Monday, April 13, 2009

Breaking the Spell of Breaking Dawn

I have a bone to pick with Twilight fans as I believe the series (by Stephanie Meyer if you have been living under a rock and have no clue what I am talking about) presents a pretty destructive message to young adults. Well, Christine Seifert over at B*tch Magazine wrote an excellent article examining the blind romanticism and uber-religious undertones of Edward and Bella's fairytale. This is a refreshing perspective in the midst of an alarming trend.

2 comments:

  1. This is good. I read the first book (and later all the rest of them) and realized something important. I have a friend who has an 18 year old daughter who, at 17, was dating a 21 year old boy. She would write all these awful "I love you" blogs on her myspace about him. She was making really terrible life decisions concerning her relationship with him (not sleeping with him at the time I was reading the book, but other terrible decisions - failing classes and what not). So as I was reading the book, I realized that Sarah (my friend's daughter) was the same as Bella - only in real life. I loved the book because I love fairytale love stories - I'm a gigantic romantic. But when I thought about teenagers reading it, I realized it's not good. You are right. It puts a message out there that could be really destructive. I think it's different from Disney princess movies because it's aimed at the older teenagers who are looking for the perfect boy/man. They are blinded by "love" from everything that might not be good about him. The Disney princesses are aimed at 3-7 year olds who still think boys are yucky.

    So okay. Maybe I should start my own blog. It seems that my comment is longer than your blog. Sorry. :-)

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  2. No apologies, that is excellent feedback! I too am a romantic so its a shame young-adult novels so often perpetuate the misleading "bad boy can change and become good" image. Certainly this can happen but it takes a lot of work on the part of the boy and I don't think it is something that a teenager 16-18 years old should count on. Love blinds everyone in the beginning but reality eventually kicks in.

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