Is Twilight Good for Girls?
— Thursday, November 29th, 2012 —
The other day, while at a conference, a colleague and I were headed to a theater in Chicago to see the film “Lincoln.” I jokingly posted on social media that he was insisting on seeing the latest “Twilight” film, and was surprised when Honest Abe wasn’t all fanged and sparkly on the screen. The reason this was a joke, of course, was because “Twilight” in our culture is largely marketed to adolescent girls.
And, sure enough, at the theater, there were lots of adolescent girls lined up to see the latest in the “Twilight” series. In fact, the “Breaking Dawn Part 2″ film was the top-grossing movie in America last weekend, as expected. The vampire romance series, in both book and movie genres, reaches its demographic effectively.
As I thought about all of those girls lined up to watch this movie, I remembered a commenter several years ago who posted on this site to this interesting article from Wired magazine about unfortunate lessons girls learn from the New Moon film (then just released, and just as popular) and the rest of the Twilight books and movies.
These start with:
“1. If a boy is aloof, stand-offish, ignores you or is just plain rude, it is because he is secretly in love with you — and you are the point of his existence.”
These “lessons” move on to darker, abuse-enabling themes, such as:
“7. It is extremely romantic to put yourself in dangerous situations in order to see your ex-boyfriend again. It’s even more romantic to remember the sound of his voice when he yelled at you.”
I don’t think this is unique (at all) to the Twilight series, but this is an area to which we ought to pay more attention. It’s also an area where Christians and some feminists can agree, at least on diagnosing the problem. Images given to our girls and young women often mask a pagan and predatory patriarchy, one in which female worth is seen satanically in terms of sexual availability and attractiveness to men.
The answer isn’t just to “deconstruct” these images, in whatever format they come. The answer means providing a compelling counter-narrative about the glory of womanhood. That’s about more than just picking better books and watching better movies (although that might be a good start).
What do you think?
Should we encourage our daughters to read and watch the “Twilight” series and other related books and films? If so, how do you teach them to avoid some of the pictures of femininity and masculinity encoded there? If not, how do you discern what’s harmless fluff entertainment and what’s not?
I’m not an expert on Twilight. I read the first book to see what the fuss was about.
What I saw in that book was what I’ve seen both in movies and real life (Beauty and the Beast is the worst offender).
It’s the idea that there’s some hidden goodness in a man that only the right woman’s love can bring out. This is an idea that really captures the imagination of a lot of young girls (and grown women).
I saw this played out a lot in my high school and college years when a girl was dating a guy that treated her badly. She would justify this bad treatment by telling herself (and others) that there’s a “side of him that nobody else can see.” It’s an idea with romantic appeal, but doesn’t reflect reality.
Hey Dr. Moore,
I don’t think we should encourage kids to read Twilight. There are some dangerous themes in the book for young women.
I would also say there are some redeeming qualities to the tale that we could share with those that have read the books that stumble along into our ministries or that we meet along the way through casual conversation.
For young men:
Honoring a young woman and defending her honor.
Waiting for marriage to have sexual relations
For young women:
Carrying a baby full term when others around are asking you to get rid of it, saying things like it’s just a fetus and it’s not a real life.
Looking to a divine being to help achieve eternal life. (While Twilight is totally misguided, it shows that we all long to be understood and fulfilled in an eternal state)
Again, we shouldn’t recommend it as reading to our teenage girls, but we should shine a bright light of Christ against the dark back drop of their casual reading and movie watching habits.
The problem with these critiques is that they don’t line up with what happens in the story. Edward never mistreats Bella in any sense. He is loyal, protective, and “old fashioned” when it comes to sex before marriage. He spends the better part of two movies refusing to turn Bella into a vampire even though she keeps asking him to. He only agrees to because if he doesn’t these other super strong vampire leaders will kill her.
The part about him being “stand offish and rude means he’s in love with you” simply does not line up with what the story portrays. She’s interested in him because he’s good looking and mysterious (so original, right?), not because he’s mean to her.
And the part about “putting yourself in dangerous situations is romantic” also doesn’t line up with what the story puts forth. He sees himself as a danger to her and leaves her, and in an effort to bring him back she keeps putting herself in danger, attempting to trigger his desire to protect her. There is a valid critique here, but not the one made by Wired. It is teaching girls that they can threaten to hurt themselves in order to keep a guy from leaving (this is already a common occurrence).
I do think there are valid reasons to discourage young girls from reading the book, unless they are going to discuss the book, the good and the bad, with a mature and discerning adult. The critiques in this blog, and even Staci’s comment (Edward was already choosing to be a “good” vampire before he met Bella, she didn’t bring the “good” out of him), are simply off the mark.
