Well Twilight is a whole other subject in and of itself, but something we have discussed amongst ourselves is its effect upon other fandoms, including Narnia. In the Twilight model, virginity is heralded as the single virtue without regard to the very, very bothersome dynamic that develops amongst the characters. Bella truly wishes for her boyfriend to kill her and sacrifice her soul so that they might be together forever. On their first date, she tells all her friends not to worry if his loses control and kills her because it's not his fault. Edward's stalking and controlling behavior and her extreme passivity are glorified and justified because they aren't having sex. (Never mind what happens when they finally do marry and do have sex and it is a very, very violent and battering event, but that's OK too because she loves him and what's a little pain when you love your rock hard, hot vampire husband? It's not as if he can help himself, right?)

Under this model, virginity becomes the touchstone by which the morality of the whole is judged and without regard to what else is going on. So long as the characters remain virginal, all manner of other troubling conduct is permissible or passes without remark -- torture, assassination, capital punishment, uber-graphic violence, marginalization and invisibility of women, and, well, the list goes on. I was discussing one story with someone last night where the overall message of the piece is that the female OC must be gentled, improved, made dependent and adoring before the canon King will marry her. It's a common theme, yet, so long as there is no sex until marriage, it is viewed as a "romantic" and moral story.