Twilight: A Closer Look
As many of you know – the “Twilight” series has taken America by storm lately. The latest movie broke all kinds of movie records taking in almost $150 million on opening weekend. Why are people so nuts about this series? And most importantly… what messages is it sending out?
The following is a humorous, yet serious look at the messages of the Twilight Series taken from Wired Magazine’s online blog…
20 Lessons We Learn from Twilight
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.
2. Secrets are good — especially life-threatening ones.
3. It’s OK for a potential romantic interest to be dimwitted, violent and vengeful — as long as he has great abs.
4. If a boy tells you to stay away from him because he is dangerous and may even kill you, he must be the love of your life. You should stay with him since he will keep you safe forever.
5. If a boy leaves you, especially suddenly (while telling you he will never see you again), it is because he loves you so much he will suffer just to keep you safe.
6. When a boy leaves you, going into shock, losing all your friends and enduring night terrors are completely acceptable occurrences — as long as you keep your grades up.
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.
8. Boys who leave you always come back.
9. Because they come back, you should hold out, waiting for them for months, even when completely acceptable and less-abusive alternative males present themselves.
10. Even though you have no intention of dating an alternative male who expresses interest in you, it is fine to string the young man along for months. Also, you should use him to fix things for you. Maybe he’ll even buy you something.
11. You should use said male to fix things because girls are incapable of anything mechanical or technical.
12. Lying to your parents is fine. Lying to your parents while you run away to save your suicidal boyfriend is an extremely good idea that shows your strength and maturity. Also, it is what you must do.
13. Car theft in the service of love is acceptable.
14. If the boy you are in love with causes you (even indirectly) to be so badly beaten you end up in the hospital, you should tell the doctors and your family that you “fell down the steps” because you are such a silly, clumsy girl. That false explanation always works well for abused women.
15. Men can be changed for the better if you sacrifice everything you are and devote yourself to their need for change.
16. Young women should make no effort to improve their social skills or emotional state. Instead, they should seek out potential mates that share their morose deficiencies and emotional illnesses.
17. Girls shouldn’t always read a book series just because everyone else has.
18. When writing a book series, it’s acceptable to lift seminal source material and [mess it up] with tired, overwrought teenage angst.
19. When making or watching a major feature film, you should gleefully embrace the 20 minutes of plot it provides in between extended segments of vacant-eyed silence and self-indulgent, moaning banter.
20. Vampires — once among the great villains of literature and motion pictures — are no longer scary. In fact, they’re every bit as whiny, self-absorbed and impotent as any human being.
Your Turn:
1. Do you agree or disagree with the points listed above? Why?
2. What are some of the harmful messages that the movie is sending about dating relationships?
3. What are some of the harmful messages that the movie is sending about abuse?
4. Does the movie promote a healthy or unhealthy image of women? Why?
5. As a Christian, what should our response be to movies like Twilight? Do we watch it? Ignore it? Get educated about it? Complain about it? Judge people who see it? Why or why not?
December 1st, 2009 at 3:37 pm
hahahahaha this is so stupid its funny.
there’s not really much I can say about this because I haven’t seen the movie or read the books but I most definitely do not agree.
December 1st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I disagree with almost EVERYTHING on that list. It was the complete opposite of a healthy, Christian lifestyle. This movie is sending MANY harmful messages out to mainly teens. (like lying, stealing, abuse, and what love can do when people get out of control with it)This movie is influencing many “daters” in how they should act around each other. I would become educated on the movie so I can really approach people. As a Christian, I whould not judge people who see it, but ask about what they liked about what they saw. I would then ask them if it influenced them in any ways.
This is my personal opinion.
December 1st, 2009 at 6:43 pm
It’s hard for me when about 75% of the girls in my classes went to see the movie just for the jacob and edward and took with them the boyfriends who didn’t even probably watch the movie. I wanted to change the subject and so did others but with vampire fans on the rampage who could or could not be one?
still i think it’s rediculous the people it’s drawn to watch it simply cause of “vampire” love and killing of bad vampires (aren’t they all bad?) i see no ethical, moral or christian values that come out of this movie so why watch it? the band wagon of movies is often dark and sinister especially when it comes to poor plots and long fight/abuse seens. we see to much bad in life so why waste $10 to see trash when we could see good? i just still don’t get it.
December 2nd, 2009 at 5:36 pm
OMG I AM SO GLAD YOU WROTE ABOUT THIS!!! Most of the girls in my school have read and love this series and everyone always askes me if i watch/read twilight. Its quite annoying. Especially since the new movie came out.
I think it is sad because people are watching imoral garbage and are saying “I just watched/read it, i dont belive it”. but they don’t understand that whatever you put in your head gets in your mind and starts to eat you up(quote; my mother). But i don’t think we should judge others because of it because they just don’t know, and want to follow the crowd. I think this is another job of us christians to lead others on the right path by telling them what you think and other christians think.
December 4th, 2009 at 9:27 am
there are many thing i find wrong with this movie like all of a sudden there are good vampires and they are really good looking and there almost like super heros. vampires could never jump or run that well and they where not very good looking and they where always evil. plus the movie send out messages that aren’t good if people who saw the movie would look deeper into it maybe not so many people would like it but even then i’m not sure.