Yay for rain. I say this because the snow is finally gone. We got a max of ten inches in my little section of the city. Some people got more, some less. All of us were stuck for a week and a half. *grumbles about being late to work because a bus lost its chains and got stuck in the snow*

So, as per my morning routine, I spend an hour reading up on Twilight stuff and once again, everyone is going off on how vampires rule the roost for 2008. I’m not sure if the media is being dumb or they’ve been told to play up the vampire angle but seriously, they are missing the main reason for the appeal of the Twilight saga. Completely.

I’ve had countless conversations with other women who have loved the series. When I had to start riding the bus to get to work thanks to the snow, just about every woman who saw me reading one of the Twilight books had to speak up. And while the stories of how they got their hands on the books were all different, one thing kept them in love with the series. Not the vampires, although everyone loved the new vampire mythology that Stephenie created. It wasn’t the bad boy angle. In reality Edward and Jacob aren’t even close to being “bad boys”. What grabbed every women who read these books was the trust these characters created. There is no question that for Edward and Jacob, Bella is their entire world. Everything they do is for her. Both want her to be better off then when she entered their lives and they do everything they can to make sure she is better off then before. They are dependable and constant in their affections and you don’t doubt them for an instant. Add that to the emotional journey these books take you on, as if each emotion is your very own, and you create a fantasy that most women love to be part of.

Lets face it, short term intimate relationships are considered “normal” these days. I don’t know why this is what is pushed in pop culture, but there you go. Men and Women get to be selfish jerks to each other and this is supposed to be healthy behavior.

Yeah, right.

Then a little book series comes along about a constant relationship between two imperfect people who fight to make it work against the odds and everyone goes nuts. This is what they want. Someone who sticks around, partners with them, pampers them, cares about them, strives for the best with them. Do they make mistakes? Oh yeah. Do they learn and try to make it better? Absolutely. Do they give up? No. Now I know some people will point to New Moon as proof that Edward isn’t constant, but come on girls… why did Edward leave? Because he fell out of love? He was feeling capricious? Hardly.

This is the reason why Twilight is such a phenomenon, because we all want a relationship that we can count on. Some of us are lucky enough to have that already. Some of us hope for that in the future. Its not the vampires, werewolves or being teenagers. No matter the age, we want to be in in a relationship that lasts through the highs and lows of life.

We want to be able to depend on that. And for a moment, reading Twilight, we can.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 9:01 am and is filed under Life, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.