“So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents.” Genesis 25:27I could not help but think of these apparent opposite brothers while watching the recent hit movies, The Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse. It has taken me a while to completely analyze and understand the frenzy surrounding the extremes of Jacob and Edward, Bella’s two love interests in the series. But after careful thought and speculation I think I am finally able to comprehend what the allure is to women of all ages and walks of life.
Those who are unequivocally baffled by this craze are men, and rightly so; they sure didn’t see this coming. What could these two boys, not even yet men, possibly have to offer that so captivates young, middle aged, and old women alike? I would daresay, had I not done such extensive work on studying femininity, her image, and her patterns I may not have seen it either and been completely drawn into the debate of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob, mooning and fawning over the fantasy of my pick. But I’m not…at least not without understanding. So how did we arrive at the extreme of Jacob, the ferocious werewolf hunter, and Edward, the mild vegetarian vampire “tent dweller”?
Well, men… this may come as a shock, but they are beasts of your own making. You created them. How so you may ask? They are the extremes of masculinity demanded by the characteristics affirmed by men in women: the hot and heavy sensuous sex object and the unapproachable, untouchable ice princess. These extremes of femininity affirmed by men and not the image God created which is precariously balanced on His character and does not delve into these extremes, is what has demanded the imbalance in masculinity. In the beginning when God created male and female He made them dependent on one another for physical wholeness, definition, and fruitfulness as mankind. Because of the mystical interconnectivity between man and woman, what happens to woman inevitably affects what happens to man. Because of the unique role of men as initiators of the creative process, women cannot bring life to what you have not initiated or firstly given to her. And so it is for this reason that I lay the responsibility at your feet.
The ice princess filled with shame and loathing of her own femininity and sexuality, craves the raw and animalistic heat offered by Jacob. The sensuous sex object, reveling in and exploiting her own sexuality, desires the affirmation of her virtue and the cold emotionless and suppressed passion of Edward.
I define my view of femininity as created in God’s image from the characteristics of God’s Wisdom. While Wisdom is pure and submissive, she is also a mother. But the role of mother is impossible without the characteristics of sexuality somewhere along the line. An appropriate balance between the sexuality we possess and the modesty of purity is essential to purposefully creating life. In order to mar and upset this divinely reflected entity, the enemy must convince us to operate in extremes. The personification of these extremes is named, Folly. Quoting from my work, Made in Their Image (2008):
“Women have suffered an immense amount of shame associated with our sexuality. Throughout the Bible shame is always a degradation of glory or honor. “The wise inherit honor, but fools he holds up to shame” (Proverbs 3:35). We suffer shame when we lose sight of our glory. In today’s society we have reached a different attitude. We have thrown off our shame associated with our sexuality and embraced that sexuality. But because we did not perform this function with the image of God in mind we also threw off all respect, glory, and honor associated with our sexuality – the purity of it. Our faith does not allow us to embrace sexuality as the world has defined it for us and so we find ourselves pulled between the extremes of cessation in shame and sensation in vulgarity of our sexuality. This is how Folly functions. She works in the extremes of Wisdom, prowling around her character and looking for ways to distort her image. She does not care in which extreme she functions; she only cares that we do not realize the true intent, power, and divine reflection of our femininity.”
The greater the affirmations of women’s extremes become, the greater the demand for Edwards and Jacobs will also be. If a man’s intent is to affirm a woman’s sexuality with no regard for her holiness, he will need to become the unfeeling, undead Edward to combat the imbalance he has created. If a man desires the cold, emotionless and rigid stereotype of purity without affirmation of femininity’s need to bring forth life through her sexuality and the purity of that role, he must become Jacob to balance the extreme he has affirmed.
So to all my many male friends who have expressed their complete befuddlement of this trend, I say this: If you wish not to see the distortion and manipulation of your masculinity into these boys you simply do not want to be, then be cautious of how and what you affirm in women. If you choose to affirm the negative extremes of femininity around you, your divinely inspired confidence and humility will be warped into the grotesque disfigurement of Jacob’s arrogance and Edward’s cowardice, your divinely placed authority into the dominant viciousness of the alpha male and your command to serve femininity into the indecisive weakness of the impartial undead.
To all my dear female friends who are captivated by the idea of Edward or Jacob, use this knowledge to analyze your own femininity, what has or has not been affirmed, and what you are lacking to become uniquely balanced in God’s image.
And now, finally, the answer to the question you have all been awaiting: Which team am I supporting? Well… that is my own demon (no pun intended) to deal with.
