The truth about ‘Twilight’ and teen girls

As I wrote in my first column, conventional Hollywood wisdom says that only teenage boys go to the movies. Despite all evidence to the contrary, this way of thinking has persisted out of the belief that girls and women are not a strong market for action flicks or movies about men wearing funny costumes. Of course, women are in the market for those movies as well. What could be more appealing to females (heterosexual females, at least), than two hours of watching a movie star like Robert Downey, Jr.?

The answer, apparently, is vampires.

The second installment of the Twilight Saga, “New Moon,” has been out for three weeks and has already made more than $255 million in the United States. Its first weekend box office total was the third-highest figure of all time, behind only “The Dark Knight” and “Spider-Man 3.”

In case you have been living under a rock, “Twilight” is the story of a teenage girl, Bella Swan, who is passionately in love with a vampire, Edward. Edward does not drink human blood (he opts for animal blood instead) and sparkles in the sunlight. When that monstrous opening weekend figure was released, critics and bloggers alike were flabbergasted at how a movie not directly aimed at men could do so well.

If they had only talked to a teenage girl—any teenage girl—they would not have been so surprised. I certainly was not. Young girls are uniformly crazy about the “Twilght” books and movies, and they have parents who are willing to take them to the movies if they want to go. Their parents are willing to buy them movie tickets, merchandise, and DVDs, just like teenage boys’ parents do.

The executives at Summit Entertainment, the studio that snatched up the rights to the novels before they became a phenomenon, are now laughing their way to the bank for recognizing the fact that women—in this case, mostly pre-teen and teen girls—spend money at the multiplex just like their male counterparts.

It would be the height of folly for the rest of Hollywood to ignore Summit’s success: in the wake of “New Moon,” nobody can feasibly make the argument that only boys go to the movies.
Unfortunately, the movies that will be made in order to capitalize on “New Moon” will probably mimic its blatant sexism as closely as possible.

I admit that I have not seen “Twilight” or “New Moon,” nor have I read any of the four novels in the Saga. But I am familiar with the story and the way that Bella and Edward, her dreamy vampire beau, are portrayed. Bella is dependent on Edward in every way. After he abandons her (for her own sake, of course) at the beginning of “New Moon,” Bella can think of nothing but getting him back. The easiest way to attract his attention seems to be by endangering herself—she literally jumps off of a cliff in the hopes of conjuring his protective spirit.

The message that these movies send to young women is straightforward: Without a man, life is not worth living. Their popularity clearly indicates that women of all ages are more than willing to buy into this myth. What saddens me the most about “New Moon” is that both the book and the screenplay adaptation were written by women who evidently put minimal value on female strength.

But as sad as that is, in the wake of the Twilight Saga, there will almost certainly be more films geared toward a female audience. For years, people will be searching for the next “Twilight.” But I hope that forward-thinking people realize that they can make movies about women without demeaning them, and that those movies would appeal not only to women, but also to men. “Twilight” has a uniquely female appeal: for some reason, women like to see themselves as helpless, even if they are not.

I’d like to see a female Tony Stark someday: self-destructive, maybe, but also brilliant and brash and beloved. I’d see that movie—and so would all of my friends, female and male. “Iron Woman” would put Bella Swan to shame.

Morgan Davies is a Barnard College sophomore.