Twilight Poisoning Young Minds?
Thursday, February 4, 2010

by Marisa

With over 42 million copies sold, the Twilight Saga is the most popular book series of the new millennium. It broke records set by some of the most famous books we know of today, like the 14,500 copies per week sales rating set by The Da Vinci Code, with Breaking Dawn selling 19,800 copies per week in January, according to Andhra News. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, and an intriguing read some might say. I am not a fan of the books, but I can see the appeal of a to the death romance novel. What’s wrong with loving romance? The answer to that question is absolutely nothing, unless you’re an impressionable preteen girl who doesn’t know what love really is. In these books, author Stephanie Meyer shows her own interpretation of true love, but what a young person will gather from that could prove very harmful to future society.

Bella’s character promotes anti-feminism:

The protagonist of these novels, 17 year old Isabella Swan falls in unconquerable love with the frozen-at-seventeen heartthrob vampire Edward Cullen. Throughout these novels they make it painfully obvious that they have a passion for each other that could not be expressed through words. Another thing that’s painfully obvious is the fact that he is the strong one. Bella relies on him for survival. She would have died halfway through the first book because she is dependent on him. This dependency on Edward, hidden behind a disguise of vampires and blood is a complete opposition of feminism. Indeed, Edward even told her, “You have no idea how fragile you are.” Fragile without him, no doubt! Meyer created this character so dependent on Edward that in the second book, New Moon, when Edward left her “so he couldn’t hurt her anymore”, she slipped into a depression that had her wallowing in pain, ignoring everyone and everything, until she started to spend time with werewolf Jacob Black. She was still depressed, but at least it wasn’t to the point where the only thing on the pages was months in big print. She needed Edward to live, so to speak.

Bella and Edward can’t live without each other:

Now, on easily influenced teenagers, these parts of the story could start a generation of complete anti-feminism. However, that’s most definitely not the worst thing that they can gather from these books. No, our friend Stephanie isn’t done poisoning kids minds yet. Oh no, it’s not a full day’s work if you haven’t convinced kids that self-abusive, even suicidal behavior is okay. In New Moon, when Bella is in her depression, she figures out that if she puts herself in a dangerous situation, she hears Edward’s voice in her head, telling her it’s stupid and she shouldn’t do it. That’s of course, when she should probably stop, but she doesn’t stop hurting herself in hopes that she hears more. Doesn’t seem a little wrong? Sick? And then she jumps off a cliff, which causes Edward to be suicidal, and run off to Italy to be killed. Not that this should be a surprise to anyone. No way, Edward made it perfectly clear when he said, “Well, obviously I wasn’t going to live without you.” Yes, that makes sense, says the 10 year old girl reading the book and skips off into the sunset thinking it’s perfectly acceptable to commit suicide.

Edward Cullen is abusive:

The most destructive part of the saga, however, is if these books become the prime example of pure and true love. As they are the number one example in the world, it is of great concern. The people who read these books, as I have made fairly clear, are young girls trying to figure out what love is. However, these books will set an awful example, because Bella and Edward’s relationship is not a healthy one. In fact, it’s downright abusive. Edward shows many symptoms that are used as examples to help people know if they’re in abusive relationships. One is so completely true that there is no way to argue it. And that is the he scares her by driving recklessly. Anyone who has read the books knows that Edward Cullen drives very fast, and it certainly scares Bella. Another thing that is not questionable is the warning sign when the abuser restricts visits to friends and family. In Eclipse, when Bella wishes to visit her previously mentioned friend Jacob, Edward makes it totally and completely impossible to do so, and even goes so far as to remove her engine from her truck and have his sister Alice hold her practically hostage. And of course, the fact that he threatens to kill himself is a sign as well. Another thing that should be mentioned, even though it’s not necessarily abusive, is the fact that even before they were together, Edward would sit in her room and watch her sleep. Now imagine a thirteen year old twilight fan with a creepy secret admirer who wakes up in the middle of the night to find that admirer in her desk chair. And imagine that instead of screaming and calling the cops, she would think it was the sweetest thing in the world. It’s a disturbing concept and should be treated as such. One in five teens says that they have been in a abusive relationship. And studies show that this is often because teens don’t know what love really is and cannot recognize it. Considering the phenomenon Twilight has turned into, and the age of the girls that read it, what do you think will happen to these statistics?

As these books set our generation up for an era of anti-feminism, repetitive suicide, and abuse, we have to address the problem. If a young person is reading these books a parent or guardian should make very clear that these books do not always set the best examples. Many girls at very young ages are reading these books and getting the wrong idea of what a relationship should be. Therefore, we need to be certain that they know that a good relationship should not follow Bella and Edward’s.

It BLUE my Mind
Monday, February 1, 2010

by Aastha

Like Jake Sully said, “I can pass any test a man can pass,” and just like that, Avatar easily passed the movie critics. After Titanic, James Cameron has once again blown the minds of viewers with Avatar, which proved its worth by being a worldwide success of unbelievable proportions. Starring actors like, Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine, and Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon, this movie has showcased tremendous talent.

Hollywood has had its highlights in the past few years with movies like District 9 and Inglorious Bastards - but Avatar? Avatar has rightfully earned its high rank on the ‘mind-boggling’ scale. By filling the screen with dazzling 3- D sights, it has proven to be one of the most technologically involved movies after ‘Larger than Life in 3D.’ Working in cooperation with highly qualified visual effects studios like, Weta Digital and Industrial Light & Magic, Avatar excelled in the field of computer generated imagery. By incorporating challenging scenes like the human attack on the Navi ‘home tree’ or the final battle scene between Jake Sully and Colonel Miles, this movie makes shelling out money on watching it, worth it.

After winning two Golden Globes, one Critics’ Choice Month Award and numerous other honors this movie has had its ‘15 minutes of fame’ and as Neytiri said “All energy is only borrowed, and one day you have to give it back” and just like that, Avatar is giving up its hyped fame. Media and viewers have started finding flaws in this hardcore awesome movie through which I sat in awe, wishing I had a tail too, just like those breathtaking blue people.