So, I actually read a John Green book...
...which is not something I had actually ever intended to do, having detected soon after hearing about The Savior of YA (How? Why? From what? No one ever gives a good reason! "from women" continues to be the only logical conclusion.) but I ended up in one of those situations where you only have a few reading options and none appeal, so I read Paper Towns.
Then I spent about a week and a half debating whether or not I wanted to give John Green another hour of my focused attention to vent My Issues, but that would deprive me of an hour of consuming creative works that I'd actually enjoy, or at least enjoy discussing, so here's the very abbreviated version:
Treating women like people instead of Othered beings who exist as narrative devices to fuel men's stories would have drastically improved this book. And when you have your male lead have a"oh, wait, she isn't a fantasy, she's a PERSON!" and then continue to treat the character in question as nothing but a device to further said male lead's growth, you're only digging the hole deeper.
Then I spent about a week and a half debating whether or not I wanted to give John Green another hour of my focused attention to vent My Issues, but that would deprive me of an hour of consuming creative works that I'd actually enjoy, or at least enjoy discussing, so here's the very abbreviated version:
Treating women like people instead of Othered beings who exist as narrative devices to fuel men's stories would have drastically improved this book. And when you have your male lead have a"oh, wait, she isn't a fantasy, she's a PERSON!" and then continue to treat the character in question as nothing but a device to further said male lead's growth, you're only digging the hole deeper.