Disturbing Trends in YA fiction

[Marina]

This is a slight rant, please bear with me.

So, recently I have started to notice more and more that a lot of popular YA fiction makes the disturbing into something that's hot. Some of you probably already guessed it: abusive boyfriends and doormat girlfriends. I'm going to pick on Twilight series, Hush Hush, Abandon, Goddess Test.... any one of those supernatural (most of them seem to be fantasy thou' not all) novels that have the mysterious all powerful man falling in love with the sixteen to eighteen year old girls. The men are usually controlling, mean, bad-boyish. In Twilight Edward is constantly telling Bella how he wants to kill her, and she's totally okay with it. I haven't read Hush Hush, but what I read in reviews it's basically a rip off of Twilight, and the main guy is also trying to kill the heroine. AND IT REALLY FUCKING BOTHERS ME THAT OTHER GIRLS FIND IT OKAY!! No, not only that they want their own boyfriends to BE JUST LIKE THAT.
I just did a paper on Hades and Persephone retellings, I have never been more disgusted. Most modern retellings are basically Stockholm syndrome romances.

Here's a quick disclaimer: I understand tastes are different and so are perceptions of young women. But these books are written by adults and published by adults. And it's not like it's subtle manipulation, often it's


"I"m bad for you, I can kill you."
"It's okay, I love you."

---

"I'm actually hundreds of years old, I only look like I'm your age, and I know you're only seventeen, but I love you."

"Sex, now."

(quotes made by me out of context)
--------

WHAT? Not only is the above considered normal. It's considered desirable. Again, I'm not saying that all women are like that or that ALL YA fiction does this, a lot of books do but they're usually in the bodice-ripper sections. But what's disturbing to me is just how popular these books get! How smart people hail these books as must reads, and they teach nothing to girls except that bruises are okay because he loves me and didn't mean it. That they find a guy you don't know is watching you sleep sexy, or takes out your car battery because he doesn't want you to go see your friend. I told my Women in Literature professor about what happens in Breaking Dawn, she freaked out because she let her daughter read it.

So I want to know how these books are okayed to be published. Another disclaimer: I understand that misogyny is still very prevalent in our culture and it saturates even our mentalities. But come one, when I guy says "I want to suck you dry, but I love you." You pick up your fucking feet and run and call the police. You don't say "it's okay, as long as you love me."

The worst is when you try to explain, nicely, to a person why you find those novels disturbing and all they say is "I like them because I can relate to what Bella went through"

I just...

[sammybluejay]

COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AGREE.

I've gotten to the point where if any novel I'm reading starts to feel like this, I put it down immediately. The guy doesn't even have to necessarily be semi-abusive but even if a main female character starts thinking "ohh I'm not good enough for him, I'm so ugly and useless and I don't deserve him" and they actually seem to BELIEVE that. I can't stand it. For example, I got about a quarter of the way through Colleen Houck's Tiger's Curse but when the main character started on a barrage of self-hate, I put it down. I couldn't do it. Twilight definitely falls under that as well, because even if you take out the controlling/abusive tendencies of Edward, Bella has that mentality. Also, my friend recently read a novel called Falling for Hamlet which is a modern retelling of Hamlet but in a high school setting (she said it was horrible). But it's the same thing. Hamlet is SOOO HOOOT and who cares if he goes crazy and acts like an asshole as long as Ophelia still gets to date him?

This whole trend seriously makes me concerned for the girls who are reading these books. Thank goodness my little stepsister never got into Twilight.

Also, kind-of-related-but-not-really, has anyone else noticed the tendency for YA authors to make their main characters love the fiction that everybody basically hates in high school? Every female main character in YA novels (or pretty damn close to every one) LOOOVES Shakespeare, or Bronte, etc. I'm sure some kids do, but seriously? It seems to be a requirement when writing a lot of YA novels about girls in high school.

