Young adults and their fiction
Tammy Pierce posted a blog recently in response to a 19-year old author who said that there weren’t enough books being published for boys, and that she has made it her mission to make boys read YA through her own writing and convincing others to do the same.
Firstly, I have a problem with how Ms. Moskowitz thinks it’s a problem boys go from middle-grade fiction right to adult fiction. They’re READING. For god’s sake, how is this BAD?
Oh, right. They’re not reading your books. That must be the problem. :P
Second… the entire post is about the hypothetical every boy and states ‘well known facts’ that everyone kind of knows, but doesn’t use actual numbers to back herself up. THERE IS NOT ONE MENTION OF ANY BOYS SHE KNOWS. She’s peers with EXACTLY the audience she’s trying to reach. It’s not exactly hard to observe other people and to ask what books they read. (Also, she’s already married at 19. What. I know about an eighth of Americans got married at that age, but… you have a husband. Who is about the same age as you. AND YOU HAVEN’T ASKED HIM FOR MANLY INSIGHT?!)
According to Facebook, about a third (25) of my friends are male and under 25. About a fifth (5) read fiction regularly. The rest either prefer non-fiction/other forms of entertainment or can’t read at a high enough level to count. The guys that do read, reading YA genre-less fiction? Unlikely. I count about a fifth (15) of my friends are female and under 25 and read fiction regularly. There are like maybe four (not including myself) who can STAND reading YA genre-less fiction.
Thirdly, ‘contemporary’ YA fiction sucks. There’s a reason why I call it genre-less - there is no coherent theme or convention. And I really cannot fault anyone for not reading it. Why spend a few hours reading about some imaginary kid’s drama when you’re surrounded by it during school or can spend half an hour or an hour watching something similar on TV?
Then you consider that about A THIRD of YA fiction is the genre-less crap. About a third of the remainder is VAMPIRES paranormal romance, and the remaining two thirds are generally fantasy/sci-fi and action/boys fiction. Oh and the outside 5% is stuff like comics and graphic novels aimed at YA.
Okay, so maybe the genre-less and paranormal romance are switching percentages now and I’m being very generous in regards to what bookstores sell, but that’s a good half chewed up by stuff no-one with a decent taste would step near. Except maybe to find hidden gems that aren’t about boys getting girls or girls getting boys or someone ‘~finding themself~’. So yeah, that’s a significant chunk that isn’t aimed at boys… except that it’s about 50% and guess what percent of the population is. ^___^ (This would incidentally mean my reading habits are male in nature… oops, sorry for having standards.)
That 50% aimed at girls… I have a bit of a problem with. Because they do read a bit like a pat on the bum and a “See? If you have a man, your problems will be solved! It doesn’t matter if he’s controlling, not into you or too good for you. YOU NEED A MAN.” or a “See? Now that you’ve had your little tanty about your place in the world, you can go back to normal with your boyfriend in tow, because that’s where you belonged ALL ALONG”.
Yeah. I do think some of them faintly reek of that thing called sexism. Because while the people writing these books (mostly female, aged 25-45) grew up in an era that didn’t have lots of awesome books for girls and are now trying to rectify that, they were brought up on that sexist attitude that a girl needs a boy and can’t be awesome and it is a very rare writer who realises this. (And so they write male characters who have adventures, except those don’t sell, because wommin can’t write men, derp. Or they write yay, empowered girls who still need boyfriends.)
So yeah, boys and men have trouble finding books to read because editorial boards are made of women trying to change things and books just aren’t being marketed towards males. Have an article about it.
Because no one is willing to risk books not selling because of some perceived ‘guys don’t read’ thing. you don’t hear about these books guys can read and they just kind of fade away and everyone forgets about them. Except there are lots of ‘manly books’ that are good and THERE, because men have been published for longer.
So you just hear about all the books published ‘for girls’ that reek faintly of sexism in that subtle way that also pops up in TV (and utterly infuriates me there) and suck in their campaigns which leads to people thinking all YA sucks and is for girls and… it’s a vicious cycle and this is why I want to be an editor. So that books made of win can be found, so that girls know they can read about CIA agents and hey, you boys can has books of win on flimsy cardboard shelves too.
Because all I want is good books about someone who does great things with some help maybe from their friends and family of a variety of descriptions and who may or may not end up with someone else but I don’t particularly care about that part anyway, so you may as well leave it out so there is more awesomeness.
Maybe I would prefer it more if the main character was a girl. Doesn’t matter. I would still recommend it to everyone I know who reads who I think would like it.
Teal dear - reading is good; contemporary YA fiction is mostly crap, especially ‘for girls’'; INHERENT SEXISM IS INHERENT AND CAUSES FAIL; if I could, I’d shower you in books; subtext makes the reader write romance for you; 99% of everything is crap; numbers lie, especially when quality comes into play; I HATE the YA fiction market (buy me, buy them! I’m a snooty artistic writer, looooooove me~); writing a blog about sexism in books at two in the morning with a cold is probably not the best idea and this a very long tl;dr.
