You know what would be nice? Reading a YA fantasy or sci-fi
novel with a butt-kicking heroine that doesn’t demonize femininity. I can’t
tell you how many books I’ve come across recently—both ones I’ve read and ones
I’ve read reviews of—that star a spunky teenage girl who rejects anything and
everything that is considered “feminine” because she thinks that makes her
weak. She scoffs at the girls and women around them, for they are shallow and
petty and enjoy wearing dresses and makeup. (Cue me trying to find a good wall
to bash my head again.)
I’m getting really sick of the scores of books where the
heroine’s strength must come at the expense of anything “girly” or “feminine.”
I’m sick of being told, over and over, that these heroines aren’t girly because being girly is the same as being stupid and weak. I’m sick of “not
feminine” constantly because equated with “strong.”
Frankly, I’m sick of being told that the only way to be a
strong person, the only way to be independent, the only way to be a good
heroine, is to utterly reject anything associated with women because it’s
frivolous, surround myself with boys and scoff at any girl who doesn’t.
To the YA writers who are churning out this content, because
apparently quite a few don’t realize: There’s nothing wrong with being a girl
or liking traditionally “girly” things!
I repeat: There’s
nothing wrong with being a girl or liking traditionally “girly” things!
At the same time, of course, there’s nothing wrong with
being a boy or liking traditionally “boyish” things. Apply the same principle
to any combination of gender identities and behaviors: Basically, your gender,
no matter what it happens to be, is all right, and your likes and interests are
all right, because they’re yours and
nobody can tell you who you should be. Nobody should give you crap for being
who you are. Nobody should tell you that you have dress or act a certain way,
or have certain interests, to be a certain thing (like, say, an awesome heroine
in a YA novel). Nobody has the right to kick you out of the club because they
think your personality has conflicting traits.
But that happens all the time. In fiction, female
characters, female identities, and traits, behaviors and interests that have
been traditionally thought of as feminine are constantly mocked and trashed. We’re
getting the message that, for a girl to have value, she must reject her
femininity because it’s worthless. And that’s all kinds of messed up.
Did you know that you can wear a dress sometimes and kick butt other times? You can even
do both at the same time! Did you know that you can use weapons and be a
trained fighter and embrace your emotions?
Or get this: You can form close relationships with other girls—even the
dreaded “girly girls!”
Isn’t that shocking?
To a fair few writers out there, it probably is—and that
saddens me.
Does anyone have recommendations for YA novels that don’t do this? Goodness, I need
something new to read.
