Dimming Twilight

I teach middle school students at my church. I had the privilege (really, it is) to drive them most Sundays to and from the class because we co-taught the class with another church in a different town. So I got to hear their conversations, have them tell me jokes (some of which were pretty funny) and listen into their worlds.

It has been an honor.

And they clued me into Twilight.

I was aware of the Stephenie Meyer's phenom. Knew of the movie. I didn't bother to read any of the books nor see the movie. But then the girls started talking about the first book in the series, Twilight. They even brought up the main character, Bella, during a discussion of female and male characters in pop culture. Some girls in the class thought Bella was strong and spoke her mind. Others thought she was a wet dish rag. It amazed me that one character could illicit such different responses.

I finally realized that this book and these characters were important to the 12 and 13 year olds I was teaching. I needed to read the book.

And the second one. And the third. And the fourth. I pretty much inhaled the entire series in less than a month.

The first one was sweet. The second and third were more of the same. The fourth one made me want to jump through the book and yell at the author. I felt she completely betrayed her young readers by writing a novel that portrayed Bella's first experience with sex as horribly hurtful, described pregnancy and childbirth in disgusting horror movie fashion and made all the painful life decisions Bella made become easy. Nothing was ever really hard for Bella. Well aside from being eaten alive (literally) by her baby but even in the end that turned out to be so easy. The kid NEVER cried. EVER!

I finished the series a while ago and have been struggling to write about the experience, the frustration, the anger I feel towards Meyer and her complete betrayal of her young fans. The fourth book should not be marketed towards middle schoolers. She should be ashamed of what she wrote.

It took my dear friend Jen suggesting this Ms. Magazine piece by Carmen D. Siering entitled Talking Back to Twilight that finally gave me the focus for my frustration. Every paragraph rings true. For instance:

The Twilight saga has become something of a bonding phenomenon among mothers and daughters. But reading the books together and mutually swooning over Edward isn’t enough. As influential adults, mothers (and, by extension, teachers and librarians) have an obligation to start a conversation concerning the darker themes and anti-feminist rhetoric in these tales. There is plenty to work with, from the dangers of losing yourself in an obsessive relationship to the realities of owning one’s sexuality.

I'm clearly awakening as a parent. Just like Lady Gag-Me and now You Spin Me Round (the super nasty remake), I need to pay close attention to what my kids read, sing and watch.

Like when one of my guys came down to retrieve the recently returned copy of Twilight on the kitchen counter. "Mama," he informed me "we're going to start reading Twilight."

We grabbed Judy Moody instead.