Twilight Moms

Cathy Leogrande’s article on mother daughter bonding proved to be the most interesting article for me this week. I like twilight, but by no means am I a die-hard fan. I usually associate teenage girls with this series. I envision girls screaming over Edward Cullen. Leogrande’s article made me question these stereotypes. Leogrande suggested that young teenagers weren’t the only ones who were enjoying the books and the movies. Mothers, she argues, are also active fans. She makes a convincing argument that mothers and daughters shared enjoyment of the twilight series allowed for them to engage in conversation that without such common ground, they likely would not have.

In her study of the connections made between mothers and daughters through the series, Leogrande spoke with numerous mothers and daughters. The interviewees seemed to mimic her belief that mothers and daughters forged closer bonds because of the series. One daughter reiterates Leogrande’s point of the great conversations sparked by Twilight saying, “Sometimes we’d talk for hours about all sorts of things, and I’d think, ‘How did we get to this from talking about Edward and Bella?’” I think that this quote highlights the relatability of the movie because it allows for mothers and daughters to relate events in the series to events in their lives and allows for an open dialogue between the two family members. At first glance, most people may think that they have little in common with a series that revolves around werewolves and vampires, but there are clearly a lot of ways for people to relate.

Thinking about this older generation appreciating the movies, I wanted to accept her suggestion of googiling twilight and finding twilight moms as a popular query. I came across a website entitled twilightmoms.com that had a discussion forum filled with various threads. Clearly, Leogrande was right, based on the sheer size of this website, there is definitely an interest in twilight that ranges beyond the millennial generation. Something that I found interesting was that on a thread called “How many times have you seen it & who you went with,” it appeared that many moms weren’t just going to see the movies with their daughters, they were going with other women their age from book clubs, husbands and even sons. While there was a presence of mothers going with daughters, I found it interesting to note how many mothers were even going without their daughters. 

If you look at the two texts (movie vs. book), I definitely think that there is a greater possibility for discussion after the book, but the movies nonetheless are interesting to compare to the movies. In my opinion, the writing is definitely better than the visual representation, but seeing how the writing was interpreted and presented was definitely interesting. This series is captivating for many people and its applicable and somewhat significant themes allow for mothers and daughters to discuss beyond just the text.