Messages to Girls About Dating Relationships in The Twilight Sage

Presenter Information

Kari Jansen, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 204

Start Date

5-4-2010 10:00 AM

End Date

5-4-2010 12:00 PM

Student's Major

Gender and Women's Studies

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Helen Crump

Mentor's Department

Gender and Women's Studies

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Second Mentor's Name

Melissa Purdue

Second Mentor's Department

English

Second Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight Saga became a cultural hit. Breaking Dawn the final book in the Twilight Saga sold 1.3 million copies within the first 24 hours alone. The saga is centered around a relationship between the main character, Bella, and her relationship with a vampire named Edward and a werewolf, Jacob. With so many young girls having read this, there was a need to explore the messages about dating these books send to young girls who have read them. Using literary analysis, I examined the relationship between Bella, Edward and Jacob and compared it to current narratives and scholarship about dating violence. Some messages sent to young readers have an eerie resemblance to dating and partner violence. Hopefully this research has exposed messages that might be harmful to young girls, thus raising awareness in many ways. Young girls need to be aware of underlying messages they are reading in any book or are getting from any media outlet. Also I would like to spark awareness with authors that they would be more aware and more responsible with the messages they send to their audiences.