That's why it's a fantasy, not a reality. The girls who are vulnerable to the book being a literal interpretation of real life are already screwed because they've already been indoctrinated by real life to think the book is accurate. Those that haven't been indoctrinated aren't in any more danger of suddenly changing their value system than I am of embracing a life free of slash fic due to bizarre moral objections.
Yes, the book does those things. And it's a book. And RL trumps books like whoa. That makes it automatically in the video game debates of fantasy. Edward is a rape fantasy, to use that term very very loosely. Like pretty much all movies and books. It will affect a girl in direct proportion to exactly how much real life echoes it. If her real life doesn't echo it, it's an outlet for a dramatic fantasy of someone, somewhere, finding them acceptable the way that society doesn't find them, how they don't find themselves. Asking them to deconstruct and remove that as well; I don't agree. Girls shouldn't be asked to give up everything to careful social analysis. There is no way I can find that acceptable until such a time as they actually start modeling IRL what they are reading, which again, would actually be a plus. If reading Twilight sends legions of girls looking for stalkery boyfriends, that's like affixing an arrow and stating "There is something wrong here" and underlining twice that something is wrong in their real life that needs to be addressed.
The vast, vast majority of young women who read them will get a vicarious thrill of romantic intrigue, vampires, and go on to lead fairly normal lives, perhaps with hentai if we are all lucky since we need more good writers in fandom. Condemning the majority for the sake of a tiny minority that already *had* a problem this book is highlighting is overreacting and strips away the power of saying that making a girl wear a cheerleader skirt that shows her damned bloomers isn't a great idea, things that they have to live and breathe twenty-four/seven.
no subject
Yes, the book does those things. And it's a book. And RL trumps books like whoa. That makes it automatically in the video game debates of fantasy. Edward is a rape fantasy, to use that term very very loosely. Like pretty much all movies and books. It will affect a girl in direct proportion to exactly how much real life echoes it. If her real life doesn't echo it, it's an outlet for a dramatic fantasy of someone, somewhere, finding them acceptable the way that society doesn't find them, how they don't find themselves. Asking them to deconstruct and remove that as well; I don't agree. Girls shouldn't be asked to give up everything to careful social analysis. There is no way I can find that acceptable until such a time as they actually start modeling IRL what they are reading, which again, would actually be a plus. If reading Twilight sends legions of girls looking for stalkery boyfriends, that's like affixing an arrow and stating "There is something wrong here" and underlining twice that something is wrong in their real life that needs to be addressed.
The vast, vast majority of young women who read them will get a vicarious thrill of romantic intrigue, vampires, and go on to lead fairly normal lives, perhaps with hentai if we are all lucky since we need more good writers in fandom. Condemning the majority for the sake of a tiny minority that already *had* a problem this book is highlighting is overreacting and strips away the power of saying that making a girl wear a cheerleader skirt that shows her damned bloomers isn't a great idea, things that they have to live and breathe twenty-four/seven.