Why Does It Bother Us That Twilight is So Popular?

[Joy]

Yeah, Christopher hit it right on the head.

I'd also like to add, as someone who has read all four books, that the popularity bothers me because of just how HORRID the writing is (not *quite* as bad as Eragon, but close enough--Mary Sue, Gary Stu... same things; Bella and Eragon are MADE for each other).

And with the way Breaking Dawn ended?

Let's just say that at first I was on Team Jacob. Now the only Team I'm a member of is Team Mike--a goofy geek who is 100% NORMAL. *HE* is the kind of guy I wouldn't mind my daughter dating.

Joy

 

[captcalhoun]

because we all want Blade to show up and mow them all down and let God sort it out?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I will say that Kindred: The Embraced (TV series) handled the concept fairly well. The vampires in that series were more realistic villains, but they were still dangerous.

 

[Aragorn]

Here's an example of Twilight's negative wave. Near Dark is NOT Twilight!!! Never mind that the guy is the "Bella" of the story.

 

[Orac Zen]

My response, of course, is "So what?" If we find the series to be mediocre, poorly written and flat, we don't have to read or watch it. I personally don't care for the franchise, but I have no problem with people who do. Everybody has their own tastes, after all.

This is pretty much my attitude. I can't for the life of me understand why people like (for example) Firefly or nBSG or Seinfeld or whatever, but it doesn't bother me that people like things I don't like. To each their own and all.

Having said that...

It's not just that it's bad, it's that it promotes a dangerously unhealthy view of women and relationships. It's basically teaching teenaged girls that love means subjugating themselves completely to emotionally abusive and dangerous men.

I've read several articles that paint this sort of picture of the Twilight books and if it is in fact the case (I haven't read the books or seen the movies, and have no plans to change that) it's very unfortunate - to say the absolute least - that something apparently promoting such a world view is popular among any people, never mind teenagers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Here's an example of Twilight's negative wave. Near Dark is NOT Twilight!!! Never mind that the guy is the "Bella" of the story.

Ironically, a remake of Near Dark was planned...but the existence of Twilight was what killed the idea. Linky

 

[Thorsg1]

I had read about the first film and how terrible it was. I saw a few minutes of it the other day and it was awful. Bad acting, sparkling vampires....Vampire super baseball...wtf!!

Can't say I'll ever have the urge to watch the rest. And Robert Patterson....ewwww!

 

[Thorsg1]

I had read about the first film and how terrible it was. I saw a few minutes of it the other day and it was awful. Bad acting, sparkling vampires....Vampire super baseball...wtf!!

Can't say I'll ever have the urge to watch the rest. And Robert Patterson....ewwww!

 

[tomalak301]

The only thing that I don't like about this whole thing (And it's not just Twilight but I would also put in someone like, the Jonas Brothers) is the "star" pretty much became just that literally overnight. You have all these actors and actresses who work hard to get where they are, and then you have the "Main" actor of this movie or whatever (Honestly, the first one was promoted as such that they never mentioned the guys name and they expected us to know who the heck he was, and I still don't know) who comes to the forefront and becomes a heart throb and I just don't understand why. I guess me being a guy and not a teenager anymore might have something to do with it, but the point still remains.

 

[Hermiod]

I agree with Christopher and co on this.

There's also the issue of the unrealistic expectations of men it, and pretty much all media aimed at teenage girls (High School Musical fits in here as well), creates. Men, especially the teenage boys who are trying to get dates with the girls reading and watching this stuff don't, as a general rule of thumb, look or act like the guys in these books and movies.

It is basically pornography for teenage girls. I don't have an issue with porn, but pornography is honest about what it is - a tool for masturbation. A teenage girl being told that a man will be anything like the guys in these movies is no better than boys believing that any woman they meet will enjoy taking a facial.

 

[Shazam!]

It doesn't bother me. I couldn't care less.

It just makes me roll my eyes at how shallow, vapid and mindless teenage girls can be.

So it does bother you and you could care less.

 

[Kegg]

My only interest in Twilight is the backlash. Some of it has resulted in some very humourous internet commentary. I don't care about the franchise itself nor do I have an opinion of it, I know some women and teenage girls who are apparently fans but they seem pretty well adjusted so I wouldn't read overmuch into the fantasies (I'm sure someone could say some very nasty things about my own, no doubt).

The only important thing is that people disassociate their fantasy from reality, and I'm sure most people can manage that. Give 'em credit and such. Not that I condone or wouldn't critique it, but I haven't seen or read any of the material so I, again, have no real opinion of it.

The only thing that I don't like about this whole thing (And it's not just Twilight but I would also put in someone like, the Jonas Brothers) is the "star" pretty much became just that literally overnight.

That's how stars get made. Who is Megan Fox? Every man's dream-girl, I'm told. She wasn't that just a few years ago, she wasn't anybody in particular.

Nothing new is going on, we're just getting old and the suddenly thrust upon us stars seem abrupt because we're not paying attention. I hear Pattinson was in the Harry Potter films before he moved on to Twilight, which makes me twice as ill-informed as to who he is. But I know who that Chris Pine fellow is, he was in the new Star Trek! So it goes.

 

[Nardpuncher]

It doesn't bother me. I couldn't care less.

It just makes me roll my eyes at how shallow, vapid and mindless teenage girls can be.

