Teen vampire flick and pop-culture juggernaut "Twilight", like "Mama Mia!" and "s*x and the City" before it, shattered records this weekend and made female moviegoers hard to ignore.
"Twilight" is far from a feminist triumph, though: it's been interpreted by more writers than this one as a purity allegory perfectly tailored for a (hopefully fading) era of abstinence-hype and hand-wringing about "hook-up culture." With a heroine who yearns to both be ravished and bitten, and a hero loath to rob her of either soul or virginity, the "Twilight" plot arc sells a pseudo-empowering fantasy (men as the sexual and moral gatekeepers, leaving women free to express their desires) while wholeheartedly embracing patriarchal norms.
Tags: bites, love, Sexy, vampires