A vicious, pale teenager whose elongated incisors dripping with the fresh warm blood of an eaten victim who has fallen unconscious into said teenager’s arms isn’t a prototype picture a previous generation would be compelled to call “love” or even sexy, but Stephanie Meyer millions of adolescent teenagers today would disagree. There is a radical trend in entertainment that pleases and frustrates, but has become outrageously popular for its tension and relative safety that allows all ages to appreciate and follow. The idea of sex without sex has fit like a glove onto America’s ever-curious hand and has boomed since the beginning of its conception into entertainment starting with the romantic comedy genre. It started as a tool to poke fun at otherwise serious relationships struggling to find their comfort zone when it comes to a sexual relationship, but has blossomed into a billion dollar economy without ever showing as much as a nipple and I would personally like to know how.
Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga has sold over 100 million copies in 37 languages all over the world and it all centers around the relationship of Isabella (Bella) and Edward the vampire. Bella travels to a new home with no expectation of having a life, let alone finding eternal love but her ideas radically change once in Edward’s presence. First off, this decision of Bella’s to leave home and create a new life for herself and by herself is leagues away from the women’s world that Anne Waldman and Simone de Beauvoir must have lived in, women being so dependent and respondent to men’s wishes. She is an example of a maturing woman who leads the way and defines, not seeks to be defined.
Nevertheless Bella is a victim of nature like most of us and falls to prey to an immediate attraction. Diving into her psyche, the author reveals the mutual attraction buds once in each other’s immediate presence which is not uncommon. The gender norms that are being challenged today by the feminist/equality movement are strong and purposeful but should it end in success, it will be a success for individuals few and far between. Persons across the globe who do not identify as “straight” or “male/female” for any numerous reasons will hopefully be freed from wrongful persecution and judgment with an expansion of awareness, but the rest of the 98% or so of the population will continue to identify with the ever-fixed laws of attraction. A “transsexual literature, a hermaphroditic literature, a transvestite literature” as Anne Waldman hopes for is a romantic idea in terms of peace but ultimately not very sexy. Twilight is sexy because it is constant foreplay surrounded by tension thicker than the forest fog. As Foucault states early on in Chapter 3 of his thesis, “as if the speaking about sex were of itself more important them the forms of imperatives that were imposed on it by speaking about it.” In America and the capitalist world, it’s usually the idea that is considered most valuable, typically not the labor.
This is of itself a repression of sexuality in covering up the details, form and functions of the fundamental particulars that constitute a sexual act. This identity foreplay has been so sold that once people of the genre break through the discourse to what a sexual relationship truly is it has resulted in an explosion of sexual anomalies being revealed and explored but then being condemned by the governing body that encouraged the first phase of repression, allowing this type of entertainment to become an ideal.
One particular aspect of intrigue that keeps people reading Twilight is its unique take on agency of the book’s focal relationship, or what begets such a strong bond between Bella and Edward. Bella seemed to have the normal reasons to be attracted to Edward, but a diamond in the mind of the author Stephanie Meyer reveals itself when Edward reveals his reason for having such a strong desire for Bella. His extra vampire ‘sense’ decided that Bella, not by choice but by destiny, has him drawn to her like a bee to honey. This is nothing he won’t do to protect and love her. This idea of finding ‘the one’ is as original as sliced bread but has been disguised in so many ways that each time a new twist is put on it, it can be sold like wildfire.
So what makes up the Twilight saga into such a success, nationally and globally, is that it tickles the minds of a demographic that experiences the same questions and fantasies of similar situations of what could possibly be. It’s a lead in defining the new possibilities of women, but dresses up romance in a unique blanket of foreplay, tension, fantasy, but does so smartly enough to keep the messy truth esoteric and allow wondering minds to explore new ways of finding love, ways that previous generations thought impossible.
Love is the light at the end of tunnel of suffering that many endure at certain phases of their respective lives. Anthony Giddens calls this ‘personal meaningless’- the feeling that life has nothing worthwhile to offer. However when there is love, there is meaning and that is the most important reason to live above all.
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