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Sex and YA Lit: Gay vs. Straight
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From: Mary Elizabeth Summer <illumine_at_gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:58:01 -0700
This is more a series of questions rather than an observation. What do you all think about the limits of explicit sexual situations in YA lit books for gay characters versus straight characters? Are the boundaries different because of the controversy surrounding gay identity? And is the answer to the question different based on whether the book is an "issue book" versus a mystery, fantasy, scifi, romance, etc.? (In my mind, issue books have far fewer boundaries than other commercial genres.)
Obviously, an author can put explicit sexual situations in his/her story regardless of genre, but I'm interested in what you think the audience/market will bear. For example, I just finished the manuscript for book 2 in a YA mystery series, and the protagonist's main love interest is the same gender. I worried while writing the kissing scenes that it would shock the audience, whereas I didn't worry about that in the first book when the protagonist's love interest was a boy.
Clearly, YA books for the older end of the spectrum can go beyond kissing. Were I to continue the relationship between to the two same-gender characters in future books, could I reasonably go beyond kissing like I might with an opposite-gender couple? Or would that catapult the book into
"issue book" territory, or even further, into "specialty audience" territory? Is today's teen audience far enough along the evolutionary spectrum to accept it? And/or would I earn a coveted spot on the banned books list?
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:58:01 -0700
This is more a series of questions rather than an observation. What do you all think about the limits of explicit sexual situations in YA lit books for gay characters versus straight characters? Are the boundaries different because of the controversy surrounding gay identity? And is the answer to the question different based on whether the book is an "issue book" versus a mystery, fantasy, scifi, romance, etc.? (In my mind, issue books have far fewer boundaries than other commercial genres.)
Obviously, an author can put explicit sexual situations in his/her story regardless of genre, but I'm interested in what you think the audience/market will bear. For example, I just finished the manuscript for book 2 in a YA mystery series, and the protagonist's main love interest is the same gender. I worried while writing the kissing scenes that it would shock the audience, whereas I didn't worry about that in the first book when the protagonist's love interest was a boy.
Clearly, YA books for the older end of the spectrum can go beyond kissing. Were I to continue the relationship between to the two same-gender characters in future books, could I reasonably go beyond kissing like I might with an opposite-gender couple? Or would that catapult the book into
"issue book" territory, or even further, into "specialty audience" territory? Is today's teen audience far enough along the evolutionary spectrum to accept it? And/or would I earn a coveted spot on the banned books list?
-- Mary Elizabeth Summer TRUST ME, I'M LYING (Delacorte, 2014) YA suspense Website <http://www.mesummer.com> | Twitter<http://twitter.com/mesummerbooks>| Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/MaryElizabethSummer> | Tumblr<http://maryelizabethsummer.tumblr.com/> ==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to... ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to... digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To unsubscribe, send a blank message to... leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu ==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at... http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net ...and enter the following when prompted... username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Sat 15 Mar 2014 10:58:33 AM CDT
