I fucking love Target: Women, and I about died when I saw the vampire video this afternoon.
Ditto everything you said about Ralph Fiennes in GOF. It's a testament to what he does with Voldemort that he only had one scene in that whole movie, but it's the scene that stays with you.
Also: I guess not even Miranda Richardson can resist The Hair. I feel better now.
One of the comments on the comments page was right on the money too (see: water baby's comment): "Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but maybe a certain type of young woman likes the idea of a male with self-control because then for once SHE isn't the gatekeeper of sexuality? If you're raised in a very religious or socially conservative household, you're trained to think you can't lose control around guys because they have *no* self-control and then anything that happens will be your fault. But with an Edward Cullen, you're allowed to be the wanton, sexual one - he does all the holding back for you."
I think that's absolutely right, and it's also one of my main worries about the books, that a lot of these girls are so impressionable, and they're going to get it into their heads that their boyfriends will be able to exert the kind of self-control that Edward has, and unless they're dating the perfect Mormon boy (because seriously, Edward is the perfect Mormon boy as vampire), they're probably going to be in for quite a shock.
Also, I know this has been extensively discussed but it is obvious that SMeyer has never been the victim of a stalker. I find it frightening that SMeyer passes off completely stalker'ish behavior as something romantic, like the amount he loves you is directly proportional to the amount he disables your car, forbids you to see friends, and sneaks into your room and watches you sleep. That is just plain inexcusable, IMO.
I just hope that parents are reading these books and telling their daughters that these books are works of fiction and if a boy EVER displays this type of obsessive/possessive behavior in real life, it should be a gigantic red flag and they should immediately tell an adult about it (and get the hell away from the boy). Sadly, I don't think this message is getting across, since both mothers and their kids are screaming that Edward Cullen is the "perfect man".
Well it goes back to the idea that the whole story is Meyer's sexual fantasy that was never supposed to be published. In much the same way that some women have rape fantasies, maybe Stephenie Meyer likes the idea of being dominated, but because it is a fantasy, she is entirely in control of what happens.
That's the difference between fantasy and reality, though, and most of her younger readers don't know enough yet to be able to distinguish between someone who really wants to spend a lot of time with you, and someone who's stalking you.
I don't know that Meyer should be held responsible for this as much as her publisher. Stephenie Meyer is entitled to have whatever sexual fantasies she wants. But someone else read it and thought it would be a great idea to target it toward the tweens. That person either didn't register the creepiness, in which case he/she is an idiot, or he/she did and still decided to publish it. To me, this person is more dangerous than the author.
That's a good point. From the first half of the first book, I never thought these books were appropriate for kids/young adults (unless they had parents involved to help them understand that while this behavior might be ok in the fictional world of vampires and werewolves, it is never ok in the real world).
Ditto everything you said about Ralph Fiennes in GOF. It's a testament to what he does with Voldemort that he only had one scene in that whole movie, but it's the scene that stays with you.
Also: I guess not even Miranda Richardson can resist The Hair. I feel better now.
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One of the comments on the comments page was right on the money too (see: water baby's comment):
"Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but maybe a certain type of young woman likes the idea of a male with self-control because then for once SHE isn't the gatekeeper of sexuality? If you're raised in a very religious or socially conservative household, you're trained to think you can't lose control around guys because they have *no* self-control and then anything that happens will be your fault. But with an Edward Cullen, you're allowed to be the wanton, sexual one - he does all the holding back for you."
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Also, I know this has been extensively discussed but it is obvious that SMeyer has never been the victim of a stalker. I find it frightening that SMeyer passes off completely stalker'ish behavior as something romantic, like the amount he loves you is directly proportional to the amount he disables your car, forbids you to see friends, and sneaks into your room and watches you sleep. That is just plain inexcusable, IMO.
I just hope that parents are reading these books and telling their daughters that these books are works of fiction and if a boy EVER displays this type of obsessive/possessive behavior in real life, it should be a gigantic red flag and they should immediately tell an adult about it (and get the hell away from the boy). Sadly, I don't think this message is getting across, since both mothers and their kids are screaming that Edward Cullen is the "perfect man".
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That's the difference between fantasy and reality, though, and most of her younger readers don't know enough yet to be able to distinguish between someone who really wants to spend a lot of time with you, and someone who's stalking you.
I don't know that Meyer should be held responsible for this as much as her publisher. Stephenie Meyer is entitled to have whatever sexual fantasies she wants. But someone else read it and thought it would be a great idea to target it toward the tweens. That person either didn't register the creepiness, in which case he/she is an idiot, or he/she did and still decided to publish it. To me, this person is more dangerous than the author.
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