To be clear I think, as a love story, it is pretty silly. I’m actually not a fan of the series, but my wife is. The giant wolves are pretty cool, though. Anyways, I do think if we are going to engage in critique in the hopes of being winsome to those who may enjoy the story or want to read the story, in order to help them think critically about what they read/watch, we should make our critiques line up with what actually takes place in the books/movies.
Are we so blinded by pragmatism that we miss the bigger picture? What about the fact that it teaches young women to be attracted to the very darkness and witchcraft that God hates? The Corinthians argued “we know those idols aren’t real gods” and Paul replied “Yes but they are controlled by demons… will you eat at the table of the Devil and the table of God at the same time?” For those who argue that these are harmless fantasy, I would suggest they consider how it teaches our youth to love the darkness that God hates. The church will remain crippled if we don’t take a stand and quit soaking up the media of the Devil. We cannot afford to remain niave and guided by pragmatism rather than the light of God’s Word. Thank you for writing this article brother.
@Jared Berry I’m curious to know, do you apply this logic to all fantasy magic? Although Lord of the Rings and Narnia are constructed in theo-centric universes, they still have an ample amount of magic.
Agreed, and Paul, what a ridiculous comment. If you can’t see that the difference between LOTR and Twilight is like light and shade, well then there’s no more to be said.
Doug Wilson wrote an excellent chapter-by-chapter review called “Bundling with Vampires.”
I believe they’re still giving the PDF away for free here: http://www.dougwils.com/Shameless-Appeals/bundling-with-vampires.html
Besides being insightful it’s a tremendously entertaining read and had me howling with laughter on several occasions.
I agree with Jared.
If twilight were a love story about a sexual deviant, us Christians would scream loudly about the evil and sin that resides. However, twilight is about something more fantastical (aka Vampires).. therefore, we just leave it alone. This also goes with Halloween as most Christians don’t see any issue with dressing up like a witch or decorating your house with spiders and ghosts…However, these are all evil things that God hates.
A kid can watch a porno and his parents will freak out… but a horror movie? “Nope- that’s just a kid being a kid!”
Why do we continue to ignore the evil of the dark side? After all, our real battle is against the unseen.
A movie that takes the vampire — traditional symbol for the powers of darkness — and makes him out to be a hero?
What’s not to love?
I agree with Lucas Knisely’s critique of the Wired article–while some teenagers may make those inferences, they wouldn’t be justified in doing so. As Lucas said (and I can confirm, having read all four books multiple times), the critiques are broad caricatures of the parts those scenes serve to drive the story; I don’t think it’s quite fair to the book to say that they’re ‘lessons’, or that there was any pedagogical intent behind their inclusion.
Whether or not a Christian teenage girl should be permitted to read the book is a wisdom issue–does she possess sufficient discernment to understand the definition of love that’s developed in the story, and compare that to the perimeters that Scripture outlines for male-female relationships? Whether she does or not is for her parents to decide. In any event, I would encourage them (especially fathers) whose daughters do want to read the books to read it with them.
In my opinion, the problem with the ‘Twilight’ series isn’t the supernatural/fantasy element, but the perverse definition of love it promotes. Edward doesn’t love Bella; he’s obsessed with her–his attraction to her is consistently described in terms of a physical compulsion he feels; he must be near her at all times, and it’s beyond his ability to deny or control it. Bella doesn’t love Edward, either–she repeatedly ignores his admonitions to refrain from certain activities (which he’s requested on the grounds that she’s endangering herself, which is true), she flirts with her best friend and leads him on, and puts her boyfriend’s family in danger when she insists on keeping Edward with her during a battle scene in ‘Eclipse’ (the third book). It’s not as though Edward acknowledges Bella’s selfishness and loves her despite that–he just accepts whatever she does because he ‘loves’ her so much that he can’t (or won’t) do anything else. Bella may say that she loves Edward, but it’s a poor sort of love that refuses to grant a beloved’s reasonable request and forces him to choose between herself and his family (especially when it’s her life that he and his family are defending).
It’s a rare adolescent that understands enough about romantic love to comprehend all of that–in the flush of hormones and the fervor of youth, how can we expect them to? This is why I would strongly urge parents to read the books with their daughters, if they think it fit–rather than permit false expectations to build up, encourage them to really examine what it is these characters are actually doing (and what that means), instead of just engaging emotionally.
To answer the immediate question, an emphatic ‘no’ for so many obvious reasons.
