How About 'Team Bella'

I'm not a fan of the Twilight series, let me just get that our right now. I tried to make it through the first movie, and suffered a 45-minute assault of a melodramatic, self-loathing vampire and the dullest teenage girl in fiction. However, despite a complete lack in interest in high school vampire adventures, I have been consistently assaulted by a media obsessed with the three lead characters.

What has bugged me, aside from the excessive media coverage, is the idea that this teenage girl, Bella, is faced with choosing her 'swept me off my feet' vampire guy, Edward, or the 'hot best friend next door' werewolf guy, Jacob, in order to be happy.

Now I'm not such an old, married fossil that I don't remember how thrilling and exciting it was to have two guys interested in me at the same time. It's wonderful to feel wanted and pursued. For the teen and tween Twilight crowd, I can see the appeal, but I think the whole premise that her happiness is hinged on choosing one guy or the other is a bit backward and damaging.

In this day and age, we have more women than ever attending college, outranking men in the workforce, setting standards in art, literature, and independent film, yet I'm not sure why we, as a gender, remain tied to the ideals of the 1950s. Bella is 17 years old, why does she need to choose a guy to love? She should be more focused on choosing a college than choosing a mate.

In the next film, or part of the series, I think there is something about Bella focusing on college, but it takes a backseat to her relationship with her vampire guy. In an age where women can no longer rely on men to take care of them, is this the message we want to give to young girls? Many have justified Twilight's positive message, because Bella and Edward don't do the nasty until they are married. Big freakin' deal. Bella is still so emotionally dependent on Edward that she focuses more on him than on herself, which is wrong. Teenagers should be self-absorbed to an extent, because it gives them the ability to focus on their dreams, ambitions, and what they want to do with their lives.

Author Stephanie Meyer has to continue the series, but she should have ended with Bella choosing neither. Bella could have given both guys a kind let-down as she headed off to college to pursue a degree in psychology. Audiences could have been left wondering what Bella's life would have been like with Jacob or Edward, and in a day and age when technology has wreaked havoc on imagination time, it would have been a much healthier Team Jacob vs. Team Edward discussion.