Older women and the vegetarian vampire fantasy

Lisa Hansen is 36. The mother of two said she picked up Twilight, the first of Stephenie Meyer's books, four years ago. After reading it, she couldn't get the images of the love affair between a "vegetarian" vampire, Edward Cullen, and a teenage girl, Bella Swan, out of her mind.

Hansen is one of the thousands of adult women around the world who are now part of a growing Twilight community. She has created the Twilight Moms website for married women who want to share their fantasies about Edward Cullen (English actor Robert Pattinson). Another is Honolulu Girl. The author of the True Blood Twilight blog, she created this video clip.

Historically, older women were expected to be at home with the children and not be interested in sex, says Valerie Gibson, who created the concept of the "cougar" — a woman over 40 who sexually pursues younger men. "I wrote a book about older women and younger men in 1990, and let me tell you, the world was not ready for older women having sex with younger men," Gibson told CNN. "Older women have always been indoctrinated to believe that they would get to a certain age and they were no longer wanted and sexy and desired."

The Twilight obsession has produced a new word, "twicrack", which means an addiction to the Meyer novels. It's led to adults-only websites and fan fiction with such titles as "Edward and Bella Try out S & M".