Edward and Bella's eternal love and intense devotion is going to corrupt the youth of 2010. Well, I guess that's the opinion of a few parents who are against the whole Twilight series for various reasons. If you believe those parents, the four part book series is teaching women to go after abusive and controlling men (or vampires if you're going to be super specific). The not so obsessed nay-sayers are just content to have people believe the series is poorly written in its entirety. I'm not contesting that the Vampire/Werewolf/human love triangle is penned by the next Shakespeare, but for me, as a work of fiction it is quite entertaining. The controversy I've found now since reading the books, and watching the movies, is even MORE entertaining. I've found people who've psycho analyzed every bit of each book and movie to such an extreme, they see evil where none truly exists.
The bigger issue, in my humble opinion, is fear. Parents are fearful that impressionable youth will see these books as socially acceptable bibles, and take in every word as gospel truth. I just dont see how a fictional account of Vampires and Werewolves can be treated so seriously. I DO know that there are a few die-hard fans out there who will become obsessive, for sure. The lady I saw drag all four of her kids to the theater to see 'Eclipse' the latest movie in the series, is a great example of gone-too-far. Her youngest wasnt even 3yrs old and screamed through the action scenes, absolutely terrified. The fact that she NEEDED to see the movie badly enough to drag all her kids with her, is an example of an obsessive personality.
However, these over-involved dramatic vampire/werewolf lovers are NOT unique to this generation, they're not even unique to the Twilight phenomenon. No, sadly there are dense, easily influenced young people in every generation. In my generation, there were teens being abused by controlling guys, getting pregnant, getting used, well before Stephanie Meyer ever dreamed up her first glittery and intense bloodsuckers. Back then we had Marylin Manson with his non-existant eyebrows and weird piercings being blamed for corrupting the youth of the 90's. Before that, The Beastie Boys were Rasing Hell. I believe at one point even Elvis was accused of influencing impressionable young girls with all his pelvic girations on stage.
I honestly think the energy that goes into exposing every pop culture phenomenon for every single flaw (imagined or real) would be better spent on the children themselves. Imagine if all that outrage was channeled into raising kids who can think for themselves, who make informed choices and learn from their mistakes! Strong minded kids who are not afraid to speak their minds, who wouldnt dream of letting some other teen control their actions or decision making. Sure kids are still going to make mistakes, but those mistakes are not a product of the music they listen to, the books they read, the shows they watch. Any error in judgement by such young adults is quite simply a stepping stone on the path to awareness and eventual adulthood.
Parents simply cannot blame the inability to learn from mistakes on one specific source. There are much much deeper issues at play when a teen will let him/herself be manipulated, find themselves in dangerous situations continuously, or make the same uneducated decisions over and over. Sure it would be nice to turn off the outside world completely, when it comes to raising kids. Some parents would relish the thought of never having to hear another lyric from Boy George, Hanson, or Justin Bieber. In the real world here though, as the caregiver to such intellectual sponges as kids often are, one needs to work WITH all of the outside influences and raise a well-rounded child to a well-rounded adult.
Obviously I'm pretty early on in my own child-rearing journey, but once Justin Bieber has sang his last ballad, Edward and Bella are but a distant memory, someone/something else will be out there to catch the attention of my children. One thing will not change however, and that is my commitment to keep them grounded and open-minded. That way, they may read, watch, and listen to whatever they find entertaining without me fearing for their eternal souls.
