Twilight!

[Kalli]

As long as the kid doesn't think they apply to reality, I don't care what people watch. But people are taking Twilight and making it apply to reality, which is absurd.

Where? Show me an example. If you're talking about the "You're not sparkly enough for me" or "I'm just waiting for my Edward" t-shirts, don't be fucking ridiculous. The fans KNOW those shirts are unrealistic and fantastical. Just the same way that "I go to HOGWARTS!" and other such pop culture based t-shirts are unrealistic. People don't actually think they go to Hogwarts. People don't actually think sexy vampires or werewolves are their destiny. It's NOT application to reality, it's just fandom.

It is being shoved down our throats, thus we have a right to voice our gripes. Why would I not gripe about this crap?

Where did I say you shouldn't voice your gripes? I think it's perfectly acceptable for you to voice your gripes without being shot down. I also think it's perfectly acceptable for fans to voice their appreciation without being shot down. My point was that often people think its unacceptable for fans to crap on about how much they love Twilight, but it's perfectly OK for them to crap on about how much they hate it.

Not to mention the fact that voicing something positive is a completely different thing to voicing something negative. People have happiness to gain by conversing about something they like. What do you have to gain by telling those people they shouldn't like what they do?

Besides which, you are griping at fans for something which is actually not their fault. Which brings me to...

I'd like to find good bumper stickers for my friends, but it's tough when 8/9 per page are about Twilight.

Yes, this is annoying. It's also not new. There's always some hot thing that is flooding the merchandise market. However, that's corporate marketing, sales and capitalism shoving Twilight down your throat, not fans. You may make the point that fans perpetuate the flood of Twilight product, but the fact still remains that you are misplacing your blame here. It's a third party shoving that shit down ALL of our throats.

Half the girls I know read that crap and now they are fixated on this unrealistic idea of a boyfriend.

Oh, come off it. How many movies make women out to be stick-thin, smoking hot with a perfect personality and mad sharpshooting skills or some shit? Pop culture has been fucking with people's expectations and societal perceptions for ever. This is nothing new. Get over it.

[Nyoibo]

Where? Show me an example.

I believe the OP mentioned their nephew not seeing any thing wrong with Edwards behavior, behaviour which in any other circumstance would be considered domineering and abusive.

Oh, come off it. How many movies make women out to be stick-thin, smoking hot with a perfect personality and mad sharpshooting skills or some shit? Pop culture has been fucking with people's expectations and societal perceptions for ever. This is nothing new. Get over it.

Substitute girls for the nephew in previous paragraph, that when a guy stops you doing things to "protect" you, when he stops you seeing people to "protect" you that that's just what a good boyfriend does rather than what a controlling abusive person does.

[Kalli]

Substitute girls for the nephew in previous paragraph, that when a guy stops you doing things to "protect" you, when he stops you seeing people to "protect" you that that's just what a good boyfriend does rather than what a controlling abusive person does.

Yeah, it's nice when you can pick and choose what aspects of a book you wish to portray. How about mentioning the part where Bella completely rejects Edward's "protection" and saw whoever the hell she wanted anyway, and the part where Edward admitted wrongdoing with that behaviour?

Besides, it's NOT a normal situation. Their life is very different to a teenage human relationship, societal rules aren't even relevant. If they were all human teenagers and Edward forbid Bella from seeing her friends, then yeah, he's a controlling jerk. But that's not the situation.

Besides THAT, the point is its a fucking FICTIONAL STORY. It doesn't HAVE to display perfect moral standing. Most movies DON'T. Most movies involve far worse shit, and nobody says boo because they haven't got an agenda to promote. Even if you think Edward IS a controlling jerk, that doesn't mean the books should be condemned. The vast majority of books contain characters that are far from perfect, and glorifies them.

[Rapscallion]

Half the girls I know read that crap and now they are fixated on this unrealistic idea of a boyfriend.

You do realise that many girls wonders why she's expected to conform to airbrushed model standards?

Rapscallion

[Lace Neil Singer]

K, so how many of you have I lost as friends because I have Edward as my computer background and am on Team Edward?

Personally, I'm on Team Tyler's Van. >: ) Anyone want to join me?

http://jack0king.deviantart.com/art/...-Van-116583829

[Greenday]

You do realise that many girls wonders why she's expected to conform to airbrushed model standards?

Rapscallion

None of the girls I know. They all make fun of them.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

During the Victorian era cheap little booklets called 'penny dreadfuls' were marketed to young adolescents. Many of them contained quickly written sensational stories, were extremely popular among working class kids, and there were long and heated campaigns to ban them because older people decided that they were so bad they were corrupting the young.

I assure you, it's gone on for centuries. Part of being a teenager is having the right to listen to music and watch movies and read stuff that is not considered high on the cultural scale. When I was a teenager people were up in arms over Anne Rice books---I remember the heated arguments, people who turned their nose up at her, and the general snobbishness that her books weren't "real" literature.. Her writing is great! versus Her writing is overrated, bombastic and chiched!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Comparing Twilight to Anne Rice's books is like comparing Sweet Valley High to Jane Eyre, seriously.

And even SVH trumps Twilight in terms of characterisation, writing skills and storylines. O_o

[Nyoibo]

I will be fair and say it's not just Twilight that I hate but anything that dumbs down a generation.

[Boozy]

Good post by ThePhoneGoddess.

I'd like to add something. What seems trite and cliched to an adult seems fresh and wonderful to an adolescent. While that does not excuse the alleged misogynism in the Twilight novels, it certainly excuses the "bad writing" to some extent.

I read a lot of garbage when I was a pre-teen, too. I grew up, and starting reading better stuff. So will today's kids.

[jackfaire]

The only thing that truly bothers me about Twilight fans is when they mock me for having loved Dawson's Creek. (thinking of specific person)

[kiwi]

Stephanie Meyer is a "good" story teller and a terrible writer.
Being a good story teller and a good writer are totally different parts of modern literature.
I LOVE Dan Browns basic story plot (I feel he re-writes the same story) and he can keep a very brisk pace, but the actual construction of the writing is just terrible. His similies make me want to gouge out my eyes and yet I can't put his books down.

[jackfaire]

his similies make me want to gouge out my eyes and yet i can't put his books down.

thank you yes!!!!

[Fryk]

Originally Posted by Kalli
"Where? Show me an example."

Howzabout... this?
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...8032105AAB76J7

[AdminAssistant]

Fryk,

That sounds like the rantings of a 13 year old girl. Go through my old diaries, and you would see similar (although better written) ravings over JTT and Davon Sawa.