonists also perpetuates misogynist, rather than feminist ideals. While male villains like Aro, James, and Riley exist in Twilight, the terror induced by Jane and Victoria not only drive the plot of the series, but also overshadow their male counterparts in cunning duplicity.

Manipulating Men through Sex

Twilight reinforces puritanical notions of sex as illustrated by females villains like Victoria and Maria who use their beauty and sex to lure Riley and Jasper, respectively, to do their evil bidding. In Eclipse, Jasper recalls being mesmerized and “speechless” over Maria, Nettie, and Lucy’s beauty, just before Maria turns him into a vampire to create a superior army (Eclipse, 294-295). Just as Maria encouraged a false sense of romance with Jasper to motivate him into leading her newly converted vampires (called "newborns"), Victoria also lied about loving Riley because he was “no more than a tool” to avenge James’ death (Eclipse, 543).  Using their sex as power, Victoria and Maria exemplify the femme fatale archetype and consequently subvert the acceptance of sexual empowerment in women.

                   Wicked women of Twilight, Maria, Victoria, and Jane. (Images: Summit Entertainment)

Cruel Women

In addition to being sexually evil, the women villains are cruel. The villain Jane’s gift of inflicting pain into victims enables her to torture others, which she sadistically enjoys. She is also merciless, particularly to Bree. She orders the vampire Felix to kill the newborn despite the Cullens’ willingness to adopt her (Eclipse, 577-578). Victoria also lacks compassion, even toward someone she claimed to love: “her eyes did not flicker once toward her partner,” when Seth ripped Riley to shreds (Eclipse, 552). Calculating and cold-hearted, the women villains of Twilight provide an extreme counterpart to their prescribed submissive and chaste protagonists.

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