Howefitz Blog

Twilight: One Father’s Ramblings On A Phenomenon

Published by justin on November 11th, 2009 in Children's Entertainment, Dad-Blogs, Daddy Blogs, Featured.

I am the father of a teenage girl. Twilight? Yeah, I’ve heard of it. Here are my feelings on the phenomenon. Come with me… if you dare!

Since the dawn of teenage entertainment, what could possibly be described as ‘gothic’ has proved to be popular. What was popular while you were growing up?

Teen Wolf (1985)

OK, so not necessarily gothic, Twilight features werewolves as well as vampires, so I had to find an example of a werewolf other than Lon Chaney, Jr.

Monster Squad (1987)

Before this becomes a list of Halloween flicks of the 80′s, let’s focus on the vampires, shall we?

The Lost Boys (1987)

Joel Schumacher’s attempt at a teen vampire movie. I had no idea it was THAT bad when I watched it back in the day. I watched it again recently with the teenager, who called it lame. Yeah, well, you’re angsty vamps are boring! Moving on…

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Really, after this one, could you really make another vampire movie? Oh yeah, there was that other one…

Interview With the Vampire (1994)

The same year as Gary Oldman was slaying ‘em in ‘Dracula’…

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

…Kristy Swanson slayed Pee-Wee Herman. But her legacy didn’t die…

Buffy on TV!!! (1997-2003)

I think you get the point.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that vampires for teens is not such a new thing.

Myself, I have not read the Twilight books. I have seen the movie. I thought it was boring and predictable. People have tried to explain elements in the book that they felt were left out of the movie, but I got it. Maybe because I love science fiction and fantasy already, but I didn’t need the elements of the myth and the Twilight spins on it to get the concepts.

What it boils down to story wise is a forbidden love, which we all can identify with from some part of our lives, which explains the fascination in my eyes. Am I worried that it’s inappropriate for my teen? Not hardly. Only in the sense that she is far more sophisticated than to fall head over heels for this hyped up fad. She liked the book well enough, but is already growing out of it faster than she did Harry Potter. (Incidentally, she watched ‘Dracula’ last night and LOVED it! That’s my girl!)

So to sum up: Vampires and monsters have been marketed to teens for a long time, and I see no cause for alarm. If you are present in your kids’ lives, you have nothing to fear. The only thing that truly bothers me about Twilight is seeing these guys on the covers of the tabloids every single day, with their eyelids drooping like they’re high. They’re together, they broke up, they’re engaged… I don’t care!

And don’t get me started on the merchandising. ‘Forbidden Fruit’ Sweethearts? Edward panties? Stop. Just stop.

It’s my opinion that the only people making this latest wave of vampire mania inappropriate are the fans. Enough, already!

At least ‘New Moon’ looks like the wolves actually get to change…

New Moon Movie and Twilight Movie

This blog post is part of the Twilight Dad Bloggers Experiment. For more, see the links below: