Bittercon: Sex and YA

[sartorias]

YA and Sex. Heads up for my more conservative friends here: this post is going to include some discussion on crossing gender lines with sex, friendship, and love, if this makes you uncomfortable--or you're underage and your parents don't want you reading it (I know there are at least a couple twelve year olds linked to this blog on their

Comments

[ex_fashioni]

I find it incredibly interesting-- especially since I do tend to write with a great deal of romance in my YA novels-- not simply because I come from a romance-writing background, but because it's such a huge part of how one moves through the transition of young adult to adult.

What I found most surprising recently, was of course, when the RWA recommendations for the RITA and Golden Heart contest came out and there was that wretched wording for the categories with respect to sex. It was poorly worded, but the idea is valid, I think, in terms of not putting parameters on how a young adult romance is portrayed.

What shocked me was the reaction from non-YA writing members of RWA who were screaming, "What? There's PORN in Young Adult novels? EWWWWWWW."

Talk about missing the point. *rollingeyes*

[brownnicky]

I think sex in YA is the same as sex in fiction in general - if you are going to write about it do it well.
There is nothing to stop kids of all ages accessing adult material in books, on tv, online so that I think YA books perhps have a useful job to do in presenting all that stuff in a way that is directly concerned with adolescence and all that brings.
I think it is irresponsible of people to criticise YA books that do that honestly- they are doing young readers a service in trying to deal with difficult things in a compelling, age appropriate way.
YA Writers need to respect their audience not duck out of difficult stuff.

[ex_fashioni]

YA Writers need to respect their audience not duck out of difficult stuff.

Amen, sister!

[asakiyume]

What I'm surprised at is how even the HINT of certain topics makes people say, "Oh, well then; that's a no-no for the under-[fill in as appropriate]"

The action in the story I just finished is seen mainly through the eyes of a very young protagonist, but others in the story are in their teens, and the catalyst for all the action is a guy in his 40s. So why is it that a veiled reference to child prostitution (a) make it inappropriate for the "middle grades" that people say will be its main audience because of the young protag and (b) move it into YA category--except YA-aged people won't read it because of the young protag?

I just don't buy either of those accepted truths, but then, I am not in control of a NY publishing house.

And believe me, these are VEILED and REFERENCES. I mean, an adult reader (which the only readers to date have been) clearly understands, but there's nothing going on in the book, definitely nothing on screen.

[sartorias]

So much zings right over the heads of young readers.

Well, there's another issue, and that is self-censoring because of fear of banned lists, that has been a bugbear in publishing for a long while now.

[lamentables]

It's a subject I find fascinating, the different attitudes of adults to reading material chosen by/available to/selected for children and YAs. Have you read Brent Hartinger, author of The Geography Club club on the topic of book banning? See his lj brentsbrain and also the community as_if_authors?

[sartorias]

I haven't--the subject of book banning gets me so hot under the collar that sometimes I just cannot deal.

[taliabriscoe]

It is the same Maureen: http://www.maureenjohnsonbooks.com/books.html... )

[taliabriscoe]

My previous post is rife with spelling and gramatical errors. I hang my head in shame and curse the lack of edit function.

[sartorias]

What you say is so good I didn't even notice tyops.

I suspect at times that some watchdogs types don't read fantasy, and just assume it's all Cinderella and unicorns. They are giving the evil eye to realistic fiction because they don't want realistic problems depicted realistically, unless there is a heavy moral shoved in.

[quiller77]

Speaking as a librarian, I'd say that fantasy gets away with things that other YA doesn't mostly because if the parent isn't a fantasy reader, they don't even read the blurb, never mind crack the cover. My brother is a prime example. When I told him Lord of the Rings had been voted the top book of the 20th century on several lists, he outright refused to believe me because who in their right mind reads that stuff?

[sparklyscorpy]

I think a lot of adults really underestimate how much young people are aware of sexuality and gender. They are so afraid of exposing their children to these ideas that yes, people have desires and yes, it is possible for a boy to like a boy, a girl to like a girl...

I remember when I was fairly young, maybe 15, I read a book called Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger and it blew my mind; not because I was shocked by the fact that the protagonist is a boy in love with a lesbian, but because it was written so honestly, with so much sensitivity, and really helped me as a naive girl to understand the subtleties of love

[sartorias]

Yes. I come from a generation in which girls could be severely punished simply for asking questions, because ladies do not think about such things, and then there was that horrible emphasis on "innocence" which actually just meant ignorance. Innocence doesn't notice. When a kid begins to notice things, the questions come--and if the questions are not answered, the kid will go in search of knowledge--covertly, if not permitted overtly. How much energy a kid is willing to expend to get the knowledge, and what he or she does with it afterward, depends so much on the kid. but ramming a fence down between the kid and the knowledge and then punishing the kid for asking questions never worked, not when I was young, and not now.

For twenty years I have dealt with parents who rave and rant if their kids are exposed to anything beyond Barney or Disney level at school, and how hard they work to keep their children "clean and innocent". And in every single case--and I mean without one exception--the kids made it fairly clear that they were

[sparklyscorpy]

I agree, it's sad that so many parents alienate their children by trying to keep them ignorant. It can also lead to a lot of misinformation for kids, I remember all the crazy things I would hear on the playground. If kids could trust their parents to treat them like people and be honest, it would probably prevent a lot of pain for both parties.

[telophase]

I remember in 4th grade, the mother of one of my friends gave her The Talk about sex and babies, spread out over 2 or 3 days, with little charts and things*. She came to school the days after and at lunch we sat together as she told me about it, and we laughed ourselves silly because we already knew all of that due to (a) being great readers and getting our hands on just about every book we could and (b) my parents having been the sort that answered questions honestly as they were asked, so I was fairly knowledgeable about the nuts and bolts and had imparted that knowledge to my friends.

We did agree that The Talk was obviously something very important to her mother and that my friend should pretend she didn't know in order not to hurt her mother's feelings.

* I don't remember the content of the charts. I only remember that there were charts.