And exactly about the comparison between Twilight and Harry Potter (Slytherin aside – I do agree with you there Rojas). But Twilight was marketed as a book written by a Mormon woman promoting romantic chastity in teens whereas Harry Potter had the evil witchcraft.

I know plenty of smart women who’ve read and ejoyed the books – it’s like cotton candy in many respects, and too ridiculous to take seriously. I read plenty of admittedly stupid things, and I like Glee, so really, no stone casting here. It just makes me very uncomfortable that so many girls are nuts over it. Whether that’s crazy or not, I don’t know.

OK, now for confession: My wife loved it. She acknowledges all your points, and just doesn’t care. You know how I called this Dawson’s Creek with vampires? My wife LOVED Dawson’s Creek. Her one critique? Dude wore way too much make up.

Brad’s said a lot of it – there’s also really odd chastity theme, with Bella repeatedly throwing herself at the vampire and the virgin vampire valiently rejecting her despite the fact that her blood smells like freesia. There’s the stalker thing, where he controls her every movement and stands in her bedroom to watch her sleep which is supposed to be romantic. There’s the recurring death thing – like her thinking she’ll die without him, her wanting to die (become a vampire) before she’s too old for him (over the age of 17), and then jumping off a cliff so that he’ll come rescue her, because that’s the only way to get him to come back. Motherhood is fetishized to the point that the women who can’t have children (and all of them want children)are either depressed or bitter. And yeah – basically anything and everything for this guy who is a controlling sparkly vampire. no school, no friends, no family, not even life -nothing but him.

I think that the end of the series says it all actually – and avert your eyes here if you want to read the series or have a weak stomach:

Bella marries Edward at 18 because a – he won’t sleep with her until she marries him, b – because he won’t turn her into a vampire until she marries him and c – she has no intention of going to college. So she marries him, gets knocked up, the baby is half vampire and strong and literally snaps Bella’s spine in two so Edward has to turn her into a vampire to save her life, then Edward uses his fangs to perform a cesarean. Oh, and then the other dude fighting for Bella (the werewolf) falls in love with the infant daughter and will now wait for her to come of age until they can mate. (they call it imprinting) (also the baby’s named Remesmee or something like that.) Seriously.

But that could be my nesting gland talking.:)

I have to say I’m rarely struck with feminist thoughts, but the more I was exposed to the books the more unsettling it seemed to me. It’s sort of like the mindset of Romeo and Juliet, but I mean that negatively. It takes every bad impulse that exists for teenage girls discovering love/sex, amplifies them enormously, and gives it all an extra patina of romanticism.

You know how most books for girls in that age group or younger tends to have plucky protagonists bucking stereotypes and discovering and then executing their own agency? Yeah, this is the polar opposite sort of book.

A decent discussion here.