27
2009
I couldn’t have written it better myself. Please read this brilliant piece on the series that is Twilight.
If your daughters are reading these books and watching these movies, make sure to take the time to (1) read them first yourself so that you understand how ‘relationships’ are being packaged for these young women; and, (2) have the decency (stemming from your obligation and duty as a parent, you useless moron) to sit down and teach your daughters that the Twilight brand of ‘romance’ and ‘love’ are in fact abusive relationships in which the young female protagonist cedes control, isolates herself from her family and friends, is obsessive // dealing with a stalking-obsessive other, and is expected to give up everything (while he: nothing).
Remember to also mention the RAPE and the aspects of PEDOPHILIA prevalent within.
(Mamas, pay attention: After having sex for the first time, the female character wakes up bruised and battered and incapable of remembering the night or the sex. This is not healthy sexual intercourse (and if it is for you, then you need help), but rather it is what one might call date rape via roofies.)
I hate these books. I hate that our daughters are being taught this is proper love. I don’t care that you, of sophisticated and thinking adult mind, are capable of deciphering and peeling the layers of grotesque that make up the Twilight series. It’s the young women. The Twi-Hards, the 10 – 20 somethings (yeah, you’re still a child at 20. Deal with it.) who are reading these books and romanticising the insidious messages within.
For those of you with young boys who are reading these books and watching these movies, then you too have a moral obligation to teach them that this brand of love and romance is unacceptable. That if they behave in this manner, they are (simply put): abusive and dangerous di*ks.
God, I hate Twilight.
(P.S. Since posting this bit, I decided to skim the entire series, so as to ensure I wasn’t talking out of my ass & out of line about something I hadn’t completely investigated. I stand by my initial visceral and violent reaction.)
13 Comments until now
On November 21st, 2009
one female canuck Said:
10 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said…
Pretty good article. Interestingly, if you check out the comments of tween/teen girls a lot of them don’t seem to think that there’s a problem with the message of the film. In fact some think that Edward represents everything they want in a guy – the charismatic superman. A lot of them just want us to stop taking it so seriously and enjoy the film. There are even some mothers that don’t think that their daughter’s are influenced by gender imagery in books!
We’re in trouble.
S
Fri Mar 27, 03:58:00 PM
**********
Anonymous lily said…
It’s brutal that people don’t think we no longer have to deal with gender issues. I guess everything was solved by the feminist revolution. -lily
Mon Mar 30, 04:26:00 PM
**********
Anonymous Maria Calvo said…
The comments are crazier than the book it looks like!!
Thanks for the link and I hope you found a way to unwind after this >>>>> it looks like you did in your post in rainy Toronto! Avoid all things Twilight, Maha 
Hugs,
Maria
Tue Mar 31, 02:45:00 PM
**********
Anonymous Anonymous said…
I vehemently agree with you on this one. Good call!
Fri Apr 10, 10:22:00 PM
**********
Anonymous Ian McLeod said…
Thank you for writing this. I was preparing a rant about the very topic, only from a male perspective.
Good guys, like me, have to compete with the image of Edward Cullen, and it’s one of those things where a sane person would think there’s no competition: a strong, charismatic, good, successful, and attractive man of conviction, versus an abusive, sly pretty-boy.
We live in a psychotic society; Twilight isn’t so much an influence on the zeitgeist as it is the accursed product thereof.
You’ve won a new reader.
Tue Apr 14, 06:58:00 PM
**********
Blogger Clay said…
The worst part is that most of the biggest fans are unwilling to hear anything on the matter other than what they think (which is normally mostly fluff anyway).
Tue Apr 14, 08:49:00 PM
**********
Blogger one female canuck said…
Thank you to both Anons.
Ian – welcome. New readers are ALWAYS welcome. Checked your space and the site you write for (American NonFiction). Pretty interesting stuff on there. I’ve bookmarked and shall return for more.
And seriously dude – Rant away and I will link to your piece! Would love to read a more comprehensive (normal) male perspective, please.
