Twilight Comparison

When the series Twilight came out, it changed our views of vampires forever. The vampires that we saw in the series were nothing like the vampires that we were used to from stories such as "Dracula". Because of this new view on monstrosity, the movies sparked many new questions and views. Aside from raising questions of monstrosity, the movie also raised issues about sex, the power of women, and much much more. If we take a look at the articles "Bite Me! (Or Don't)" by Christine Seifert, "After 'Twilight': Where Do Vampires in Pop Culture Go From Here?" by Scott Meslow, and "Twilight Is Not Good For Maidens" by Anna Silver, we can see 3 different views on the series and the questions and theories that they raise.

Focusing first on the article from Seifert, she takes a big look at the issue of sexuality in the novels. She uses the term "Abstinence Porn" to describe her view of the first book in the series. She starts off the article by saying "Abstinence has never been sexier than it is in Stephenie Meyer's young adult four-book Twilight series." Her main idea is that the idea of abstinence goes so far in the first book to the point to where its almost just as good as actual sex. However, starting with the second novel, the sexual relationship between Edward and Bella becomes a rather big part of the story, having sex in the first few chapters of the book. Even though they are married at this point, they are still very young and given the audience of the series, It leaves a bad impression on the young teens of our generation, putting importance on sexual activities. Here, the first book references the importance of abstinence, only to throw that all away in the beginning of the second novel .

In Meslows article, He talks about the actual evolution of the vampire. He talks about how Meyer changed the entire genre of vampires with her books. She did so by targeting the most neglected vampire audience, teenage girls, and she did a good job at it. Creating such a romance story and exciting sexual relationships drew in the attention almost every teenage girl in existence. He claims that the genre will never be the same. 

Silver focuses more on the negatives of the novel. The issues of feminism. She claims that the novel gives young women a bad image. Bella rely's too much on Edward and is basically powerless without him. It makes it seem like girls need men in order to be safe and sufficient, which gives a very bad impression on a big audience of the novel, teenage girls. 

One thing that all three of these articles had in common, was the ideas of how the series has impacted the teenage girls who are the main audience of the books. Mostly, they all agree that there were some pretty bad ideas from the books that were very impressionable on the audience. Ideas of abstinence which were basically ripped away after the first book, and how the ideas of sexual relationships are made to be exciting and something that girls would want. And of course, ideas about how women need men and how they are powerless without them, which is the exact opposite of what women have been saying in recent years about how they can be independent and sucessful without the help of men.