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meganbmooreRants about Rants about YA and girl cooties
I suppose it says something about the people talking about YA who I actually notice that I don't think I'd heard of John Green until I read this yesterday. Looking him up on wikipedia, his books don't sound like my thing, based on the brief mentions in his profile. They don't sound bad, mind you, just not like anything I'd be interested in reading.
Also, if you want to rant about how the romance in Twilight is creepy, or hate on Edward or Jacob, or talk about how the writing is kind of awful, be my guest. I mean, at this point, to say that it's beating a dead horse would be to abuse a cliche, but I'm sure I'll do it if I ever get around to reading the last two books. But no one ever seems interested in talking about how, accidentally or otherwise, Bella is one of the more honest and accurate portrayals of a teen girl in recent years, or how, despite unfortunate external influences and messages, in the two books I've read, internally the world exists exclusively within the female gaze, and the male gaze doesn't exist.* There's also the groundwork for a fascinating exploration into teen depression interwoven with a typical vampire/special girl romance, but it would take a more aware and nuanced writer than Meyer to really run with that. I also tend to think that a lot of the popularity is a subconscious response to the fact that, in a lot of ways, it could be boiled down to "Woman wants something. Man tells her she can't have it. Man's pals jump in and tell her she can't have it unless he says she can. Other man (and his pals) jumps in and tells her what she wants is dirtybadwrongnotinfunways. Woman gets what she wants despite men and their pals saying she can't have it and shouldn't want it." (Our personal opinions about what she wants are another matter.)
Back to working on the LibraryThing meme I go.
*I understand Jacob gets POV chapters in the last book, sadly, which I consider very unfortunate.
I suppose it says something about the people talking about YA who I actually notice that I don't think I'd heard of John Green until I read this yesterday. Looking him up on wikipedia, his books don't sound like my thing, based on the brief mentions in his profile. They don't sound bad, mind you, just not like anything I'd be interested in reading.
Also, if you want to rant about how the romance in Twilight is creepy, or hate on Edward or Jacob, or talk about how the writing is kind of awful, be my guest. I mean, at this point, to say that it's beating a dead horse would be to abuse a cliche, but I'm sure I'll do it if I ever get around to reading the last two books. But no one ever seems interested in talking about how, accidentally or otherwise, Bella is one of the more honest and accurate portrayals of a teen girl in recent years, or how, despite unfortunate external influences and messages, in the two books I've read, internally the world exists exclusively within the female gaze, and the male gaze doesn't exist.* There's also the groundwork for a fascinating exploration into teen depression interwoven with a typical vampire/special girl romance, but it would take a more aware and nuanced writer than Meyer to really run with that. I also tend to think that a lot of the popularity is a subconscious response to the fact that, in a lot of ways, it could be boiled down to "Woman wants something. Man tells her she can't have it. Man's pals jump in and tell her she can't have it unless he says she can. Other man (and his pals) jumps in and tells her what she wants is dirtybadwrongnotinfunways. Woman gets what she wants despite men and their pals saying she can't have it and shouldn't want it." (Our personal opinions about what she wants are another matter.)
Back to working on the LibraryThing meme I go.
*I understand Jacob gets POV chapters in the last book, sadly, which I consider very unfortunate.