Topic Discussion: How Much is TOO MUCH (or too little) SeX in YA?

[seaheidi]

I'm sure we all remember those certain "scenes" in novels we read (or sneaked) as teens. The dog-eared corners of certain pages in controversial books like Forever and Flowers in the Attic, but now we're writing for that same audience and it's a new kind of era. It's a time in literary history that, on one hand, promotes and encourages "edgy" YA

Comments

[ex_fashioni]

Since I skew to the older age range (with characters who range in age from 17 to 22), plus, come from a romance background, I tend to be fairly open about it. Not excessively explicit, but I don't play prudish about it either. Which isn't to say that my characters are little sexed up fiends, hopping from bed to bed. Ali in Adiós was my least experienced character, a virgin who stayed that way throughout the book although she certainly considered doing the deed.

Whereas my next YA is a contemporary interpretation of Carmen-given that that's a very sensual story and that the tragedy is centered around an all-consuming passion, I think it would be selling that story short if I didn't delve deeply into these characters' sexualities and have both physical and emotional passion be driving forces in the book.

My biggest pet peeve with respect to sex in YA is when it's gratuitous. I HATE when YA characters sound and behave in a manner more befitting a 35 year-old divorcée. I don't know, I guess if it fits the characters and the story

[lkmadigan]

I try to remind myself that a 12-year-old could be reading my book.

If it is going to be shelved in Teen Fiction, that doesn't mean every reader will be a worldly, "Entourage"-watching, Jagermeister-drinking 16-year-old.

My character thinks about sex all the time, but when actual human contact occurs, it is offstage. I hope the tension leading up to it will suffice in place of gritty details.

I don't mind teens researching their techniques (in fact, I just remembered some YA book where the MC suggests getting sex tips off the Internet - it was funny! - I can't remember the title) but I don't feel that my scenes need to add to their repertoire.

[megancrewe]

I'm pretty much with everyone else--if it fits the story and the characters, then there's no reason it shouldn't be there. How obvious and how much detail you include depends on the audience you're aiming for, the tone of the book in general, and how important those details are to the rest of the story. Which goes for pretty much anything else you might put in a story. ;)

To me, sex is far less a big deal than many other kinds of behavior that can go on in books. I mean, yeah, there's emotional concerns and health concerns, but in essence it's a normal human behavior that almost all people will engage in at some point or another and is usually done out of affection/positive attraction. Yet there often seems to be so much more focus on that censoring that than on violence, substance abuse, etc.--behaviors that are almost always destructive. Not that I think we should be censoring *anything* out of hand, just that it seems sex is over-censored comparatively.

[seaheidi]

i agree. i'd much prefer the censors to be upset about violence than sexuality and language. a movie can have 10 murders, but if they drop the f bomb it gets a higher rating. pretty ridiculous. the f bomb never killed anyone.

[carrie_ryan]

Well, I was reading romance novels at an extremely young age so I'm not sure sex in a teen book would have shocked me all that much :) But at the same time, in romance novels counting strokes is often part of it -- the actual sex itself is integral to the book and story line (not always, there are sweet romance novels without sex).

And while relationships are important in my books and I have a lot of sexual tension, the act itself isn't important. It's just not integral to the plot. I have sex in mine -- if you want to read it in -- but unless you're looking for it, you're not going to know it's there. And if you wanted to believe it wasn't there, that would be true too :)

[seaheidi]

I love your second statement, Carrie--I think that way works the best--open to interpretation.

[jonnyskov]

Okay, I'm probably not the sort of person who one should ask about these things, but I'm a little confused about what Cyn was saying about not being able to find naughty books. Didn't your library carry Anais Nin and Henry Miller? Or how about any of Anne Rice's pseudonyms? Heck, even Piers Anthony had some rather heavy stuff. Maybe it takes a dorky book-loving teenage boy driven utterly insane with hormones to commit the time and energy to do the investigative sleuthing required to uncover such gems

[seaheidi]

well, when it's your turn you can ask about violence in YA--i'm sure we'd all have comments about that too. ('course being a serious wimpress I don't normally partake in the horror/violence genre at all--the scariest/most violent book i've read is TWILIGHT/NEW MOON--read=not scary.

Twilight

[jonnyskov]

Sounds good! Where do I sign up for my turn? I like to have things on my calender. Give me the illusion that my life is under control.

re: TWILIGHT. Um, yeah. I read that. I must say, when I pick up a book about vampires and werewolves, I am hoping for a bit more...I dunno, vampire and werewolf stuff...so not my bag. Still, certainly one of the few to actually bring something new to that somewhat overwritten subject. And clearly, she was doing _something_ right.