Bad Romance (or, YA & Rape Culture)

[bookshop]

Once in a while every girl has to do something she knows is bad for her, even though she knows it's stupid and she'll probably regret it later. Last night I started reading the bestselling YA fantasy Hush, Hush, which friends and the internet have repeatedly assured me that I would hate. I had no intention of reading it until I randomly picked it

Comments

[bookshop]

ahaha, i love that you commented with that icon. :))

Austen and Montgomery have both been recontextualized extensively by society as highly idealized romance. I definitely will give you that Anne is a stretch, at least in terms of the love-hate dynamic; but I would argue that the basic work that society has done to these and other heroines is to undermine the fact that their character arcs were arcs of independence and individuality, and focus predominantly on their epic classic relationship with the guy. Another great example of this re-contextualization is Wuthering Heights: I don't think Bronte ever intended Cathy/Heathcliff to be an example of ideal anything, but now they're putting out editions of this book with black and red covers and the blurb "this is Edward and Bella's favorite romance!"

I am not in any way suggesting that the original authors were part of the rape-apology movement; I do think, however, that our culture as a whole presses upon literary constraints this idea that a good plot isn't complete until it ends

[featherofeeling]

I would link to this comment up above in your ETAs - it helps the overall argument, I think.

[bookshop]

haha, i already do--it is linked in the body of the post. :)

thank you for reading!

[featherofeeling]

Oops, and I thought I'd read it pretty closely, too! :)

[bookshop]

wow. this is incredibly well-written and brings to light a huge trend that i had never realized. thank you for writing!