Buffy Vs. Edward: Not As Clear-Cut As You Might Think

I have not read the Twilight books nor seen the Twilight movie.  I have a long standing policy of not criticizing things that I haven't watched or read myself.  However, I've heard enough about the Twilight series, from a number of sources that I trust, to feel like I have a pretty good grasp at what's going on.  (I'm certainly qualified to comment on Buffy and Angel issues, having watched every single episode of both.)

This mash-up video, created by a group of Buffy fans, sums everything up nicely.  Edward is creepy, Bella is a passive loser who thinks that his stalking is somehow attractive, and Buffy is a sensible girl who would kick Edward's ass.  And rightly so.

There are a lot of interesting discussions that come out of comparing Buffy and Twilight.  It's not nearly as clear-cut as "Buffy is awesome and Twilight sucks."  Buffy, too, fell in love with her stalker (Angel).  One difference between them is that the show recognized the error of Buffy's ways, while Stephanie Meyer does not.  By all accounts, Meyer essentially celebrates and honors stalking and general creepiness as a way of showing affection.

Then again, we can't fully have this discussion if we're going to continue to pretend that "that episode" of Buffy, the one with the "incident" with Spike, didn't happen.  Hey, I understand why you'd want to pretend that.  The show was a lot less problematic if you overlook "that episode." 

For those of you who haven't seen every single Buffy episode, in "that episode" Spike attempts to rape Buffy, and very nearly succeeds.  This is the culmination of a crusade of creepiness, during which among other things Spike obtains a robot Buffy look alike for his own personal use.

The problem is that the show continues to welcome Spike as a character.  One could make the argument that Spike is the most likable character in the entire show, particularly in the last two seasons.  (Aside from "that episode," of course.)  By all rights, Spike should've been killed, or lease cast out, but Buffy lets him stay around.  You could make the argument that the show's producers made this move on purpose, but that doesn't necessarily excuse it.  Later on, Spike re-appeared on Angel, as a thoroughly sympathetic character.

I don't count myself as a Spike Apologist, but I have sympathy for those who do. 

Circling back to Twilight, the series has two big problems: first, it's aimed at children, who ought to be receiving better messages than Twilight's "if he sneaks into your room to watch you sleep, you know he REALLY loves you."  Second, the book embraces this behavior, rather than portraying it as the sick and problematic behavior that it is. 

All that being said, I have problems with the assumption that all literature should teach good values.  Is that what we really believe?  Should every book be scrubbed of authorial voice and problematic content before being approved for publication?

I say, let your daughters consume the Twilight series.  I've always maintained that anything that gets kids to read is a good thing indeed.  Just be sure to talk to them about Edward and Bella.  The biggest problem with the Twilight controversy is that I have the feeling that it isn't reaching the audience that most needs to be exposed to it.