I finished reading the first book in the series "Twilight" and I hate to be a "downer" but I really have issues with our teen girls, and women, who are also reading them, reading these books... you don't have to agree with me, but at least hear what I have to say.
First of all...I love vampires! I am not opposed to it because it has vampires and spooky things. I am not a Christian who would hate any book with a vampire or werewolf in it. That being cleared up...I just hate to read another book where a girl would sacrifice EVERYTHING to be with a boy, even if the boy is VERY bad for her!!!!
In the book, the lead character, Bella, falls in love with a boy, Edward, who is mysterious, cute, and mean to her for days!!! She then learns that he is a vampire and that her very life will be endangered if she continues to see him. She discovers that while he was refusing to speak to her at school, he was also sneaking into her bedroom and watching her sleep (peeping-tom) and that is okay with her... she even likes it. She can think of nothing but him... when he is nice to her she is happy and when he is being moody (which he is most of the time) she is miserable!! His vampire others discover she is human and try and kill her. She is brutally beaten and afterward, while in the hospital, Edward and his entire family lie to her parents about what happened to her. She goes along with the lies, because she doesn't want them to find out and stop her from seeing him!
By the end of the book, instead of this girl standing up for herself and saying, "Ed, you are great guy but you are going to get me hurt, killed or whatever... and you are just not good for me!!!", she wants to become a vampire--she wants to change her whole being from who she is into who HE is!!
Edward is a vampire. Bella loves him just as lots of women do because deep inside he is good. "Yes," she thinks, "he is a vampire and will likely get me killed someday and is no good for me... but deep down inside he is good." Now substitute any word for vampire---"Yes, he is a drug addict, an alcoholic, he hits me, he is mean, his friends hate me... but deep down he is good. And he is all I want, even if I have to suffer, give up my identity or even die because of him!"
Edward is very careful not to get carried away and suck the blood out of Bella.... but he does suck out her self esteem, her sense of self apart from him, the honesty between her, her parents and her friends, and her drive and motivation to succeed on her own as an independent woman. It would save her years of pain and therapy appointments if he would just suck her blood out!
This is the message of Twilight to our girls who are being shaped and molded, not only by the book, but by the cute guy in the movie. They are dreaming of meeting someone just like Edward... this scares me and makes me sad!
I am not asking us to start burning books or forbidding our girls to watch these movies or read the books...I just think we need to look closely at the message of the book and perhaps have some discussions about Edward and if he is truly the man of her dreams and the type of man we, as women, are really needing/hoping/praying to find.
Okay, there it is...