Twilight Fears

The Twilight book series and the movie based on the first book are sweeping the corridors of middle schools and high schools across the country. I can’t help but find that this to be reminiscent of the Harry Potter rage, although this one seems to be much more girl-centric in terms of the fan base. But those who are fans are every bit as rabid about the stories and the characters.

I’ve been listening lately to Kim and her daughters tell about the books. The basic premise is a teenage girl who falls in love with a young vampire. And apparently at the end of the first book, the young girl yearns to give up her soul and become a vampire. Something her vampire boyfriend won’t let happen.

Okay, so on the one level this is a standard teen romance wrapped up in monster lore and some allegedly good storytelling and character development. It’s all in good fun, and as long as everyone is enjoying it, so what? But I can’t help but wonder why the Evangelical Christians are not in an uproar over this. After all, Harry Potter was going to turn all of their children into spell casting witches and wizards. The issue was that the heroes of the book were magical and this would encourage children to emulate them. However, in Twilight, the heroine wants to give up her immortal soul. Some of the heroes are vampires. And the whole vampire/female victim scenario has long been recognized as a thinly veiled rape fantasy on both sides of the relationship. Assuming that children are not capable of distinguishing fiction from reality (an assertion that the Harry Potter protest depends on) isn’t Twilight every bit as morally destructive to children as Happy Potter?

In full disclosure, I haven’t read the books. I’ve only read plot summaries and talked to those who have read them. But most of the Evangelicals who were up in arms over Harry Potter hadn’t read those books either. So if I can draw these similarities from plot reviews, why haven’t the Evangelicals?

I suppose it’s possible that they consider witches as plausible while vampires are pure fantasy. Or maybe they were concerned about Harry Potter because it appealed to boys while Twilight is more of a girl thing. Perhaps the enemies of Christianity are chosen capriciously by pastors, or based on political opportunism. None of these explanations should be very satisfying for the Evangelicals though. They each have some pretty negative connotations to them.

I’m genuinely curious about the reasoning here. If you have thoughts or insights of your own, I encourage you to share them in the Comments section.

One thought on “Twilight Fears

  1. It’s taken me a while to respond to this, mostly because I wanted to see if I could find out anything about the evangelical point of view. I tried looking on line and haven’t found much either except for the fact that some of them are trying to say it’s good because it somehow teaches good points of Christianity and how they feel about demons, etc. I don’t see that at all. But those are the same ones that claimed Lord of the Rings had great Christian sub-stories at the same time as Harry Potter was just pure evil.

    I asked my oldest if she’d heard anything in church or anything from other kids her age and nope… she hasn’t. She also doesn’t understand why HP was so bad… but also has refused to read or watch that series, mostly because of the hype at this point.

    Having said all that, I don’t have any trouble with the books based on any Christian beliefs because I’m quite capable of differentiating something that is just entertainment from thinking my kids will start studying witchcraft (in the HP sense) or determining that there are real vampires or wearwolfs (in the Twilight sense). However, I have had conversations about this new series of books with my girls for different reasons.

    As a mother of girls, I have real issues with the way that Bella is portrayed with her “obsession” with Edward. It’s not a healthy relationship from the perspective of Bella at all for teenage girls. She is so completely obsessed that she spirals into the deepest depression ever when he leaves (for her own safety). While in that deep depression, she then clings to Jacob as a friend, but just as hard as she did to Edward. All the time she’s obsessed with either of these boys, she has no other life at all. She does nothing with other friends, etc. When with Edward all she’s thinking of is how to get him to have sex with her or when it is she can end her life to be with him (her first boyfriend) for all eternity as a vampire. Blah Blah. The whole storyline is about what she’ll do to have him, what she’ll give up to have him, how she’d die if he weren’t around, how much trouble and near death experience she puts up with just to be near him. And all of that stems from how poor a view she has of herself and how she never feels worthy to even be in his presence. What is that all about for young girls to hear. Crazy.

    They are entertaining and quick easy reading like HP, but the sub-context of “he is all that will ever matter in my life and I’d die without him and die to be with him” is NOT a good lesson for the age girls that are reading these books. As I said to my ex-husband when he had issues with the HP books… “it’s a parents job to understand what they are reading and talk to them about your own views if you think they’re not smart enough to realize this is fiction”. I hope more parents, of girls especially, are talking to their girls about these books as well. Not a healthy look at a first relationship at all… in my opinion. Hopefully parents are paying attention and speaking to their girls. I know I am.

    And… yes… I’m on the 4th book myself and only started reading them about 3 weeks ago. After reading the first one, knowing my girls had read them all (or in the process of doing so) I really need to know how far it all goes. But, we’ve already spoken about my view of how Bella is portrayed in the relationship department.

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