• By John Scott Lewinski

From a male point of view, the only redeeming feature of the Twilight books and movies is the ammunition they provide against female claims of innate moral superiority over men.

Whenever a woman criticizes a man’s lust, aggression, shallowness or any other lesser angel of his personality, the quick-witted fellow can point to the
millions of women addicted to the base, insipid, bad-boy-worshiping, misogynist syrup so many female viewers of all ages knelt to this past weekend, when The Twilight Saga: New Moon raked in $147 million at the box office, setting several records.

In the spirit of speaking truth to diamond-skinned power, enjoy this list of unfortunate lessons girls learn from Twilight. (The list operates under the principle that any grownup female who embraces Twilight’s junior-high dreck temporarily sacrifices her “woman card.”) And so, with an insincere “love is forever,” we begin.

1. If a boy is aloof, stand-offish, ignores you or is just plain rude, it is
   because he is secretly in love with you — and you are the point of his
   existence.
2. Secrets are good — especially life-threatening ones.
3. It’s OK for a potential romantic interest to be dimwitted, violent and
   vengeful — as long as he has great abs.
4. If a boy tells you to stay away from him because he is dangerous and may
   even kill you, he must be the love of your life. You should stay with him
   since he will keep you safe forever.
5. If a boy leaves you, especially suddenly (while telling you he will never
   see you again), it is because he loves you so much he will suffer just to
   keep you safe.
6. When a boy leaves you, going into shock, losing all your friends and
   enduring night terrors are completely acceptable occurrences — as long as
   you keep your grades up.
7. It is extremely romantic to put yourself in dangerous situations in order to see your ex-boyfriend again. It’s even more romantic to remember the sound of his voice when he yelled at you.
8. Boys who leave you always come back.
9. Because they come back, you should hold out, waiting for them for months, even when completely acceptable and less-abusive alternative males present themselves.
10. Even though you have no intention of dating an alternative male who
    expresses interest in you, it is fine to string the young man along for
    months. Also, you should use him to fix things for you. Maybe he’ll even buy
    you something.
11. You should use said male to fix things because girls are incapable of
    anything mechanical or technical.
12. Lying to your parents is fine. Lying to your parents while you run away to
    save your suicidal boyfriend is an extremely good idea that shows your
    strength and maturity. Also, it is what you must do.
13. Car theft in the service of love is acceptable.
14. If the boy you are in love with causes you (even indirectly) to be so badly
    beaten you end up in the hospital, you should tell the doctors and your
    family that you “fell down the steps” because you are such a silly, clumsy
    girl. That false explanation always works well for abused women.
15. Men can be changed for the better if you sacrifice everything you are and
    devote yourself to their need for change.
16. Young women should make no effort to improve their social skills or
    emotional state. Instead, they should seek out potential mates that share
    their morose deficiencies and emotional illnesses.
17. Girls shouldn’t always read a book series just because everyone else has.
18. When writing a book series, it’s acceptable to lift seminal source material
    and bastardize it with tired, overwrought teenage angst.
19. When making or watching a major feature film, you should gleefully embrace the 20 minutes of plot it provides in between extended segments of
    vacant-eyed silence and self-indulgent, moaning banter.
20. Vampires — once among the great villains of literature and motion pictures —are no longer scary.  In fact, they’re every bit as whiny, self-absorbed and impotent as any human being.

Since the writer of this piece is clearly not female, the list came together
only after discussing Twilight at
length with women who enjoyed and detested the book and the first two movies. Olivia
Dunkley, Vanessa
Fewings, Rosie Lewinski and Beth Ann Lewinski contributed to the article

Picture By  Oatmeal