Advertisers spend big money on ads and they know their target audience. This one was directed at affluent, young adult women - not pre-teen girls. Using scenes from this most recent movie, they enticed women by appealing to their needs of being loved and their desires of being wanted.
I wish I could remember their exact words. They showed every issue I had with the movie. It was right there. I was so shocked that all I could do was lean back in my chair and say "wow." The very issues and needs I feel this series exposes were being used to sell, of all things, cars. Cars?!
You may have your own issues with these books. The fact that they told about vampires and werewolves was enough to turn many Christians off from reading them. As I write for teens, I wanted to know what they found so appealing about the books. I didn't have to read far. What I didn't expect to find was how this series appealed to these girls' mothers as well.
No matter what society, public schools and the media have been selling, women today want to be wanted. They still find their worth based upon the love of a man. I thought women's lib, supposedly cured us ladies of that! We set our expectations of our men way too high, expecting them to be our saviors and putting them in a god-like place. Then they fail. How can they not? We women are left hurting and angry because our man isn't a "Jacob" or an "Edward."
Anytime we try to fulfill any aspect of our lives or worth in anything other than Christ, we are going to get ourselves into trouble. Granted it won't be some mega showdown between vampires, but it is every-so-much more serious.
I don't know if you have read the books or seen the movies. Maybe your daughter has. Maybe you haven't allowed your daughter to read or watch them. My oldest daughter is still too young. Even at seven though, she can still identify the characters and has asked me questions. When she gets older, I think I will let her read the books and watch the movies. I plan on being very intentional and discussing all this with her. I see it as a teaching opportunity. I can teach her about our world, our gender and, most importantly, our Savior.
In the meantime, I pray that God would use this crazy obsession for His glory. I have a non-Christian girlfriend that I plan on seeing the movie with. I am praying that God will use this story as a way I can talk about His story. Supposedly, the heroine has found her true love at last, but it is shallow and temporary compared to the amazing love of my Jesus.
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