HIV-Twilight for SA teens
By Melissa Meyer
3 December 2009 | HIV/AIDS Awareness | Prevention
Never before has a teen-flick covered issues of sexual risk and abstinence like Twilight and its sequel, Twilight Saga: New Moon – and been this popular.
In both vampire-cult movies, the heroine, Bella, needs to negotiate sex that could have fatal consequences.
In the first film, Bella’s vampire boyfriend Edward, is afraid he might get carried away and bite her. In the second, Bella’s new love interest Jacob, is a werewolf. This too apparently presents potentially deadly obstacles to doing the deed.Their sexual dilemma is the subject of much online discussion where some fans have argued that not being able to “go all the way” makes the Twilight movies sexier.
If box office revenues are anything to go by, young viewers strongly approve of the Twilight series’ interpretation of risky, complicated teenage sex. Whilst the characters might exist in a make-believe place of mythical creatures, the sexual risks they face are not very different from those in the real world.South African teens face Twilight-like sexual negotiations in their relationships every day. There might not be carnal blood sucking or fur-on-skin action, but the risks are much more frightening.
Fortunately, the real-world possibility of death-by-sex is quite easily overcome – wear a condom. And the solution probably requires much less self-restraint than vampires or werewolves would need not to kill their damsels.
Whilst critics have lambasted the films for their cotton-candy like plots, there might be some valuable lessons to be learnt from the Twilight movies:
Perhaps the world needs more sexy Edward-vampires and Jacob-werewolves – not to scare young adults out of having sex, but to draw their attention to the complexities and risks that are part-and-parcel of intimacy.
Maybe that way they too will find that “not going all the way” can be pretty sexy.
