May 13, 2018

POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Left Behind In YA Lit? Boys, For The Most Part…


Using the Programme Guide of the World Science Fiction Convention in Helsinki Finland in August 2017 (to which I will be unable to go (until I retire from education)), I will jump off, jump on, rail against, and shamelessly agree with the BRIEF DESCRIPTION given in the pdf copy of the Programme Guide. The link is provided below…

Are Boys Left Behind in YA? Many YA novels have strong female protagonists. Does this mean boys are forgotten completely? What do boys read these days?

Marieke Nijkamp
Django Wexler
Peadar Ó Guilín
Sebastien de Castell
Val Ontell

Why are boys left behind right now in YA Lit? “Because,” the Trope says, “It was all about boys before and it’s HIGH TIME girls got their own stories! Boys have ALWAYS gotten it better than the girls!”

OK – I do read current YA SF, but let’s start in the past: I grew up on Robert A Heinlein, Andre Norton, Alan E. Norse, John Christopher, and Madeleine L’Engle. Yes, Heinlein’s characters were almost exclusively boys – that’s who he was trying to get into reading.

Today, girls dominate science fiction for young adults, with the shining stars of course, being Katniss Everdeen (HUNGER GAMES), Honor Harrington (Series), Meg Murray (WRINKLE IN TIME series), Cordelia Vorkosigan (VORKOSIGAN SAGA), Beatrice, aka Tris (DIVERGENT series), Lauren Olamina (SOWER series), Max Ride (Series), Miranda Evans (LIFE AS WE KNEW IT), Lina Mayfleet (EMBER series), Amy Martin (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE series), Juliette (SILO series), (THE LUNAR CHRONICLES series), Lilac Laroux (THESE BROKEN STARS series), Lessa (DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN series), Menolly (DRAGONSINGER series)…you probably get the idea.

Boys? Well, there’s…Thomas (THE MAZE RUNNER series), Luke Skywalker, Andrew “Ender” Wiggin (ENDER series), Doon Harrow (EMBER series), Miles Vorkosigan (VORKOSIGAN SAGA)…I’m sure I left some out.

However, I find the logic of having more heroines in science fiction self-defeating. While I have not PROBLEM with them and I’ve read and loved many of the books I’ve listed above, and I have no trouble admitting I was a boy who had little trouble reading girls as main characters. Maybe I’m unique…

My problem is that boys don’t read. They’ve NEVER been readers – I’ve known this viscerally as a boy who spent more time reading than playing sports; and there are statistics that back me up as well:  https://www.brookings.edu/research/girls-boys-and-reading/

Science fiction writers today are so intent on redressing sexism in society that they’ve stopped worrying about drawing boys – especially boys who are from other cultures and races – into the world of the future, that I would have challenged the writers in this group to name a Mexican boy who lives in the future and makes a positive contribution. A Somali boy? A Jordanian boy? How about a deaf boy? An Australian Aboriginal boy? A Dakota boy? Where are they in the future? Do we have Chilean boys living on Mars (which would make SENSE, actually!)?

Nope. Girls dominate the future – even in my own work http://theworkandworksheetsofguystewart.blogspot.com/search/label/Heirs%20of%20the%20Shattered%20Spheres%3A%20Emerald%20of%20Earth, but I’m working to change that.

Trying to find them in the current crop of YA lit would be an exercise in futility. I’m trying to change that – read this: http://cm-cdn.cricketmag.com/ProductImages/pdfs/sample%20issues/CKT1301.pdf, but I’m not good enough yet to get lots of my work published.

So where are the boys in the future? Where?


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