There’s been much discussion recently of how Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series paints an unhealthy image of romantic relationships, especially for the millions of young girls that devour the novels and the movies.
Not to mention the posters, t-shirts, keychains, Myspace layouts and countless other products associated with this modern love story. The problem, it seems, is that the relationship between Bella and the vampire Edward resembles the kind of relationship where dating violence occurs, where violence festers in an environment that confuses jealousy and possessiveness with romance.
Critics have called the heroine (Bella) weak and anti-feminist, and the hero (Edward) abusive and stalkerish. Kellen Rice, writing for Blast Magazine, rails against the whole Twilight series and its limp main characters, claiming they “set gender equality back two hundred years in the minds of millions."
The worry is that teenagers will be negatively influenced by the unrealistic love story; teens will romanticize and idealize and seek relationships that model the one between Bella and Edward. But fictionalized drama is one thing, and real violence is quite another even if the two are never clearly separate.
A recent survey by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showed that dating violence had risen by more than 40 percent since 1999. One new study released by Liz Claiborne and The Family Violence Prevention Fund directly links the increase in teen dating violence to the current recession.
And, in the Center for Disease Control’s 2007 survey of 15,000 adolescents, 10 percent reported physical abuse like being hit or slapped by a romantic partner. Needless to say, this statistical information about teen dating violence added to recent news stories like the Rihanna/ Chris Brown fiasco is quite disturbing.
As if dating and being a teenager is not difficult enough, another study shows that teens are using technology like cellphones, social networking sites, email, etc. more and more to harass and abuse their partners more and more. In a recent survey of teens aged 13-18.
71% of teens say their partners spreading rumors about them on cellphones and social networking sites is a serious problem 68% of teens say their partners sharing private or embarrassing pictures or videos through technology is a serious problem. 25% of teens have been called names, harassed, or put down by their partner through text message.
22% of teens have received undesired sexual advances via cellphone or the Internet. Technology did not create the phenomenon of verbal bullying or spreading slanderous rumors, but certain technologies can make the abuse more intense, hurt more quickly, and for a longer period of time. Furthermore, technology has created an environment for modern teenage dating relationships where control can be exercised 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
24% of teens in a relationship say they communicated with their partner via cellphone or texting HOURLY between midnight and 5 a.m. 30% of teens are text messaged 10-30 times each hour by a partner inquiring where they are, what they’re doing, or who they’re with. Who in the world needs to send or receive 10-30 texts an hour for anything? Geez!.
The initial shock of seeing these statistics not yet gone, we all cringe to think of our own children enduring or imposing this kind of control and cruelty. But, surely we are a little bit safer living here in Oklahoma, the conservative, Bible-belt, largely rural haven? Nope.
Quite the opposite: Oklahoma students are at least twice as likely to be physically abused by their boyfriend or girlfriend. In a study conducted in 2000 by the Prevention Division of the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health, high school students were asked: "In the past 12 months, did your boyfriend or girlfriend ever hit, slap or physically hurt you on purpose?" Nationally, 8.8% of students answered 'yes'; however, in Oklahoma, a shocking 19% answered 'yes'. Among ninth-graders alone, the national average to the same question was 7.9%, while the average for Oklahoma's ninth-graders was over three times the national average: 25.7%.
So, where does our tendency toward unhealthy relationships come from? Maybe there are problems with literature that promotes self-destructive co-dependency, maybe technology exacerbates a pre-existing problem, maybe violence increases during economic hardtimes, and maybe conservatives need to open up about the realities of teenage dating.
One thing is certain: the problematic love story in the Twilight series is hardly a new problem. Most wildly popular love stories feature “unhealthy” relationships. The first classic love story that comes to mind is Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare’s classic is hardly a how-to for young couples who want to learn how to set good boundaries, resolve conflict without violence to self or others, and/ or maintain strong family bonds whilst pursuing fulfilling personal interests.
Without stretching the comparison of the Twilight books and Romeo and Juliet too much, it seems safe to say that humans have always been drawn toward literary figures that are somewhat sick and twisted, somewhat given to their passions instead of reason. And if there is something inherently wrong with wanting drama in fiction, then maybe there is something inherently wrong with us as human beings. Or maybe it's just teenagers ;) lolz!