Firstly, I have a problem with how Ms. Moskowitz thinks it’s a problem boys go from middle-grade fiction right to adult fiction. They’re READING. For god’s sake, how is this BAD?
Oh, right. They’re not reading your books. That must be the problem. :P
Second… the entire post is about the hypothetical every boy and states ‘well known facts’ that everyone kind of knows, but doesn’t use actual numbers to back herself up. THERE IS NOT ONE MENTION OF ANY BOYS SHE KNOWS. She’s peers with EXACTLY the audience she’s trying to reach. It’s not exactly hard to observe other people and to ask what books they read. (Also, she’s already married at 19. What. I know about an eighth of Americans got married at that age, but… you have a husband. Who is about the same age as you. AND YOU HAVEN’T ASKED HIM FOR MANLY INSIGHT?!)
According to Facebook, about a third (25) of my friends are male and under 25. About a fifth (5) read fiction regularly. The rest either prefer non-fiction/other forms of entertainment or can’t read at a high enough level to count. The guys that do read, reading YA genre-less fiction? Unlikely. I count about a fifth (15) of my friends are female and under 25 and read fiction regularly. There are like maybe four (not including myself) who can STAND reading YA genre-less fiction.
Thirdly, ‘contemporary’ YA fiction sucks. There’s a reason why I call it genre-less - there is no coherent theme or convention. And I really cannot fault anyone for not reading it. Why spend a few hours reading about some imaginary kid’s drama when you’re surrounded by it during school or can spend half an hour or an hour watching something similar on TV?
Then you consider that about A THIRD of YA fiction is the genre-less crap. About a third of the remainder is VAMPIRES paranormal romance, and the remaining two thirds are generally fantasy/sci-fi and action/boys fiction. Oh and the outside 5% is stuff like comics and graphic novels aimed at YA.
Okay, so maybe the genre-less and paranormal romance are switching percentages now and I’m being very generous in regards to what bookstores sell, but that’s a good half chewed up by stuff no-one with a decent taste would step near. Except maybe to find hidden gems that aren’t about boys getting girls or girls getting boys or someone ‘~finding themself~’. So yeah, that’s a significant chunk that isn’t aimed at boys… except that it’s about 50% and guess what percent of the population is. ^___^ (This would incidentally mean my reading habits are male in nature… oops, sorry for having standards.)
That 50% aimed at girls… I have a bit of a problem with. Because they do read a bit like a pat on the bum and a “See? If you have a man, your problems will be solved! It doesn’t matter if he’s controlling, not into you or too good for you. YOU NEED A MAN.” or a “See? Now that you’ve had your little tanty about your place in the world, you can go back to normal with your boyfriend in tow, because that’s where you belonged ALL ALONG”.
Yeah. I do think some of them faintly reek of that thing called sexism. Because while the people writing these books (mostly female, aged 25-45) grew up in an era that didn’t have lots of awesome books for girls and are now trying to rectify that, they were brought up on that sexist attitude that a girl needs a boy and can’t be awesome and it is a very rare writer who realises this. (And so they write male characters who have adventures, except those don’t sell, because wommin can’t write men, derp. Or they write yay, empowered girls who still need boyfriends.)
So yeah, boys and men have trouble finding books to read because editorial boards are made of women trying to change things and books just aren’t being marketed towards males. Have an article about it.
Because no one is willing to risk books not selling because of some perceived ‘guys don’t read’ thing. you don’t hear about these books guys can read and they just kind of fade away and everyone forgets about them. Except there are lots of ‘manly books’ that are good and THERE, because men have been published for longer.
So you just hear about all the books published ‘for girls’ that reek faintly of sexism in that subtle way that also pops up in TV (and utterly infuriates me there) and suck in their campaigns which leads to people thinking all YA sucks and is for girls and… it’s a vicious cycle and this is why I want to be an editor. So that books made of win can be found, so that girls know they can read about CIA agents and hey, you boys can has books of win on flimsy cardboard shelves too.
Because all I want is good books about someone who does great things with some help maybe from their friends and family of a variety of descriptions and who may or may not end up with someone else but I don’t particularly care about that part anyway, so you may as well leave it out so there is more awesomeness.
Maybe I would prefer it more if the main character was a girl. Doesn’t matter. I would still recommend it to everyone I know who reads who I think would like it.
Teal dear - reading is good; contemporary YA fiction is mostly crap, especially ‘for girls’'; INHERENT SEXISM IS INHERENT AND CAUSES FAIL; if I could, I’d shower you in books; subtext makes the reader write romance for you; 99% of everything is crap; numbers lie, especially when quality comes into play; I HATE the YA fiction market (buy me, buy them! I’m a snooty artistic writer, looooooove me~); writing a blog about sexism in books at two in the morning with a cold is probably not the best idea and this a very long tl;dr.