Quick thoughts on the Twilight Series

I don't quite understand why people respond in such an extreme way to the Twilight series. They were enjoyable for what they were- a YA series aimed for middle and high school girls. To go into the sexual and gender politics of the books is overthinking it... and would also require an entire analysis of the whole genre.

Here's my response to a friend's very judgmental post about the books (especially considering she had only read *about* the books and never the actual books):

LOL The fourth [book] doesn't involve brutal beatings and rape. If you want to analyze the honeymoon sex scenes, there's actually a bit of a sexually-positive theme (with most likely unintended s/m cultural overtones) of Bella standing up for herself and saying "I don't experience this as pain but pleasure and you're going to have to deal with that".

I think people make a big fuss because these books are popular, otherwise they would care less. They also don't take into account the genre of the books- Young Adult with a leaning towards paranormal romance. It's written for a specific audience- middle school girls. To take it out of that context is a little ridiculous. Sure, I'd love to see the same girls read something more empowering along with these books, but we like what we like. I was reading Clive Barker and Stephen King in jr. high and most of those female characters have a LOT more issues than anything in the Twilight books. My mom hated it and tried to get me to read "better" things. Guess what my reaction was?

Also, most of the books end with Bella doing what she has to to save what she considers her family. Since she's not invincible, extremely fast or extremely strong her way of saving is generally sacrificial. Instead of people reacting to that as a gender-specific thing without taking into account that there are vamps and werewolves in the books that are female and not victims, I think it should be analyzed more as a HUMAN thing."