Tag: ya

fansplaining:

elizabethminkel:

HELLO I am going to need everyone to pre-order this asap. I finished it yesterday, in advance of talking to @brittalundin for next week’s Fansplaining, and it is SO GOOD I CANNOT. 

Notable highlights include:

  • The most clear and accessible breakdown of fan/creator interaction I’ve ever read (specifically about a TV show and its predominantly female audience; obviously there many kinds of fans and many kinds of creators)
  • A beautifully drawn and really nuanced group of characters
  • A VERY charming teen f/f romance (Teens. Are. So. Awkward.)
  • A++ mom character, she is a DELIGHT
  • Real variation in fans’ perspectives on fandom/how it relates to creators/canon, something that I don’t think I’ve seen much of in fandom YA novels, which usually hug closely to the protagonist’s view

I’m literally going to press this book on every single person who works in the entertainment industry—including those who write about it—but this is also a novel about fandom by someone who’s been in fandom for a very long time. 

So quick!!! Pre-order it!!! Or request that your local library order a copy!!! (And if you don’t have a specific local bookstore to support, can I recommend this wonderful list of queer indie bookstores with online shops!) 

After you’ve pre-ordered the book, you should listen to our first conversation with Britta, from last year, to prep for next week’s episode! 

Things to Keep Out of Your Healthy Relationships!

kittensartsbooks:

brynwrites:

(Alternately: how to identify problematic YA romances.)

Written by yours truly, contributions from @jltillary, @theinkrepository, @time-to-write-and-suffer, and @sakrebleu.

Non-consensual physical intimacy, especially in situations where it’s portrayed as being done for the benefit of the victim or situations where the victim forgives the forced intimacy because they decide they like it after it’s already been forced on them. Examples:

  • Forcing a partner to accept physical comfort when they don’t want it.
  • Kissing a partner in the middle of an argument.
  • Framing consent as unnecessary simply because one person is attracted to the other.
  • Stalking the other person, even for their own safety.
  • Forcing the other person into some form of physical intimacy because they “liked it last time.”
  • Implying that it’s normal for a certain physically intimate act to hurt and/or their partner should grin and bear it.
  • Skipping over their partner’s preferred forms of intimacy in favor of what they want to do with/to their partner.

When in doubt: Consent should be explicitly given!!

Non-consensual communication. Examples:

  • Physically stopping a partner from leaving in order to continue talking with them.
  • Bringing up a topic the other person has made clear they don’t wish to discuss yet.
  • Forcing the other person into conversations with people they previously showed they did not wish to talk with.
  • Manipulating the conversation so that the other person shares a secret, especially one that doesn’t affect their partner.

Emotional manipulation. Examples:

  • Telling the other person to do something (i.e. ‘go away’) as a test, where the person is at fault if they follow through and do as their partner asked.
  • Blaming the other person for things beyond their control, especially “I wouldn’t be like this if not for you/your interests/your goals.”
  • Claiming they’ll die (or kill themselves) if the other person leaves.
  • Not wanting the other person to have friends of the same gender as their partner (i.e. a man not wanting his girlfriend to have any male friends).
  • “If you really loved me you would do x, y, and z.”
  • Demanding to be the most important part of their partner’s life, above and beyond their partner’s other responsibilities.
  • Cheating on their partner as a form of punishment.
  • Acting as though physical intimacy (or any other sort of intimacy) isn’t important, but then blaming the other person for not supplying it.
  • Acting distant or cruel until the other person does what they want, or because the other person didn’t do what they wanted.

Demeaning actions and words, especially in instances where they blame the actions and words on internalized sexism, racism, etc as a shield, in instances outside of high-stress arguments, and whenever the character isn’t sincerely sorry for what they did or makes no point to change. Examples:

  • Stating the other person’s interests or hobbies are inferior or a waste of time.
  • Telling them they were look better if they did x, y and z.
  • Demanding they stop doing something or start doing something else based on their gender, race, etc.
  • Placing the other person in a subordinate role without their partner’s explicit consent.
  • Not sharing certain pieces of information because they believe they know what’s best for their partner and don’t need the other person’s consent to act upon it.
  • Bonus: Glorification of a partner simply for not demeaning the other person, (i.e. for acting like  an average, decent human being,) especially when the partner in question boasts how amazing they are for loving their “curvy”/non-white/bisexual/not-like-other-girls/etc partner.

Please add more, if you feel so inclined! 

Thank you!!! It makes me sick when a couple in a story act like this and it’s portrayed as “romantic”. Also I might add: Territorial behavior (such as overprotectiveness, taking care of the other when the other don’t want it, acting like they knows better what is good for their partner and doing something potentially illegal for “their safety” like locking them up) that is seen as romantic and sexy. And for some reason this is popular in YA??!

wordmage-girl:

inkbleeder:

susiephone:

when will YA authors realize that the mr. darcy fantasy isn’t “hot rich guy is a huge dick to you” but “hot rich guy fucking respects and listens to you”

“hot rich guy only seems like a huge dick because he has the social skills of an agarophobic lobster.”

“hot rich guy falls in love with you, respects your wishes when you tell him to fuck off, mends his ways with no ulterior motive and opens his dumb awkward heart to you”

This is why we don’t just need diverse books, but we need people to realize that these diverse books are books for everyone. The above is just one of the many examples I can give of the misguided dismissal of my books. The librarian who was surprised how well my “ethnic” book went over with all the students. The father who was surprised that his son loved “your Oriental dragon book” so much that he (the son) insisted on giving it to all his friends for birthday gifts. I could go on and on…

We Need Diverse Books and We Also Need People to Read Them”. A blog post by Newbery Honor author Grace Lin. (via diversityinya)

What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity in YA

By Zoraida Córdova

Brace yourselves. Here’s another blog post on the lack of diversity in YA. When we bring up these topics the common words I see are FEAR, UNCOMFORTABLE, GUILT.  If a white person brings up the subject then, “who are they to talk about it?” If a POC does it, we’ll be seen as a bunch of angry people. So, Catch 22. I get it. Writing these posts is HARD, but they should be written.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Diversity in YA