an interesting quote: why teenage girls are the perfect readers

Here's a brilliant description of why it is that teenage girls are the perfect readers, and why books like Twlight appeal to them:

The salient fact of an adolescent girl's existence is her need for a secret emotional life—one that she slips into during her sulks and silences, during her endless hours alone in her room, or even just when she's gazing out the classroom window while all of Modern European History, or the niceties of the passé composé, sluice past her. This means that she is a creature designed for reading in a way no boy or man, or even grown woman, could ever be so exactly designed, because she is a creature whose most elemental psychological needs—to be undisturbed while she works out the big questions of her life, to be hidden from view while still in plain sight, to enter profoundly into the emotional lives of others—are met precisely by the act of reading.

I observe my 13 year old daughter retreating to her room to read and re-read series like Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter, and, most recently, the Goose Girl series, and I remember my own teen years, and what Caitlin Flanagan says makes perfect sense to me - especially because it is no longer possible to abandon myself to reading in quite the same way.


From Caitlin Flanagan's article What Girls Want in The Atlantic HT Karen (thanks, Karen!).

why I won't be giving Twilight to my daughter to read

I enjoyed reading the Twilight books (in an escapist, slightly sickening, I've-had-enough-of-this-obsessive-love-affair-and-what-does-he-see-in-her-anyway kind of way).

But I'd rather put dynamite in the hands of a gang of teenage boys than give Twilight to my 11 year old daughter to read.

On dress-up day at my kids' primary school, among all the 6-year-olds dressed as Spiderman or the Little Mermaid (itself a little disturbing if you've seen these films!), there's always an 11-year-old girl in full Twilight regalia: New Moon T-shirt, whitened face, short skirt.

My kids recently brought home a set of Scholastic Book Club pamphlets from school. Did you get them as a child? I remember poring over the pages and choosing that one perfect picture book! But these days there are less innocent items for sale. Here's some books recommended for 10 and 11 year olds:

• Heart-2-Heart. Hollywood’s coolest teens reveal their heartbreaks and heartaches!
• Kristen Stewart / Guys of Twilight Pack. Relive the dream with the stars of Twilight!
• Fallen by Lauren Kate. Some angels are destined to fall… Lucinda is drawn like a moth to a flame when she meets Daniel at her new boarding school. A page-turner for Twilight fans.

"Drawn like a moth to a flame": that sums up why I won't be giving Twilight to my daughter. Not so much because of the vampires, blood-letting and mayhem, but for these reasons:

• Romantic love is not more important than my daughter's life. Doomed teen love affairs have been popular since Romeo and Juliet. But no teen crush, however intense, is worth my daughter losing her good sense, happiness, sanity, or self-respect, let alone her life!
• Romantic love is not more important than my daughter's soul. Still more sinister is the suggestion that a love-affair can be of such significance that it's worth losing one's soul! I don't want my daughter giving up her faith or purity for a love-affair.
• Purity is not just about sex. The love-affair in Twilight is famously unconsummated until marriage. But every touch, caress, and kiss causes Bella to become so breathless that she's near fainting. The emotional intimacy is even more disturbing than the physical intimacy. Edward and Bella have the kind of intense, exclusive, emotionally fraught, unhealthy, obsessive relationship that you'd pray for your teenager to be spared.
• Long term sexual faithfulness bears little resemblance to Twilight. I don't want my daughter reading statements like "their bodies did interesting things together" - I quote from innacurate memory. But even more, I don't want to feed the teen girl's dream of a time when they will have sex all night, every night, and enjoy their lover's attentive devotion all day. Hardly a realistic view of love, marriage or sex.

Twilight has some redeeming features. Edward does what all men should do: he protects Bella's life, well-being and purity (at least when she lets him!). In fact, he's a much better role-model for boys than she is for girls. Bella does what no woman should do: she woos, tempts, and pushes his boundaries as far as she can. I'm not sure that many teen boys who are not immortal 100-year-old non-violent vampires would display such self-control in the face of this kind of temptation!

My friend, who works with young women at uni, just finished the first two Twilight books. As she says, you have to wonder what long-term impact these books will have on girls and their relationships. Which is why I think Twilight should come with a warning: "May be dangerous for pre-teen and teen girls".

second two images are from Angie22Art at flickr