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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