14 DAY TRIAL // Robert Pattinson, the British actor who plays Edward Cullen in “Twilight,” is more than just an idol boys look up to and girls daydream about. Pattinson is also a new standard as regards what ladies look for in the love of their life because he is so extremely influential. The problem is, an OK! Magazine expert says, that it’s hard for regular guys to rise to the bar he’s set.
This, in turn, leaves both men and women with a broken heart, film expert Dr. Lisa Bode of the University of Queensland says for the aforementioned magazine. On the one hand, women will never get their Prince Charming and will continue to dream about Robert indefinitely, letting plenty of chances for happiness pass them by. On the other, men are faced with an unprecedented situation: competing with an extremely popular and not at all bad looking actor or, even worse, with a perfect vampire who, of course, can do no wrong, the expert believes.
“[Women] are idealizing Edward to the point where real men can’t compete anymore. It’s a kind of performative thing, an empowering gesture.” Dr. Bode says for the magazine. What with leaving mean with no other option than perhaps to lower their head and accept their inferiority, Bode still sees the silver lining to this cloud: after so much time spent by women trying to live up to men’s idealized image of them, it was just about time for a payback. “If you consider the way that women have had to put up with men’s ideals for centuries and feeling insecure in relation to that, there’s perhaps a little bit of revenge coming through.” Bode adds for OK!
Even if this might sound a bit funny at first, it could very well be that Bode is not that far off track, if one were to believe what OK! is saying. According to the tab, several Facebook groups have been founded since Pattinson’s fame started to reach critical levels, if there is such a thing. Of them, OK! names just two: “Twilight has ruined any chance I have at a realistic relationship” and “Because I read Twilight I have unrealistic expectations about men.”
Fans who love Robert, either for his good looks and charming smile or his rendering of Edward in the “Twilight” films, are, of course, free to take Dr. Bode’s words as they best see fit.