[Marina]

Yeah, it's like a rule: the main protagonist must love to read the classics, and yeah, it's usually the high school rubric books, that even seasoned English majors have trouble liking. And they usually read them not to get some sort of moral or societal value out of them, but for the romance bit. So it's usually Romeo and Juliet, or Wuthering Heights(it's never War and Peace or For Whom the Bell Tolls). Sure, there was beautiful, heartbreaking romance in those novels, but there's so much more to them that just forces trying to tear the lovers apart. They need to stop objectifying the novels! Especially Romeo and Juliet. I don't know about your classes, but in my English courses we learn exactly why you shouldn't compare your love to theirs.

Another thing is trying to convince the reader that their heroine is so smart, that she's so mature for her age, and ahead of her time. And yet, they're usually always ready to give up everything for a man.

Also the best friend who loves to shop or/and gets all the guys; while the heroine doesn't.

[sammybluejay]

Yeah, definitely. I've never been a big fan of Romeo & Juliet, I can appreciate it but I would read a lot of other Shakespeare plays before I'd read that one again. In high school I did like it, but now that I've read a lot more Shakespeare it's kind of just meh. Especially when you actually look at the story and the fact that Juliet is like 13, etc etc etc.

As for Wuthering Heights, I HATED it in high school. I liked the story but couldn't stand the writing so the thought of these YA heroines curling up to reread it as one of their favourites just seems totally unbelievable to me. Now, my opinion may differ if I were to read it again, but that's how I feel remembering reading it from high school. It bothers me that the authors pick a romance without really thinking about everything else going on in the stories. Like - sure, make your two main characters strive to be Romeo and Juliet. Does that mean you're going to have them kill themselves for love at the end of your novel? Doubtful. Yet that's a gigantic element in the play and it's just ignored so often.

And yes, it really bothers me when it's all about how the heroine is SUCH AN AMAZING PERSON OH MY GOD. Because that's so unrelateable. Sixteen, seventeen, even eighteen year old girls are very, VERY rarely like that. It's more believable if the characters have suffered some sort of personal or familial trauma - take Katniss from Hunger Games for an example - but if they've had a near-perfect home life it's harder to believe (like Bella Swan, in my opinion). And then even with Katniss, she isn't that kind of heroine. She's kind of stupid sometimes, she doesn't make the smartest decisions. She's flawed, and that's why I think she's so much more relateable than a lot of heroines in YA. I don't know if you'd agree or disagree but I relate a lot more to her when she has her stupid moments/selfish moments than the heroines who crap gold.

[Marina]

No, I totally agree with you. Shakespeare has other much more beautiful plays and even romances. I wonder why they never choose the sonnets... is it cause they're addressed to a man But yeah, the only reason they pick Romeo and Juliet is for the romance and the fact that it's well known. And yeah, I tried to read Wuthering Heights, twice... I got to page 100 I think. I bet they never pick Jane Eyre, even though the dialogue is so beautiful and touching, because Rochester is married to a crazy lady. But what else? Jane doesn't say, "oh, I don't care, let's leave to France and have babies." No, she fucking leaves him. Because she knows she will never be able to respect herself or love him, if she goes with him. Why can't they pick that as an example?!

And I totally agree, again. Bella's only fault seems to be that she's clumsy, but it's in a cute way. Like whoops, I fell, but Edward was there to catch me. She's a cardboard, and people say that that's how they're able to relate to her, because they can step into her ill-defined shoes and pretend to be her. As for Katniss, yeah, that girl is flawed, but she also has the strength to get up and do what is needed. She doesn't rely on Peta, because she knows that she might have to kill him eventually, and even when Gale suggests that they run away, she says No.
I feel like the YA authors are afraid to make their characters appear stupid. What do you mean they don't like to read? They must be uneducated. Oh, they made one bad decision? No, everyone is going to hate them because of it. Who doesn't reflect back on their life and think "gosh, I was so stupid back then"? Everyone can relate to that! Why can't we have more writers like John Green? The ones that don't gloss over flaws, but work on them. The ones that don't make drinking or sex glamorous, or abusive relationships a standard.

