What’ll you learn? Well, not just about Twilight, not just how our culture thinks, not just how many women think & how trends are changing — there’s even more here. It’s juicy. (And yes, there’s a point or two in here that I — <gasp!> — don’t agree with, maybe we’ll get into in the comments )

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Why Twilight Is Not Just Bad, But Dangerous

Disclaimer: I’m basing this article more on having watched the films (All four of them. Twice.) than the novels. I read the first one, and am reasonably confident that the films are faithful to the source material, at least as far as the issues I’m presenting here are concerned. The fourth film has not been released yet, and as I’ve not read Breaking Dawn in its entirety, I am referring to reviews and commentary.

Unless you’ve been living under some kind of rock for the last 7 years, you’ve heard of the Twilight Saga; the novels and films about a young woman and her supernatural suitors.

Undoubtedly the novels and films are popular – popular beyond belief, among teen girls (and younger) and a somewhat surprising mix of other groups. There are some good reasons for that.

Supernatural creatures like vampires and werewolves inherently capture the imagination, and there are rich histories surrounding these mythical creatures. (The whole first nations/werewolves/ imperialism thing is deeply problematic, but is not my focus here.)

Romance, while not a genre I like personally, gives a lot of pleasure to a lot of people, which is a great thing. And the books and movies do capture the feelings of overwhelming emotional intensity I think we can all remember from our teen years.

Turning the archetype of vampires on its head can be annoying to some people, but I don’t think that anyone would question the right of an author to alter myths to suit the worlds and stories they create.

Escapist fiction, where you can easily super-impose yourself over the characters can be fun and exciting.

Even terribly written fiction has its value; this is the story, after all that brings you a hero that once “lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare," who says things like: "Sleep, my Bella. Dream happy dreams. You are the only one who has ever touched my heart. It will always be yours. Sleep, my only love." Read it out loud. It’s hilarious.

So none of those things are the problem I have with Twilight.