i'd like to point out first, my del.icio.us tags include amtdi and non-con

[seperis]

You know, I thought I talked myself down off this one, because frankly, Twilight is not great literature and mounting a defense takes up valuable time reading non-con amtdi porn.

But you know, I just feel that inspired, plus I ran out of Dean/Castiel reading and my son still has Twilight in his locker. Go figure.

I have to know something; did I miss the memo that I'm supposed to be ashamed of being twelve? My apologies; see, when I was twelve? I never really considered to form my actions to meet an arbitrary standard that would come into existence twenty years later on my reading habits, because that? Would have totally pulled the Gor novels right out of my hot little hands.

As in, please to be putting down your AMTDI non-con for a second while ranting on how Twilight is ruining young girls. I will totally be there when fandom as a whole stops finding aliens made them do it rape as a fun and lighthearted fanfic pasttime. I mean, I will be there, but I'll still be writing it. Hell, throw in eroticized slave-fic with idealized sexual slavery and falling in love with your enslaver controlling boyfriend who stalks you...wait.

Writer responsibility comes up a lot with this, which I suppose is fair when one is writing cross-alien-species sexual hijinks and one is struggling to portray those sensitivity, or the reality of slave trafficking in the modern world, or hell, magical healing cock after rape and lets toss in mpreg for kicks, because there's a genre that's incredibly sensitive and socially conscious. I have zero interest in writer responsibility, to be honest, except for one key points--did they tell a story? That's it; that's where it starts and stops, with some codicils of audience. Twilight was readable to a huge group of people.

Maybe the mystery is the plotline? Because I agree; I cannot imagine why anyone would enjoy a fantasy novel about two people obsessively in love with each other and would do anything to be together.

You may pile your under the bed romance novels over to the left, please; lets do this right. Let's blackball the entire romance novel industry already. I want petitions against VC Andrews, Johanna Lindsay, Judith McNaught, Catherine Coulter, Virginia Henley (Okay, I could stand to lose her), and anything set in Viking England with a wee Saxon lass.

Seriously. I get hating them for being bad, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder; shaming young girls for something they've found to love is edging right into the reason I'm trying to stop myself from ever using the term "Like a twelve year old girl" again in any slash fic I write. Which will probably be something I'll have to pick up on beta because comparisons to teenage girls as insults to men is surprisingly common.

Please lay off the girls. And remind me again how Seeds of Yesterday ended. For the life of me, I couldn't find it with my other VC Andrews work.

Comments

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Judith McNaught's contemporary romances have some similar themes. As do most of romance novels. Nothing Stephanie did was new; it's just the first time the application of romantic cliches of romance novels with age-specific caveats has done so well.

[mardia.livejournal.com]

it's just the first time the application of romantic cliches of romance novels with age-specific caveats has done so well.

See, okay, and that's part of what's alarming me so thoroughly--this series IS doing really well, and yes, lots of kids are reading and getting enjoyment out of reading, which is never a bad thing. But what IS concerning me is that relatively few people in the mainstream are saying, "Hold up a second--the relationships in this book, which is marketed towards young teens, are really, really unhealthy, yo." (I'm sure they wouldn't say the yo part, but that's just me editorializing.)

I don't think Twilight is going to bring about the end of society, and I certainly don't think people should start banning it or whatever, but I really, really wish that Stephenie Meyer showed a little more self-awareness about what, exactly, she's written, because she is promoting a message to a lot of young girls that I do think is unhealthy.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

If every book is supposed to be a social message--if every story is supposed to be a social message, we'd lose about ninety percent of all fiction off the bat. It's ridiculous that this book, specific and in general, is being used as a hobby horse.

[kitsune-kitana.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing is that when you write something, you do it with a purpose. If you don't have a purpose--or a "social message"--usually you can admit that okay, this has no redeeming social purpose, it's an exercise in fantastic porn, everyone got off and I'm glad. Have you read the interviews with Stephanie Meyer on this series? This is absolutely *not* what she thinks at all. For her, this was a series with a purpose that should be internalized; the fact that you don't see it that way doesn't mean that its legions of fangirls don't either.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

No, sometimes it's literally just a cigar. And I speak as a fanfic writer that while sometimes I've walked into a story with an idea of message, that's fairly rare.

[kitsune-kitana.livejournal.com]

That's the thing though--when you write something with no purpose, you shouldn't be ashamed of saying, "This has no purpose! It was fun to write!" During all of her publicity for Twilight, these books were never just indulging that id vortex. Meyers' truly believes that this is a series with a message about young girls and sexuality and it's *purpose*--the message it's trying to promote--is that being just like Bella is a good alternative to whatever they are now.

If she didn't write this story with the intent of pushing this idea of femininity around, this argument would be different. But the fact that the books have this conservative religious agenda behind them--now that's a problem.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I have context. Ignore some of the above and going backward.

Yes. I find Stephanie's attitude terrifying in extreme. Beyond words. I avoid anything I know quotes her because she sucks the joy of reading those books like a leech.

I just don't think most girls who read it are going to come away with a permanent belief this is normal and acceptable once they get beyond that stage of development. Some might, I agree, but those girls who *do* already have a homelife or a parent that is modeling/encouraging that kind of behavior.

I need to re-read above comments, since I missed your point dramatically if this is the direction you were going. For adults, I find it horrific; for teens, at least in my experience and understanding, it's just another insane part of being a teenage girl.