This is a great article on just what it is that is attractive about BOTH movie and book Edward and Jacob.
“The lesson for men of Edward is not how to seduce a woman, but how to get her to want to seduce you (homework to follow). While Jacob tempts Bella with a love that’s “as easy as breathing,” Edward takes her breath away because she loves him more than air, and every kiss and touch leaves her gasping for more. He’s constantly adoring her with contact; taking her face in his hands, brushing his fingers across her cheek, securing a protective arm around her waist, sliding his lips along her jaw.
Instead of exploring their anatomy, they explore the anatomy of a kiss. It’s first base to the umpteenth power, with true love multiplying their every liplock exponentially. The effect on Bella is beyond arousal. Her heart hammers, her skin flushes, her blood, which Edward craves, races in her veins. It’s no wonder romance novels are often referred to as “pornography for women.” Neither one is realistic.
The most sensuous scene in the book, omitted from the film, comes when Edward, returning in the night, awakens Bella, and demonstrates to her the benefits of his newly acquired big bed. Their reunion is comfortably sexy; a couple completely at home in each other, their conversation and every caress infused with a deep affection. You can almost hear the soft words and rhythmic breathing in the dark. But in a gender role reversal it is Edward who will stop Bella before they get “carried away.” “Must I always be the responsible one?” he’ll sigh. (Do vampires take cold showers?) It’s every junior high school girl’s dream: the beautiful, adoring boy who’ll take them anywhere except too far.”
It's an appealing escape in a culture that bombards them with images of tween starlets packaged like hookers to sell music and magazines, encouraging them to see their bodies as sexual before their minds are ready. As the pressure extends into adulthood, the message becomes more dangerous. (You never see cop shows about serial killers where the dead victims are all naked men.) In a world where real horror stories mar the nightly news, reporting women and children as prey, the idea of Edward's a relief. He's a natural predator turned mysterious protector who loves Bella so much, just being with her is enough.
"Tell me what you're thinking, please?" is a sexy line to a segment of society who, often judged by their looks, just want to be heard, but it isn't his only one. Edward's unabashedly romantic declarations ("You are my world now...the only one who has touched my heart...") roll off the tongue like foreplay, stimulating Bella to do more than just talk.
"Would you please stop trying to take your clothes off?" Now there's a line I've never heard in my entire post-pubescent life (and with any luck, I never will), but it's the ironically frustrated plea of Edward. They've come a long way since their first kiss as evidenced by Bella's perplexed retort, "Did you want to do that part?" (Of course he should do that part, otherwise what's the point of having him there?) But Edward has reasons for restraint. He's concerned for Bella's premarital immortal soul and her breakable mortal body. It's a big problem. With skin like marble, he could give new meaning to the term "Twi-hard," a fear perhaps shared by virginal viewers. But even without the bloodlust, can a vampire ever really have safe sex?
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