The Young Adult

Edward holds Bella in safe, non threatening ways.

I feel like the publishing world is monstrously out of touch with youth. I'm not really one to judge -- when I was considered a young adult, I also was out of touch. I feel that I started middle school at age 40 and steadily regressed in age. I now have the humor of a 12 year old boy, and the giggles of a 12 year old girl (although, most 30 yr olds have my sense of humor, so maybe we should redefine our understanding of age). But I digress...

More specifically, these people are out of touch with Women. Girls, Females, Ladies. Whatever. 

Guess who else is out of touch? Stephen King. 

I am too lazy to quote anything, so read This article. 

OK, if you are as lazy as I am, you probably won't click on the link, so I will paraphrase poorly as I go. 

First off, King takes a crack at Meyer's writing style. Fine, whatever. They're in the same business, and that is his professional opinion.

 But soon after, he takes a crack at psycho-analyzing the young adult female. Apparently Twilight is so appealing to girls (my emphasis, King's oversight of the fact that Twilight appeals to the adult female as well) because the sex is presented in a non-threatening manner. 

...

Well excuuuuuse me for not jerking off to the latest Jerry Bruckheimer crime series. 

Apparently I should have checked with Mr. King -- now an expert on female sexuality -- before finding all that covertly sexual sexless sexiness... sexy. Apparently, young women are not ready to deal with all those naughty feelings that come along with being attracted to someone, and that is why we like a story to remain subtle. 

Or maybe (and I'm going out on a vibrating limb here) all that subtlety causes the feelings in the first place you moron! 

P.S. Do you know what a clitoris is? Just checking.

Perhaps the article is unfair. It is very short. Maybe they just took a few enticing samples (Rita Skeeter style) and thus morphed King's in-depth analysis of why a girl might have a hard time dealing with themes of sex and sexuality while going through puberty. Like, how women historically have been discouraged from understanding that we too, have libido. Like how women are presented with two choices. Slut or Prude. And maybe, just maybe, women enjoy subtlety, not because we are afraid of our feelings, but because it circumvents those two restrictive, derogatory terms. A sneaky way to sex.  Oh wait, that's not King talking. That's me. 

In my very first TDH post, I too wondered at Stephenie Meyer's choice to make the novels squeaky clean. I am pretty sure a lot of it had to do with publishing restrictions. The publishers probably have some sort of weird Young Adult guideline that fits the teenage market about as well as an abstinence only sex ed class. Really, the guidelines exist to make the product marketable to the parents who will be looking for acceptable reading material for their kids. That is my humble opinion.

I am convinced that Stephenie Meyer tamed the books down a bit for the young adult crowd, but the books are still riddled with complex themes.  Stephen King calls the sex in Twilight a "safe joining of love". What is so safe about having a boyfriend that refuses to sleep with you because he is afraid it might kill you? That is a heavy, dangerous theme right there. Also, having a boy watch you while you sleep without you knowing? Slightly creepy. But Edward is a character of strong moral fiber, second only to Harry Potter (Harry Potter has a cleaner track record when it comes to killing), and readers soon understand that he isn't the dark, lurking character at all (though he certainly can be dark, and he does do a lot of lurking). Not the one you think of when you see a poster of a "dame" looking over her shoulder into a dark alley... an alley that is supposed to strike fear in our hearts at the same time that it excites us. Does it bother anyone else that a message that hints toward succumbing to the thrill of a stalker is considered 'safe', yet a sex scene between two consenting adults is too 'dangerous' for young readers? What if Edward was a wrong-side-of-the-tracks teenage vampire? Would that make the stalking less appropriate?

 

In conclusion, this post has absolutely no core train of thought. Everyone is dumb. Also, the women I know who enjoy Twilight don't strike me as having trouble dealing with all those feelings. 

You know what I think? I think King is just embarrassed because Edward's icy touch makes him hot and bothered. What what!