[onlyaworkingtitle]

Agreeing on all points. Not even trying to add onto the points already made on the abusive-boyfriend-teen-romance YA trend. Gonna make a new one on the disturbing-YA-trend topic:

YA book covers featuring dead girls.

They're all over the place these days. Does no one else find that disturbing? Read an article on it recently, lemme see if I can find it again... Ah, here it is: trac-changes.blogspot.com/2011/10/cover-trends-in-ya-fiction-why.html

Anywho, figured it was related, so there y'go. I do recommend reading the article. It's quite interesting, plus, pictures!

[sammybluejay]

Oh wow, that's a really interesting article. I never really noticed that but I bet now I'm never going to be able to unsee it, haha. It's totally true. Also the trend of Twilight-ing book covers, even classics. You know, turning them into the black cover with like a rose or a ribbon or something.

[Marina]

"media depicts violence against women and glamorizes abuse, rape, murder, and suicide as positive so long as the victim can be sexualized in death. Beyond just desensitizing viewers or making truly horrific acts seem banal through overexposure, images that glamorize violence against women help to dehumanize women and girls. It’s a double-whammy; not only are the women in the photos objectified because, as lifeless characters, they become bodies rather than people, but they are also reduced to their sexualized parts."

"passive death poses suggests that these girls are internalizing very distinct and separate messages about ideal maleness and femaleness in death."

She makes so many good points in that article, it's not even funny. And the ending it is pretty hopeless... publishers are giving us what we want? Why don't they give us what we, or teenage girls, Need instead?

[sammybluejay]

I think there may be a fear there that if they give their audience what they need rather than what they want then it won't get read and nobody will take note of it, and I think unfortunately that's got a grain of truth to it. This is the kind of stuff that's popular right now and it's what people want and what they will invest money in. It's not a good thing, but that's the truth of it. If they were to try and give their audience what they think they need, they may lose money and I'm not sure they'd be willing to risk that.

[Marina]

Ah... the sad truth of capitalism.

And then they wonder why our generation is so messed up. Just look at the people raising us.

[Dodger Thirteen]

I'm just going to blame this on Twilight. This wasn't as prevalent pre-Twilight as it is now after the series has hit the (hopefully) peak of its popularity. "Authors" (in quotes as I refuse to actually consider these individuals as actual authors) are in it for the money as much as any other profession, so they go out of their way to do things that will get them more money, namely following trends. Paranormal romances have become outrageously popular these days due to the Twilight fandom needing "something to read" now that the series is complete. I'm very much hoping all this nonsense will end in a year or two, since I find the whole thing desperately offensive as a human being.

[Marina]

I found another article:

community.feministing.com/2011/04/06/abusive-is-the-new-sexy-why-books-like-twilight-are-dangerous/

My favorite quote "Remember the first time a boy tried to viciously murder you? Ah, the memories."

[KatjevanLoon]

This seems familiar.

[Marina]

Dec 29, 2011 15:25:11 GMT -5 KatjevanLoon said:

This seems familiar.

I honestly don't remember the conversation. Didn't mean to copy it or anything, but I guess this proves that we all think alike. Besides, it's nice for it to have it's own thread.

That said, I just went over and read them. My gosh, where had I been? Everything said there is so much better put.

I wish I could just copy it all in here, credited and quoted of course.

[KatjevanLoon]

Dec 29, 2011 16:38:16 GMT -5 Marina said:

I honestly don't remember the conversation. Didn't mean to copy it or anything, but I guess this proves that we all think alike. Besides, it's nice for it to have it's own thread.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't criticizing. Just figured I'd link to the previous argument that had arisen over this subject, because I'm lazy and didn't feel like typing out my thoughts again.

Dec 29, 2011 16:38:16 GMT -5 Marina said:

That said, I just went over and read them. My gosh, where had I been? Everything said there is so much better put.

I wish I could just copy it all in here, credited and quoted of course.

I don't see a problem with it.