From: Ridge, Judith <Judith.Ridge>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 11:09:12 +1000

Luc Reid wrote:

I'm a bit puzzled by Luc's argument here. First of all, the analogy to Medieval Europe doesn't really work - there was no other choice but to be Catholic because there was no other Christian denomination in Medieval times (Martin Luther and the Reformation came after the Rennaisance, by which time Medievalism was pretty much well and truly over) - and to openly stray from Christianity/Catholicism had pretty dire consequences!

The point is, young adults today know they have choices about sex and sexuality. That is not to say that they aren't under various pressures from parental expectations, peer group, etc, but they nevertheless have choices (and the choices they make by and large won't land them in the kind of trouble an openly atheistic person or a convert to, say, Islam, in Medieval times would have faced!) All sorts of things are presented as "normal" or a "fact of life", in books, film, TV, conversation, and just as there are books which present teenage sex in a matter of fact "this happens every day" way, so too are there many, many YA books that don't really address sex or sexuality at all - it's not relevant to that particular story.

YAs today are indeed fortunate to have such a wide range of "normal" (and I use the term with reservations!) available to them in their literature. Surely this supports their choices, rather than limits them. I really don't believe that most YAs are such "empty vessels" that their choices and values and behaviour would be so easily influenced by what they read in a book.



Judith Ridge
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Received on Thu 22 May 2003 08:09:12 PM CDT