*SPOILER ALERT*: At the risk of stripping all legitimacy from this blog, I am discussing Twilight in this post.  Since I allude to the plot, you shouldn’t read this post if you plan on reading Twilight.

Despite the many flaws of the Twilight series, it clearly has some quality which has caused millions of women (myself included) to consume it voraciously.  The writing may be mediocre, the adverb “smolderingly” may be severely overused, but Edward Cullen is just so appealing.  And although Stephanie Meyer mentions Edward’s physical perfection an excessive number of times, his primary appeal actually lies in the depth and sincerity of his love for Bella.  This love is proven throughout the story by Edward’s restraint: he doesn't kill Bella, despite his strong physical desire to do so.  (Wait, isn’t that sort of like people who abstain from having sex, even when they really want it?  Oh yeah...)  In this way, Twilight seems like an obvious advertisement for how romantic abstinence can be.

At the same time, there are a number of ways in which Twilight’s message undermines the advantages of abstinence.  One of my favorite things about abstinence (and yes, there are many) is the freedom it provides from unnecessary emotional turmoil.  By exercising physical restraint, it is easier to maintain more perspective, and thus to better analyze how well you and your partner actually suit one another.  The same principle applies to how you speak to your partner.  In this arena, Bella and Edward are clearly “going all the way.”  Saying things like “You are my life now,” and “I will destroy myself if you leave me,” must have a similar binding effect to great physical intimacy (at least third base) and is equally unwise for 17-year-olds.  This is compounded by the fact that Twilight reminds its readers of how wonderful it is to be in love, inadvertently urging them to seek love everywhere they go.  (That cute boy who sits next to me in chem class?  I might die without him!)

Another issue with the abstinence advertising in Twilight is that the lessons it provides just don’t seem that applicable.  Sex has a higher survival rate than having all of your blood sucked out, and it’s unlikely that a given reader is dating a vampire.  By promoting temptation and restraint as the key ingredients to a great romance, Stephanie Meyer encourages her readers to cultivate their own desires; when the consequences of succumbing to those desires don’t seem so terrible, real life is likely to lose the constraint which makes Twilight itself such a great story.

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Princeton's preferences

Last year the LGBT Center at Princeton University sponsored a lecture about learning to "embrace and cultivate our erotic power," along with a lecture by an "anal sexpert" who made the case for "open relationships." Despite allowing a campus center that promotes a libertine sexuality, for the second year in a row the university has refused to allow students to open a Center for Abstinence and Chastity.

Joel Alicea, administrative chairman of the Anscombe Society and one of the students lobbying for an abstinence center, said establishing the center would lend institutional support to students struggling to remain abstinent in the university's "hook-up culture." While only a minority of students may be interested in pursuing an abstinent lifestyle, Alicea reasons that the number of LGBT students is also small.

In a letter to students who were petitioning to open a center, Princeton President Shirley Tilghman told students that their argument "implies that the Women's and LGBT Centers are there to support a non-chaste or non-abstinent lifestyle, which is not the case, and would be considered offensive by both centers."

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The Debate Over Marriage: A Student Debate on the Nature and Meaning of Marriage from Joel Alicea on Vimeo.

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