Hot or Not?

Disclaimer: Mom, you probably should not read this.

My 7am Facebook update stated, "Angela is experiencing vampire withdrawal since she has finished reading the Twilight series." No, seriously, I am having withdrawal, and it is only going to worsen as the day creeps along. Bedtime may be possibly excruciating since I no longer have strong, cold Edward Cullen to curl up with at night.

But the funny thing is that several friends have commented that they, too, are addicted to the Twilight series. One of them even commented on my status asking, "Is it Edward's beauty? Is it the rampant sexual tension throughout?" I don't know. But is my life so pathetic that I am now living vicariously through a fictional vegetarian vampire's sex life? It's sad, really, I've even dreamed about Edward recently. Funny, Bella isn't there, though, it's only Edward and me.

Perhaps the bigger issue, however, is how the Twilight books differ from the typical romance fare available at the local bookstore. Twilight, Book One in Stephenie Meyer's series, consists mainly of smoldering looks and gentle caresses between the star-crossed lovers, certainly not the typical describe it-in-excruciating-detail-and-put-it-all-out-there approach of the Harlequin romance. When Edward and Bella finally kissed near the end of Twilight, my toes curled, and then I read the passage again. Even when the couple does finally have sex in Book Four, Breaking Dawn, Meyer does not utilize a lot of graphic description and leaves the details up to the reader's imagination. Honestly, for most of us, imagination usually triumphs over real-life every time.

I'm not being a prude here, but perhaps our mothers were right- less may be more. It's all about enhancing the experience. Think about it. Which was better?: The tentative then electrical hand-holding of your first love combined with the is-he-or-is-he-not-going-to-kiss-me feeling, as opposed to kissing a random guy at a party while still holding a beer in one hand; The slow build and foreplay that comes with an actual relationship vs. the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am approach to sex. Just saying, maybe there is something to the waiting.

Our culture doesn't tell us that anymore, though. We hear (and since I have a tween daughter this absolutely terrifies me), "Do what you want. It's great. Have a good time. No strings attached. Don't worry about it." But there are strings attached, emotional strings. We forget to tell our children that you lose a little bit of yourself every time you put yourself in a vulnerable position with another person. How many of us have had to avoid someone on the quad after making a poor decision with them several nights previously? Once you literally put it all out there, you can't take it back. That's all, I'm saying.

Think about it. Our search for sexual liberation and allowing anything and everything to be shown and seen may actually deprive us of a heightened sensory experience. Everyone wants better sex. Perhaps the slow build approach is the way to achieve it.