So it does bother you and you could care less.

I don't think commenting on it in a negative fashion means he's bothered and at odds with himself.

 

[Hermiod]

My only interest in Twilight is the backlash. Some of it has resulted in some very humourous internet commentary. I don't care about the franchise itself nor do I have an opinion of it, I know some women and teenage girls who are apparently fans but they seem pretty well adjusted so I wouldn't read overmuch into the fantasies (I'm sure someone could say some very nasty things about my own, no doubt).

The only important thing is that people disassociate their fantasy from reality, and I'm sure most people can manage that. Give 'em credit and such. Not that I condone or wouldn't critique it, but I haven't seen or read any of the material so I, again, have no real opinion of it.

I'll happily give the girls reading this some credit and appreciate their ability to discern fantasy from reality as soon as somebody credits boys with the ability to do the same. Boys are all being turned in to prostitute murderers who like to gun down civilians in Russian airports by video games and violent misogynists with unrealistic expectations of women by Lara Croft. They (apparently) don't have the ability to tell the difference between what they see on a TV screen and real life, after all.

As for Megan Fox, didn't she just play an undead monster stalking teenage boys through a High School ? Funny how that works.

 

[Jadzia]

Welcome back Hermiod! I was wondering where you'd gone

 

[Hermiod]

Welcome back Hermiod! I was wondering where you'd gone

I hadn't gone anywhere, I just didn't and still don't have much else to say, but thanks anyway.

I only really posted in this thread because this subject has bugged me for a while and I was glad to see that a few others dislike Twilight for reasons other than it just being made for teenage girls.

Oh, and just because it's timely - video games criticised for "war crimes". I'm linking this here because it adds to my point about young people's ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

 

[cultcross]

I'll happily give the girls reading this some credit and appreciate their ability to discern fantasy from reality as soon as somebody credits boys with the ability to do the same. Boys are all being turned in to prostitute murderers who like to gun down civilians in Russian airports by video games and violent misogynists with unrealistic expectations of women by Lara Croft. They (apparently) don't have the ability to tell the difference between what they see on a TV screen and real life, after all.

Very nicely put. You and Christopher have nailed my main objections to the series.

As to the hype, I mostly only get annoyed when articles by people who clearly have watched little of either speak about it and Buffy in the same breath as if they were the same thing. Now, I can accept that one led to the other, and that the promo shots of vamp-and-teenage-girl from Twilight closely evoke those old season 2 and 3 shots of Buffy and Angel that used to be used for Teen Girl Diary covers a lot.

But frankly I think the relationship itself, the backstory, the way it was handled, and crucially the overall 'message' of the relationship is entirely different. Buffy showed us a girl who fell for the dark mysterious vampire, sure. But then it showed her accepting her independence, getting over him and making her life her own (Spuffy is an entirely different level of wrong and not very similar to Twilight's sexless world at all - the comparison made in articles is to Angel, particularly to the shades of an abstinence metaphor). Twilight is about total submission, it's Buffy and Angel if their story hadn't progressed past Surprise.

 

[Shaytan]

Still, the fact that Twilight is so popular seems to have left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. So, why does it bother us--heck, why does it even phase us--that Twilight is so popular?

Because bad "cultural" products shouldn't be encouraged.

 

[Hermiod]

Very nicely put. You and Christopher have nailed my main objections to the series.

As to the hype, I mostly only get annoyed when articles by people who clearly have watched little of either speak about it and Buffy in the same breath as if they were the same thing. Now, I can accept that one led to the other, and that the promo shots of vamp-and-teenage-girl from Twilight closely evoke those old season 2 and 3 shots of Buffy and Angel that used to be used for Teen Girl Diary covers a lot.

But frankly I think the relationship itself, the backstory, the way it was handled, and crucially the overall 'message' of the relationship is entirely different. Buffy showed us a girl who fell for the dark mysterious vampire, sure. But then it showed her accepting her independence, getting over him and making her life her own (Spuffy is an entirely different level of wrong and not very similar to Twilight's sexless world at all - the comparison made in articles is to Angel, particularly to the shades of an abstinence metaphor). Twilight is about total submission, it's Buffy and Angel if their story hadn't progressed past Surprise.

To be fair, Buffy was a bit too strong for my tastes in that department. Buffy's collection of boyfriends gave teenage girls an entirely different set of dangerous expectations when it came to men.

 

[cultcross]

To be fair, Buffy was a bit too strong for my tastes in that department. Buffy's collection of boyfriends gave teenage girls an entirely different set of dangerous expectations when it came to men.

You know, when discussing Buffy I always tend to forget the show went on past season 4
In particular, the comparison to Buffy is drawn with Buffy and Angel, as the 'tortured romance' angle was what they played with in that relationship, unlike her and Spike's Starbucking it up. There's even their very own 'sex curse', an idea that Twilight went with too as part of their much more extended abstinence metaphor. The issue with the comparison arises, in my opinion, was how the two relationships progressed. Although it was largely down only to a desire for a spin off, Buffy and Angel separated when he realised their relationship was wrong and stayed split up. Later episodes established pretty well that both had moved on (Buffy arguably to worse... but again never portrayed as exactly a good thing)
Twilight just gets caught up in the seductive control and never moves on.