Twilight Book Banning

Despite Twilight’s status as a best-seller, and because of its controversial topics, the love story has appeared on the American Library Association’s (ALA) top ten most frequently challenged and banned books in recent years. The forbidden tale is between two star-crossed lovers, a mortal human and an immortal vampire, who overcame many complications to be together. The story is extremely relatable for teens because the main characters have such distinct emotions. The author, Stephanie Meyer, has a way of captivating the reader, whether or not you’ve experienced heartbreak, love, or supernatural creatures. However talented the author may be, librarians have been removing the books in some junior schools because of the overly sexual and anti-religious content. The book is full of anti-feminist ideas, causing extensive debates about relationships and the messages our society sends to young girls and to women in general. The series teaches a very unsafe lesson to its readers that emotionally abusive relationships are desirable or acceptable. As a result of all the controversial themes and topics explored inTwilight, the ALA felt the need to ban it.

According to the ALA, Twilight was banned because of “religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, [and] unsuited to age group.” Yet, those reasons can be easily argued against. To begin, the most prominent issue is the fact that there are fictional vampires that are viewed as of the devil in some religions, and some religious people are not offended by vampires. Technically, only one character in the series is religious, and they ask important questions—about the soul, the afterlife, and the value of good and evil in the life humans lead— that teenagers should be asking anyway. Basically religious references and undertones make appearances in practically every book out there. Next, Twilight itself is not any more sexually explicit than many of the situation comedies that are regularly shown. There is no sex in the first three books. Although there is sex in the last book, it is post-martial and in no way graphic. Readers can easily skip over this part if it makes them uncomfortable. The claim that the book is unsuited for certain age groups is understandable, because some elementary school students may not be sufficiently mature. However, this is a decision that each parent should make for their own child.

The most prominent problem in Twilight is that it encourages unhealthy relationships, but that is not a reason for it to be banned. Instead, parents should explain how and why Bella and Edward’s emotionally abusive relationship is unhealthy. For example, Edward Cullen finds the need to exert control over Bella on multiple occasions. He tries to make decisions for her by saying, “Bella, please just do this my way, just this once” or when he commits “memory tampering” in chapter 17. The way Bella describes their relationship is very alarming. She says, “Our relationship