I Can't Believe I'm Defending Twilight

I recently wrote about The Beard and I fighting over music. Another argument we often have, more good-naturedly (?) than our music arguments, is about our favorite series - LOTR for The Beard and obvs Harry Potter for me. Neither of us have read the other's favorite series, but we have watched the movies several times and enjoy it.

{I DID read The Hobbit and liked it, and I've tried to read LOTR like 10x but I just can't get past Rivendell. One day. One day. And The Beard and I have listened to 1-4.5 of the HP audiobooks on drives to St. George. Compromise}

Our arguments are usually just joking - "Harry Potter has more applicable and meaningful life & moral lessons. They aren't just kids books. They are adult books that also can be for kids. You learn something new about them and YOURSELF every time you read them!!!!" vs. "LOTR is an allegory and it's just so deep and noble and blah blah" I don't really listen that closely because at that point I'm usually crying about Dobby the second I hear the word "noble."

We usually never even talk about Twilight, because why? The Beard, like all men, hates Twilight. This Oatmeal video accurately sums up his ideas.


Last night we started arguing about it, even though I don't feel that strongly about them. Did I like Twilight? Not really. I enjoyed the first book and hated each one more and more after that. Are they groundbreaking? No. Should they define our generation? Hell no. But would I stop my children from reading them? Absolutely not. And here's why.

"These books are pointless and STUPID."

Yeah, so? If kids are excited about reading something that isn't 50 Shades of Gray or Halo cheat codes, we should be psyched about that. It's not Shakespeare. But it's something. Just read.

"It is PORNOGRAPHY for WOMEN."

Really? REALLY? Is it? It encourages waiting until marriage for intimacy and its pretty low-key when intimacy is involved. Sure, it's charged and emotional. But it is NOT pornography. You know what IS pornography for women? Trashy romance novels with half naked women and shirtless men on the covers that explicitly describes sexual encounters. Shut your stupid mouth you idiot.

Which brings me to my strongest, most angry argument.

"It just gives girls unreasonable expectations!"

I'm sorry - do you think they expect handsome vampires to show up and fall in love with them? Oh you think that the RELATIONSHIP is unreasonable, I see. Which part? The part where the man respects the woman? The part where the man protects the woman? The part where the man doesn't push a physical relationship? The part where the man is unselfish and puts the woman first?

Yes, Bella is worthless. Yes, Edward's dedication, selflessness and perfection is unrealistic.

I believe that if we're going to rank fictional characters to model our ideal men after we should DEFINITELY be going for a Neville Longbottom over an Edward Cullen. 

But if there's something that attracts females to these books that they can learn from, it's certainly the idea that women should expect respect and care from a male suitor. I see so many girls - students, friends, acquaintances, randoms in a restaurant - with complete DOUCHEBAGS that treat them TERRIBLY.

If all we take away from Twilight is that love should be happy, mutual, selfless and safe - then that's a lesson plenty of women in this world need to learn.

But make sure you read all the Harry Potters first. They have better lessons. And I hear LOTR has some good lessons too. :)

Wales: Day 40 First Day of the Rest of My Boring Life

Thursday, August 12. Even though this day was fine, in contrast with the best day of my life it just seemed so dull. I slept until about 2 pm, exhausted from a long day of walking all over London and getting home so late. I got up, wasted some time, pretended to work on my textbook, wasted some more time (seriously, the idea that I would be home in 3 days was a little too much for me to be able to focus), and then showered and got ready.

Gillian and I walked down to Tesco for baguettes and cream cheese, and then to Blockbuster to rent The Ring for movie night at 57. I am not sure I've said anything about the Blockbusters here, but they are HILARIOUS. Twilight was featured in the "Horror" section. They had no kind of cataloging system or record of what they had or was rented out. They would have 10 copies of some DVDs and then tiny collections of drama or comedy films. We just enjoyed our time in there. Anyway, they somehow had The Ring, which we wanted to rent because Gillian, Anders and Anna hadn't seen it, so we faked our residency to get a Blockbuster card (I still have it. Treasure) and rented it.

We headed over to 57 around 8 pm with the movie, blankets and treats. We pulled extra mattresses into the living room, circled the couches and chairs and settled in for scary movie night. It was fantastic. Everyone was screaming and freaking out. Just what scary movie night should be.

Anders took us home around 12:30 am and ended up coming in and hanging out with us for a couple hours. We did some solid facebook stalking (yeah, if you're reading this we probably stalked you too), had deep and meaningful conversations and laughed until 3 am when Jennifer came out and reminded us that people were sleeping and leaving at 6 am for their flights home. Kind of made us sad to realize that it was ending. It was pretty evenly split between people going home Friday and Saturday, but as I was leaving Saturday I hadn't thought too much about actually saying goodbye and getting ready to leave.

You guys would have been so proud of me. I set my alarm for 11:30 am so I would get a nice 8 hours and not oversleep because I had so much homework and packing to do, and then crashed into bed.