No, The Twilight Saga Is Not Porn For Women

I’m about two months late with this post but I thought I should at least read the Twilight books and see the New Moon film before I made any comment. (Note: Spoilers follow).

For a while there, almost every Google alert I got for the phrase “porn for women” came from some columnist or blogger declaring the books and films to be thus. It’s an offhand way of dismissing the immense popularity of these teenage vampire books, similar to the way romance novels are marginalised. “Oh,” huff the critics, “it’s all just fluffy romantic nonsense. Porn for women.” (Because women don’t like real porn, of course. We’re too girly for that. Sex is icky, remember?)

I’d like to declare that the Twilight Saga is not porn for women. Mainly because it’s not porn. Duh.

Oh sure, the films certainly offer female viewers plenty of eye candy, especially New Moon which features a whole pack of buff young men running around without shirts on. “You’re kind of beautiful,” Bella tells Jacob, saying out loud what we’re all thinking. Meanwhile, Edward’s brooding, yellow-eyed paleness has its own distinctly emo appeal.

Yes, no doubt about it, the guys are gorgeous and it’s great that the female gaze is so evident in this movie. It’s absolutely a film made FOR female viewers, something that’s still quite rare.

But it’s not porn because there’s just not enough sex. Rather, it’s romance, plain and simple. The Twilight books stick firmly to the old-fashioned Mills and Boon script of love, marriage, then sex followed almost immediately by children.

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I found myself having something of a love-hate relationship with the books as I read them, both guiltily enjoying the luxury of a good romantic novel while still feeling very frustrated about the sexual dynamics of the whole thing.

Almost everyone agrees that vampirism is a metaphor for sex and that’s part of the appeal. The first three Twilight novels seem to be an ode to abstinence which is perhaps not surprising that the author is a Mormon. Despite Bella’s determination to do the wild thing with Edward it doesn’t happen until the fourth book and even then, only when they’re safely married and on honeymoon.

And what’s worse… she fades the scene to black before anything happens! I must confess, I actually yelled at the book at that point. “No!” I said. “Where are the goddam juicy bits?! How could you do this to me, you bitch!”

Despite the coyness of Meyer’s writing, it’s apparent that “sex” for Edward and Bella can only mean penis-in-vagina intercourse; there’s no scope for any other kind of loveplay, despite the fact that the act is extremely dangerous for Bella. Haven’t vampires heard of mutual masturbation? And then the couple seem to get pregnant on their very first shag.

Porn for women? Pah! The whole thing just felt too white-picket-fence and conservative for me to find it intellectually appealing.

And yet… having expressed that frustration, I should now acknowledge two things. The first being that the book is for teenage girls and thus blow-by-blow descriptions of human-vampire sex may be a bit inappropriate and also decrease possible sales.

Secondly, part of the appeal of the Twilight series is the thrill of delaying the moment. As Dr Frank-n-Furter might have said, the books and movies make us shiver with anticip….ation. I ploughed my way through thousands of pages waiting for them to finally get it on and, if nothing else, it kept me motivated.

While I can’t support the idea of abstinence as a good thing simply because someone declares it to be “right”, Twilight at least makes it seem appealing for it’s own sake. There’s something to be said for the idea of delayed satisfaction, of holding back and letting the mouth water a little longer than necessary. And that, perhaps, is another reason why these books aren’t porn. Because porn is about self gratification and fantasy, something that often doesn’t include any kind of anticipation or delay.

So part of me rebels against the ideological grounding behind the book and at the same time I found myself enjoying the results.

See what I mean about love-hate?

Others have criticised the way Bella is so passive and self absorbed. They say the books promote the idea of giving everything up for a boy if your emotions dictate that you must. I don’t really have an issue with those things. It is, after all, a teenage love story and I remember feeling the same way when I was 16. Twilight is emotionally honest, even if it seems angst-filled or over-the-top to adults. And if nothing else, I see the books as a gateway to the literature upon which Meyer based her plot.

There’s one more thing that makes me want to wave the flag for these books and films, despite their many flaws. It’s the fact that Twilight unashamedly speaks to women. The author and the filmmakers know their audience and they’ve made an effort to cater to that audience without compromising. The result is a multi-million dollar franchise that has spawned a bunch of imitators and made Hollywood realise that the much derided “chick flick” might actually be worth pursuing.

It’s also created a spiteful anti-Twilight backlash that may simply be motivated by scorn for “girly nonsense.” Hence the derogatory use of the phrase “porn for women.” For an excellent critique of the way Twilight’s popularity has been marginalised in the mainstream media, read Sady Doyle’s excellent article Girls Just Want To Have Fangs.

Twilight is more than a teen dream. It’s a massive cultural force. Yet the very girliness that has made it such a success has resulted in its being marginalized and mocked. Of course, you won’t find many critics lining up to defend Dan Brown or Tom Clancy, either; mass-market success rarely coincides with literary acclaim. But male escapist fantasies — which, as anyone who has seen Die Hard or read those Tom Clancy novels can confirm, are not unilaterally sophisticated, complex, or forward-thinking — tend to be greeted with shrugs, not sneers. The Twilight backlash is vehement, and it is just as much about the fans as it is about the books. Specifically, it’s about the fact that those fans are young women.??

Doyle also points out that because Edward is not your stereotypically macho hero (he’s pale, beautiful, talks about his feelings, sparkles occasionally), he’s easily derided by men as being not manly enough. Never mind that women find him extremely attractive, the guys won’t have a bar of it. Bring on the muscles, they demand. This Edward bloke isn’t enough of a proper vampire! He’s just so… poofy!

I find Edward to be very appealing, if a little… stalky. He’s infintely superior to the boofy and obnoxious Jacob who I was ready to kill by the end of the third book (buffed abs or no).

So there it is, my delayed critique on the whole Twilight shebang. Not a literary masterpiece by any means but still a cultural phenomenon worth studying and, yes, occasionally praising.

The only question that remains is this: can Twilight ever be porn for women?

Well, I’m thinking the rights might be a little hard to acquire. But beyond that… it might be a project worth doing. Think of the possibilities: Gorgeous pale vampire guy, hot buffed werewolf guy, cute human girl… cue the MMF threesome.

I think most of us wouldn’t mind seeing that.