(Note: I did not write all of this, some of it was collected from rants I found on the INTERNET and concise arguments on forums. I edited it and grammar-a-fied it. I did not ask permission for these rants. However, some stuff is mine. Yes I do realise now that Twilight fans will hate me for bashing twilight, and anti-twilighters will hate me for stealing some of their work. That's okay. If I stop posting it's because one group or another has tracked me down and killed me... Enjoy!)

7. Werewolves in this story are Paedophiles.

Anti: "Imprinting is sick, sexist, and promotes pedophilia"

Fan: "Imprinting isn't sexual", "Imprinting's not sexist because it's equally degrading"

At best, imprinting is a second-rate deus ex machina to make coupling easier for Meyer by taking away the necessity for character and relationship development. Basically, love-at-first-sight by any other name still smells not-quite-sweet. Now, had Meyer simply gone ahead with love at first sight rather than the imprinting concept, I doubt we'd be discussing it right now. Rather, I'd be arguing how lame love at first sight is.

But since Meyer chose imprinting and all its dangly bits, let's take a look at it.

Who imprints?

The male werewolves. It isn't known whether or not Leah can imprint, though she complains in Breaking Dawn that she's "twenty years old and menopausal", indicating that she can't procreate anyway, thus rendering the function of imprinting useless (more on that later).

Quil imprinted on Claire, a two year-old.

Jacob imprinted on Nessie, an infant.

((Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww))

Ahem. I mean when you get down to it, what is the purpose of imprinting?

We learn over the course of the series that the purpose of imprinting and why normal folk don't do it is to insure that the werewolf gene (or shape-shifting gene) is passed on. Think of it like an evolutionary adaptation to insure the procreation of one's species—much the same as certain types of frogs modulating the pitch and frequency of their mating calls in order to attract a female of their exact species. Imprinting is not to make sure that the werewolves get true love. It's not to make sure that the werewolves have a barefoot woman in the kitchen to make them sandwiches. The sole reason is for reproduction. That's it. No other reason.

"Imprinting is sick, sexist, and promotes pedophilia."

So if imprinting's sole purpose is for reproduction, then it is inherently sexual. Saying it's not sexual is like saying making babies isn't sexual. Reproduction = sexual.

To get out of the squick factor with Quil imprinting on Claire and Jacob imprinting on Nessie, Meyer quickly defends it by saying that the imprinter will be "whatever is needed, whether that's a brother or uncle or father."

And there go my squick alarms, blaring away like the siren of a police cruiser full of incestuous pedophiles.

One of the problems is that there is an understood future sexual relationship (by virtue of the imprinting) at stake. So the idea of the werewolf taking a fraternal or paternal role in the life of the child leads directly to the concept of child grooming, defined below:

"Child grooming"

Quote: The deliberate actions taken by an adult to form a trusting relationship with a child, with the intent of later having sexual contact is known as child grooming. The act of grooming a child sexually may include activities that are legal in and of themselves, but later lead to sexual contact. Typically, this is done to gain the child's trust as well as the trust of those responsible for the child's well-being.

Sound familiar? That's because that describes the exact actions being taken by Quil and, to a lesser extent Jacob (given that Nessie is supposedly super-mature and super in general) in their relationships with Claire and Nessie respectively.

Certainly Quil doesn't want to hurt Claire, but he's taking an authoritative role in her life and for her to grow up with Uncle Quil or Brother Quil with the expectation of a sexual relationship completely sabotages her rights and her personal ability to refuse him. That is, both Quil and the rest of the tribe expect her to engage in a relationship with him and she has been brought up with the understanding that Quil will eventually become Lover Quil. How is she supposed to refuse him when he's not only been an authority figure all her life but it's expected by him and the rest of her family and friends that they live happily ever after (and make lots of puppies)? That's inexcusable and sick, and as I already established, there can be no imprinting without reproduction. This means that Quil and Claire's relationship can never be simply platonic and that's why it's pedophilic.

Not to mention that it's also sexist. It puts all the power of the relationship into Quil's hands rather than Claire's. Sure, Quil didn't choose to imprint—it was forced upon him—but he does have the ability to mold and shape his and Claire's relationship over a period of at least 16 years while Claire is given no options of her own. This goes for every other female who has been imprinted upon… Where is their right to choose? If they're a member of the tribe, then they're expected to just fall in line with whatever boy has designs on them, because, as Meyer says, it's supposedly "hard to resist that level of devotion."

Now, a popular argument that the Twilight fans use is this: "Imprinting is degrading to both males and females equally, therefore it's not sexist." While they do make a good point about imprinting and the males, their logic is flawed. No, the males don't have a right to choose either—they become grovelling, snivelling love slaves with no options outside of the person they choose, but the difference is that they have feelings for the person. If we take imprinting at face value, then they've found their soul-mate and they have no doubts, no concerns, and no regrets about it. The problem is that it's not reciprocal. The females are not guaranteed feelings equal to the male, yet they're still expected to hop between the sheets with them. Had Meyer left it as a one-way, unrequited love process, then it wouldn't have been as sexist (it would have put power in the hands the female and degraded the male… not a good thing, either). But because she insinuates that the females are supposed to love the male back, then it becomes a problem.

Imprinting (and werewolf reproduction) is sexist in another way as well, specifically for Leah. Now, this is either a giant misunderstanding or a blatant contradiction (I'm inclined to think the latter, considering Meyer's dubious track record), but in Breaking Dawn, Meyer insinuates that Leah is infertile. WTF? Evolutionarily speaking, why on earth would a female werewolf become infertile while the males get to keep their little swimmers? (Same question to the vampires, actually) So if imprinting happens to insure reproduction, why the hell would werewolf-ism ever make the person infertile? There's zero reason for it evolutionarily (it goes counter to evolution theory, period) and biologically speaking, if the males can keep creating sperm with no problem, then it makes zero—ZERO!—sense for Leah's eggs (which she was born with) to suddenly lose their viability. After all, if imprinting is there to make sure that werewolf puppies are running around, then it implies that not only are the werewolves capable of reproduction but that it's preferred.

But no… Meyer decides to take away Leah's fertility, thus setting her apart from a) the other women on the reservation and b) the other werewolves and c) taking away her opportunity to imprint (if she's infertile, she won't imprint because the potential for procreation has been lost). Now, does the male werewolves' sperm count reduce more quickly than humans' (thus reducing their viability) because of their werewolfiness? Is that another reason for imprinting, to make sure that they get down-n-dirty quick enough so that they're not shooting blanks?

The answer to that is no. If Quil can imprint on a two year-old and have to wait a minimum to 16 years before reproduction, then it's safe to say that he's not losing any viability any time soon. Likewise, it's stated that werewolves, as long as they phase regularly, will never age.

So why is Leah ageing (going through menopause/losing her fertility)? Why does the woman get the shaft and the males get to prance around happily with no ill effects (rather, they get killer bods and a never-ending supply of viable sperm). Why do the males get their happy ending (by way of imprinting; no pun intended) and Leah is denied hers?

The only possible reason is that she's a woman and Meyer wanted to give her some extra angst (besides having her heart broken, coincidentally also due to imprinting). By taking away her fertility, Meyer implies that procreation and baby-making are the most important things to her simply by virtue of her having two X chromosomes. Sexist? I should say so.

Imprinting in five words: sick, gross, eww, *shudder*, SEXIST!, and awkward.

Good job, Meyer. Really nice work.
/sarcasm