WANTED: Fiction Men

Every girl dreams of one day finding that "perfect man". You know the one! The one that rides in on his white horse and sweeps us off our feet. The one that always seems to save the day looking handsome while doing it.


Women have been spoiled by certain classic romantic literature, like Pride and Prejudice, The Notebook, and Gone With the Wind. These books portray the type of men that every woman hopes to one day get their hands on. Classic gentleman like Mr.Darcy, Noah Calhoun, and Rhett Butler are standing figures of what the "perfect man" might be.


These swoon worthy characters now have new "younger" competition.


Two words.


Edward Cullen.


The recent release of Stephanie Meyer's "fangtastic" series has sparked a whole new generations interests with a handsomely, dangerous, vampire who just happens to be.....well....perfect!
Throughout the Twilight saga, Edward is often described as looking like an "angel". But it isn't just his looks, thanks to actor Robert Pattinson who brought the irrestible Edward Cullen to life; that make the character so appealing. It's in his mannerisms. His character.

Edward, is very protective over his true love, Bella. He is extremely charming and as it describes on just about every other page in the saga, it shows just how deeply in love he is with his human girlfriend. It also helps that he was born in the early 1900's.

Well, thats very sweet and all, but should it really take a vampire to show us how dangerous fictional male leads are? Tween and teenage girls are purchasing memorabilia and t-shirts from all over the world that say such things like, "Waiting for my Edward" (Okay, so I must confess that I have a t-shirt with afore mentioned saying....but it was a gift) and "Bite Me" on underwear. What message is that sending to the young and easily influenced?

People, especially women love reading romance novels that show us how amazing a guy is and makes us wish that the fictional character we are reading about, is who we want to be with. We want guys JUST LIKE them!

Could that mean that fictional men are ruining the chance of women everywhere to be truly happy? By reading these type of romantic love stories, we, as readers, are setting ourselves up for heartache and pain. Women start comparing real life men to that of the characters we read about in our lovey dovey romance books.

Women of America, this is not healthy!

By doing this we become picky and choosy and then wonder why we can't find a man.

All I am saying is, it is not fair to look for people who don't exist. Its not just women. Guys do it with girls too. They want the Playboy girl, or a Supermodel. Fictional women they see in magazines. Women want the romantic comedy, leading man. It is not impossible to get that.

Nobody is perfect.

There is no such thing as the "perfect man".

I know that I myself am sometimes guilty for comparing real live men to fictional characters. But, it is all in a matter of knowing how to separate fact from fiction.

Real from fake.

Edward from the average Joe.

Imagination. From. Reality

Kiersten Williams