Hi again Clay – love love love that you comment…usually folks are so shy
Have you heard about the Twi-People who have started to physically and violently attack non Twi-People? Craziness all across the board.
I hope everyone’s having a good week.
xxoo
Wed Apr 15, 10:15:00 PM
**********
Blogger Clay said…
No, I hadn’t. It sounds like it’s getting out of hand…
Wed Apr 15, 11:29:00 PM
**********
Anonymous Ian McLeod said…
Thank you for checking out my work. I’ll let you know as soon as I have my rant complete. I’m savoring this one. 
Fri Apr 17, 11:59:00 PM
**********
Anonymous Anonymous said…
I’m so sad for my generation. There was a discussion between a group of people on the matter of whether Bella was raped or not. A twitard replied that even though she was unconscious she has basically forced it upon Edward to begin with and given consent, so it couldn’t possible be considered rape. My reply was “.. uhh you’re an idiot and know nothing about the law, because if you did you would understand that as soon as a person loses consciousness their consent is automatically withdrawn”.
Sat Nov 21, 07:59:00 AM
On March 27th, 2010
Brook Said:
Also if anyone had read the series they also would have known that Bella does in fact remember the night before. She states she remembers wanting him to hold her tighter and being happy when he did. She did not lose consciousness. The story also shows what true love is actually about, giving up what you have for that other person. Edward doesn’t give her anything because it makes her unhappy to be given gifts. That’s what true love is about. Making the other person happy.
On May 22nd, 2010
X35 Said:
I was a bit taken aback by the tone of voice used here. I myself hate twilight and my children have no interest in reading it and none of us have seen the movies. Even so someone mentioned it how it was worse than that and so I ran across this blog and found it insulting.
It was uncalled for, calling the audience/readers ‘morons’. You insult people who you don’t even know and then try and offer advice? There were a lot of good points you made, you made so many great points but so many of those points for me got lost in the insults you were spewing at the ‘parents’, assuming that they couldn’t see what was there, etc.
On May 23rd, 2010
Maria Calvo Said:
I have to say I think this is a pretty funny entry unless you’re one of the dolts who actually likes the series or a mother who doesn’t discuss this with her kids or worse a parent who doesn’t even bother reading this herself. Maybe you’re just not used to the tone of writing on here – check out the other stuff and you’ll understand her tone is pretty amazing and hilarious. She can defend herself, but I have been an avid reader of her blog for *years* because her writing is hilarious, spot on, and sometimes when necessary insulting to those who deserve it.
Maha where are all of my original comments?? There was a whole discussion on here, where did it go? I keep emailing this article to friends every time a discussion comes up about Twilight, and I have been meaning to ask you about all of the comments because there are so many that are missing!!!! On ALL posts, dude, where did they go???????
Love you.
Hugs,
Maria
On May 23rd, 2010
One Female Canuck Said:
Hey Arachnid – thank you for your comment. My apologies that you found the tone somewhat aggressive and sometimes insulting. It was indeed meant precisely as such – but to a very very particular group of individuals.
However, I am pleased that some of the points resonated with you, still. Cheers.
MARIA – I posted your comment for you. I don’t know why you’re having trouble posting comments. I’ve also linked it to your email so you know when people respond.
Keep emailing me your comments and I will post them so long as the problem persists. I’ll get to the rest of your email as soon as I can, and more privately.
Re the other comments – I am so so so sorry about all of the comments gone missing. When I moved my blog over, there was only the day of the move minus 6 months’ worth of comments that were transferred. We’re still trying to figure out how to transfer all of the other hundreds of comments 
BOO.
Love you and happy to see you back here…xoxoxoxo
xox
m
On July 5th, 2010
Claire Said:
What has the world come to that people will actually believe that twi-love is acceptable???
On August 3rd, 2010
Caro Said:
Hey girl!
I couldn’t agree more with you!
At the mo, I’m writing my thesis on Twilight (yes, I have read the books and I absolutely HATE THEIR GUTS – if books have guts!?) from a feminist perspective.
