Generation Twilight

Box Office Prophets goes beyond its usual numbers analysis to offer some deep sociological analysis of the Twilight movie phenomenon and what it means for adolescent relationships:

Edward is simply a terrible, violent, abusive person; Bella is a suggestible, weak, and emotionally battered woman. Their relationship, if removed from its supernatural context, would be a sad tale of a violent coupling, one that could certainly prove fatal to one or more partners; apparently the ghouls-and-mystery sheen that Stephenie Meyer has painted over her books obscures the facts of this relationship from view, but that gloss does not change the violent nature of Edward and Bella’s romance…

A generation of young girls will not have the tools to discern abuse because all of the warning signs have been normalized and approved by their favorite film. This will lead to violence against women. I am normally not one to say that violent behavior can be blamed on the media, but when something has messages as insidious and destructive as those in Twilight – and when those messages are being delivered to a definitely impressionable audience – the creators are very culpable in the violence to follow. Stephenie Meyer and the Twilight filmmakers have taught a lot of terrible lessons, and will continue to do so; hopefully, parents and educators will have the patience and foresight to undo that damage.

Yikes, that’s scary stuff – especially for a series of books/movies that market themselves on abstinence.  I have no idea it it’s true or not – but then again how many times have we heard this kind of stuff before?  Is there any tangible evidence?