Now on to what I consider is the larger concern. Children in general, and girls especially, will emulate their parents and a that begins with a girl’s mother. In all likelihood these adolescent girls are watching the movie right along side their mother who is driving them and paying for the tickets. I’ve seen first hand what transpires when parents, specifically mothers, aren’t mindful of their actions and don’t parent with intentionality.
Some immediate examples - what message does it send to a pre-teen or teenage daughter when they see their mother reading books such as the ‘Fifty Shades’ trilogy or witness their mothers subscribe to magazines the likes of Cosmopolitan or Vogue? Those actions are an unspoken stamp of approval.
The overall relativistic worldview has bleed into parenting with the mistaken notion that because we are parents we can do things our children can’t “because we are adults”. We employ this parenting strategy then leave it to our children to distinguish the difference.
As an English major, I can say without having read the books that this is one of the worst plots I have ever seen. Bella is just a giant Mary Sue, whom everyone loves and adores. Her little spawn isn’t any better.
Another thing is just how flat the romance is. She’s an awfully stupid girl to fall in love with a dead thing that can SUCK YOUR BLOOD. Just as stupid is another girl who had been clawed by her werewolf boyfriend, and had a revelation in the hospital - that she should totally stay with Mr. Grumpy Fur.
Basically, there’s nothing in the novel that really connects with the real world, or God’s truth. I almost wonder if the writer was smoking something while she was writing this poop.
I have read all 4 of the Twilight books and while I am not a huge fan for mainly literary reasons, I think we as Christians are missing some themes that could be discussed with our teens. For starters, Edward is VERY committed to his purity. He makes that clear in book 3 when he tells Bella that he absolutely will not sleep with her until they are married and refuses to put himself in tempting situations even.
The other theme that I enjoyed in Twilight was the idea that the Cullen family denies their “lower nature”. In other words they find practical ways to fight their evil and natural desires for the sake of goodness.
Overall, I think the books are poorly written but I don’t know if they are as dangerous as some may say they are.
It’s disappointing that some of these comments made it past moderation.
Some people are over-reacting. I’ve watched all the Twilight movies and love them. They’re written so well. No Christian movies hold a candle to the plot lines and cinematography. The movies are harmless because no one watches them for education in manhood and womanhood. All my friends just love quality movie-making with a gripping fictional narrative.
Dr. Moore,
I read all four books for the purpose of teaching a mini-series to my high-school Sunday School class. I found it to be a very telling study on the subject of human desires.
There is in each of us desires. Certain yearnings are more forceful and obvious than others, such as our need for intimacy and our desire to be wanted, to be attractive. And then, there are others that are more subtle–things that we may not even realize. These desires are not inherently evil. Our crooked hearts do, however, often turn toward the wrong direction in search of their fulfillment.
Vampires, as depicted in the Twillight series, are repeatedly described as being like gods and goddesses–even the evil, human-blood-drinker kind. They are beautiful. Powerful. Immortal. When human beings are transformed into vampires, their senses and “gifts” intensify and are made even cooler. They are supernatural, surpassing humanity in every way.
Stephanie Meyers’ vampires is strangely comparable to, though a much less descriptive and imaginative version of, C.S. Lewis’ solid people in The Great Divorce. Human beings, on the other hand, are like the weak and non-substantial ghosts.
Throughout the story, ever so predictably, Bella wants to be a vampire. So that she can be with Edward. So that she can be beautiful next to Edward. Why would anyone want to remain a plain, non-sparkling human when you can be a godlike vampire?!
On the cover of the the first book of the series is a picture of an apple. Now, what does an apple have to do with vampires?
“When you eat of it, you will become like God.” (Genesis 3:4-5) The lie is not very original, is it? In fact, it is the oldest one in the book.
Give into your desires. Being your own god is really much better than being a creature. Take the bite (pun intended). And your dreams will come true. And you will live happily ever after (the title of the last chapter of the saga).
As at the first, the lie is not completely devoid of truth. We can become like God. We are created in his image. We are created to be beautiful, powerful, and immortal. We can become like God–by obeying our Creator-King-Father. We become like God by worshiping him.
Even sadder still, when Satan tempted Eve and promised a God-like existence.She had forgotten a fundamental truth — that she was already like God. Her Maker created her in his image. So, she betrayed the One who loved her for absolutely nothing.
The world hungrily devours the Twillight series. They are hungry for love, beauty, power, and immortality. Yet, they are eating jello, which does absolutely nothing.
Jesus is the Bread of Life. He alone fulfills.