Harrumph. I have read more about Dessen and Weiner and a couple other of their YA author buddies and the whole brouhaha over them piling on the college student, and ... in lieu of going on an obscene rant a la "Fuck those entitled thin-skinned bitches," I will instead offer another analogy: back in the day, the book "Twilight" did not yet exist but there was a series of YA novels called IIRC "Twilight: Where Darkness Begins," and another YA series called "Dark Forces." They were definitely marketed toward middle or youngest-high-school aged readers (IIRC, most of mine came from the Scholastic Book Club order forms at school), presumably marketed mainly to girls given how all the books I remember had female protagonists/viewpoint characters, and I seem to recall they were all about high school girls just like we hoped we'd be in a couple years -- intelligent and brave and independent, with cool hobbies and such -- except they must deal with malevolent supernatural forces in addition to school issues.Eric the .5b wrote: ↑14 Nov 2019, 21:41I think the comeback to that is usually, "Not in your case, but the reason most people who sneer at Twilight do so has absolutely nothing to do with whether Edward resembles an abuser, etc.." Which does seem to be true.Jennifer wrote: ↑14 Nov 2019, 21:33I've never heard of Sarah Dessen before this, and based on context I strongly suspect I'd regret it if I looked up details about the book in question, but ... by Wiener's logic, wouldn't it be "internalized misogyny" to say "I dislike the Twilight books for various reasons, including the really unhealthy relationships and sexuality portrayed within?"nicole wrote: ↑14 Nov 2019, 16:36OH GOD ELLIE I JUST FOUND MYSELF READING ABOUT THAT PART
in jezebel
Did you see the COMMENT JENNIFER WIENER LEFT ON A LOCAL SD NEWSPAPER:hahahhahhahhahahhahahhahahaThe Commenter Known As Jennifer Wiener wrote:“It’s hard to know what’s sadder: that Brooke Nelson has internalized misogyny to the extent that she can see nothing of worth in books beloved by “teen girls” but is presumably impressed with the merits of a book centered around video game culture that is beloved by teenage boys; that Nelson joined the committee not to champion a book or a genre but to keep a specific author’s work out of contention; that she bragged about her actions, as if she’s done some great service to literature, or that Nelson graduated with an English degree, is pursuing graduate work in English, and will someday be foisting her sexism and elitism on the next generation of readers.”
I'm still confused about what "committee" the woman was on, given the explanation that this was started by her merely complaining about having been required to read a book.
I read plenty of books in both series, and enjoyed them, and while I don't have any of my old copies I DO keep an eye out in secondhand shops because I'd love to re-read certain of them again ... but I still would've opposed putting any of those books on a college reading list specifically because they ARE, in fact, for young teenage girls. And despite Wiener's whining, it is not "internalized misogyny" which inspires me to say that, so much as understanding there's supposed to be a pretty significant intellectual-maturity difference between a college freshman and the Twilight/Dark Forces target audience, even though the actual age difference is rather small. Regarding people your age or mine, you generally do NOT hear us say "I liked this book two or three years ago, but I've outgrown it since then." But from college freshmen? Hell yes.
(And even when I still read and liked those YA horror books, I still understood that they were basically the intellectual equivalent of potato chips -- tasty and fun, but don't mistake them for a source of actual nourishment. I still knew better than to even write a book report about a Twilight or Dark Forces book, let alone reference them in situations where I knew "I need to impress some authority figures with my intellectualism and gravitas, except I don't think I actually know the word 'gravitas' yet. I get the concept, though.")