To quote a brilliant song made by (don’t remember), “Only when Edward calls her his heroine is Bella any kind of heroine”, and that’s what I’m trying to prove, among other things. Edward is an abusive ass-hole, Bella is a loser and Jacob is a pedophile. Are these values really the ones we want our kids to look up to in terms of romance? God, I am soooo gonna stalk Meyer throughout her whole career (which I’m hoping will be short)…
On October 1st, 2010
Omniroth Said:
You are entirely correct in every way – I physically cannot agree with this article more.
And congrats CARO on writing a thesis on this – I used the same subject for a short Masters level uni-essay, which I’ve linked to below, where I could only just cover the briefest examples of psychological abuse, physical abuse, and sexual assault blamed on the victim. I would be very interested to read your thesis when it is done, and to insist that everyone I know everywhere reads it too.
Most people know Twilight is bad, but so few people know just how bad it is.
Link to essay: http://eternallydisputed.com/site/index.php?page=news&type=view&id=omniroth%2Fromancing_bruises
On February 7th, 2011
Dirtcreature Said:
I know one or two women who said they can’t stand twilight, but mostly because of how badly it’s written. I’ve always believed in finding out facts first and decide later, and I’m with you 100%. A man telling a female friend or work colleague that he’s always fancied her is one thing, but it’s entirely different when a 107 year old undead glitterboy tells a 17 year old girl (which in America is underage. Grim) acts like he hates her and then tells her he’s been creeping into her house and watching her sleep for who-knows how long.
You’ll be sad to hear that I know of at least two women (who claim to be clever) who not only have read and loved these books, but then let their children read them!
And it’s not just the abusive nature of the relationship. In the fouth book, to put as simply as possible, Bella gives birth to a half vampire baby and almost dies giving birth, but Jacob decides he FANCIES the baby.
Metamorphosis by Kafka was a book. Foundation by Isaac Asimov is a book. This is just drivel, repetedly telling us how “Beautiful” and “God-like” a sparkling fairy is, but the abuse and paedophilia is just nasty.
When it comes to vampire stories, I think I’ll stick with Necroscope and leave this filth to the nonces and masochists.
By the way…you’re awesome 
)
On April 3rd, 2011
Sonny Montemurro Said:
Nobody says that it was easy, FEMALE RULE!!
[...] I took a class on the Brontë sisters, anything that inspired the grammatically-questionable, borderline partner violence that made up Stephanie Meyer’s four books, was not something I wanted on my bookshelf. Anyway, I [...]
On November 18th, 2011
Camille Said:
Don’t forget the woman Emily, who is married to Sam (one of the shape-shifting wolf people) and the fact that she has a huge scar across her face because he got angry and lost control and became a wolf and attacked her. But it’s okay! He wasn’t himself! He was taken over by rage! He really loves her… Sounds to me like every alcoholic abusive relationship I’ve had experience with. “He didn’t mean it because he was drunk. It wasn’t his fault.” –> “He didn’t mean it because he was a wolf. It wasn’t his fault.” Bella actually does remember the night, but what disturbs me is that she wanted more. Edward is correct in being horrified that he hurt her. But she convinces the reader that she likes it. S&M for teenagers? Sooo messed up.
On December 19th, 2011
Chloe Said:
I totally agree with everything you said. it is wrong for things like abusive relationships (for example when edward breaks her car so she cant go see her friend), stalkish behaviour (Edward climbs into bellas room every night to watch her sleep, its called stalking people, and it is not romantic), pedophelia (because no matter how you put it, a guy looking after a little girl as basically his own daughter then sleeping with her when shes older is wrong and sick) even sexual abuse (jacob first kisses bella and it says something about him being so strong she couldnt push him away, or him telling her that if she doesnt kiss him, he’ll go kill himself, is wrong). young girls dont see what it really is though which is the worrying part, they see it as being romantic, they want that and that is what is really wrong.
Be Heard... Add your Comment!
