Popular entertainment has always been blamed for corrupting children, sometimes warranted sometimes not. The “Twilight” books, because of their positive description of abusive relationships, their success despite horrible writing and mediocrity are extremely dangerous to children.
The books run the risk of desensitizing a generation of readers to abuse. Bella, the book’s heroine, is subjected to a litany of abuses and not only accepts it, but finds it romantic. Her love interest, Edward, stalks her, watches her sleep and controls every moment of her life.
This might not seem that dangerous, but evidence suggests otherwise. People are able to buy shower curtains with Robert Pattinson’s face on them (as Edward). This way, Edward’s rapist’s eyes will always be there, after a long shower. Watching.
The age of the characters makes their relationship unsettling as well. The vampire mythos according to the author, Stephanie Meyer, is that once a person becomes a vampire, they do not age biologically, just chronologically. In the fourth book, Bella becomes a vampire at nineteen, while Edward is biologically 17 and chronologically 104.
There are three problems with this. One, Bella is forever married to a male under the age of consent. The second is that she’s nineteen, while he’s 104, meaning, while they’re legal, it’s still extremely unsettling. The third, and most popular is “I’m not listening. I can’t hear you. Leave Bella alone!”
Love is confusing, especially when mythical beasts are thrown into the mix, but even by those standards their relationship is perturbing. Edward likes Bella because of the way her blood smells. Bella obsesses over him because he’s pretty.
In the second book her life’s goal is revealed: become a vampire and stay with Edward for eternity, presumably barefoot and pregnant. She doesn’t have any outside interests, no friends, no family, nothing, just Edward encompassing her entire life until the end of time.
Furthermore, Bella doesn’t actually do anything. She’s on the periphery of the entire story, even though it’s a first person narrative. She watches Edward play vampire baseball (yes, I’m 100 percent serious, vampire baseball) follows her friends shopping, has her father/friends/the world do things for her.
This is dangerous because the entire book is designed to be a indulgent fantasy. The characters are neither well developed nor well written. This is intentional so that Bella can serve as a simulacrum for the readers. It creates the illusion that acting like Bella will get you the man of your dreams.
This is completely contrary to real life because of Bella’s characteristics. She is neither smart, nor strong, creative, passionate, interesting or even nice. Her only talents are whining, complaining and forgetting people’s names. This is not the kind of person who gets boyfriends or, for that matter, friends.
The book sends the message that showing up and doing nothing leads to success. The book’s commercial success reinforces this message. This is a book with paragraphs that begin with the word “but,” needlessly cluttered prose, poorly written characters and conflicting mythology, yet it has made Meyer millions of dollars.
The success of such a bad product not only shakes the core beliefs of capitalism, but it furthers the idea that no real effort or talent is needed. Readers infer that they don’t need to work hard, or develop personalities. All they need to do is show up and find a hot, controlling man to take care of them. This is a dangerous message because everything about “Twilight,” seems realistic at first. The realism stops once you delve a little deeper.
Bella ignores Edward’s abusive personality because he’s just too perfect. Every touch ignites a fire within, every kiss sends shivers down her spine and can even force her heart to skip a beat (seriously). Such a person does not exist and if this is a girl’s first introduction to relationships, it will lead to disappointment.
Every generation of parents finds boogeymen in their kid’s pop culture and this generation is no different. Usually their fears are blown out of proportion and this may be the case with Twilight as well. Still it’s hard to see how a book that preaches the virtues of abusive relationships, mediocrity and terrible writing can be a good thing.
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