My Take On The Twilight Saga

I'm pretty sure some of you are surprised about Chris Gomez writing with regards to the Twilight saga, especially since I do consider myself the savior of what's left of the world's machismo. Isn't Twilight a girl's movie? Has Chris crossed over to the dark side? Hardly, and I'll tell you why before we head to the cinemas for the weekend.


Besides being overly concerned with the emergence of girly men in the world, I'm equally concerned about the lack of representation that women often get in film and media. I'd wish that such gender bias only existed in the most backwards places in the world, but unfortunately even our beloved movie industry is plagued by it.

Let's take the past two decades, for instance. Most of the great movies we've seen were designed for a largely male audience -- lots of action, explosions, and sex. Movies geared towards female audiences were meanly called "chick flicks" -- by itself a derogatory term in the movie industry -- and were relegated to a tiny niche that doomed them to failure.

You might argue that it's not the men's fault -- after all, "romantic comedy" is an oxymoron that's up there with "clean politics" and "military intelligence" and "Microsoft Works" -- but it's still pretty unfair. While a few romantic movies (Titanic) got lucky and scored big in the box office, others (Pearl Harbor, Australia, and a host of others) failed miserably.

So what about Twilight?

I'm not much for emo/goth romances, but I believe finally giving women a reason to troop to the cinemas is a good thing. Even to me, Twilight can be a refreshing break from too much angst, action, and misguided machismo in the movies. Oh, and there's no denying the guys behind the movies did a pretty good job.

Does Twilight represent a paradigm shift in the film industry? I doubt it -- the upcoming years has a healthy list of male-oriented movies coming our way. At best, Twilight simply tips the scales to the women's favor -- something that couldn't have been done sooner.

The latest Twilight movie, "New Moon," is still topping the charts after two weeks in business. If you're up for something different, give it a try -- but leave your biases at the door if you want to enjoy it.