avengingsybil

Call It Chicken Salad

There's something about Sarah Dessen's novels that I find incredibly comforting. I've liked her more and more in the past few years-- I think she's really flourished as a writer since her first books. Plus she has a knack for writing boy characters that I would soooo crush on in real life, Eli being the latest. Along For the Ride is probably my favorite of hers to date. It's sweet and touching and there's believable character growth not only for Auden, the main character, but for the people around her, including her extremely difficult parents. I appreciate the way she makes a point of having even the supporting characters be multi-faceted.

I won't be writing in here for the next couple of weeks as I'm going away on my annual wilderness adventure... clearly it will be a positive thing for me to step away from my TV for a bit. And I'm looking forward to reading my brains out. In my bag: The Wizard and Glass, the fourth in Stephen King's Dark Tower series as well as (not-so-)Little Dorrit. I've been reading both of these on and off  forever, and I assume this forever will continue long after this vacation goes by, but that's cool. I'm also bringing E. Lockhart's Treasure Map of Boys (I'm guessing it'll be my first beach read), The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs (on the roster the 4th year in a row... I'll get to it one of these days)

That ought to hold me for two weeks, ya think? 

Written material copyright 2009 Dawn A. Emerman

The Definition of Mindless

It seems I've rekindled my summer tradition of forgoing books in my free time in favor of watching new teen comedy series. Inevitably, watching these shows makes me get all het up and shaking my fist at the TV machine, but I remain powerless against the allure.

New for this summer: Make It or Break It and 10 Things I Hate About You, both on ABC Family (even I am not enough of a masochist to have watched Secret Life of the American Teenager beyond the first season).

I was drawn to MIOBI because it centers around elite teenage gymnasts, gymnastics being close enough to my other programming obsession (anything that features dance). Basically, it's a little soap opera set in a gym. What they present is a portrait of four young women (the perfectionist, the spoiled bitch, the affable rich girl with a secret and the new kid in town on scholarship - aka Mary Sue to the nth degree) all of them struggling to strike a balance between being extremely gifted and being normal teenagers. 

Compelling, yes? Nice, light summer fare. But their approach to everything having to do with sex is disappointingly (though unsurprisingly) heavy-handed and, well, sexist.

Recent storyline: a girl hooks up with a guy, not because she's attracted to him, but for revenge purposes. He has sex with her because, why not, there's a willing girl, and he's just had a fight with his girlfriend. Later he feels guilty, not because he had sex in and of itself (it's implied that he's not a virgin) but because he cheated. The girl feels guilty as well (her partner was her supposed best friend's guy) but she also feels empty, used and ashamed. Add to that the knife of her father's disapproval when he commends his girlfriend's resolution to remain a virgin until marriage on the grounds that--to paraphrase his remark--"it's refreshing in a world where women and girls will sleep with anyone who gives them the time of day."

Later, when the girl tells her friends she lost her virginity, the other three gasp in horror. How could she? Admittedly, the reason the perfectionist gives for being horrified was hilarious (what if she released some hormones that would make her hips and boobs grow?!), but I'm just trying to imagine this scene with boys instead. Stereotypically, there would be a lot more congratulating.

The losing-of-a-girl's-virginity-as-bombshell method is also employed in the first episode of 10 Things..., but so far (two episodes in at this point) it has given me less to grumble about. Not just because I have a soft spot for the 1999 movie upon which it is based (as well as The Taming of the Shrew to an extent, and Kiss Me Kate) but the writing is sharp and funny. It's not as subversive as it purports to be, but it's entertaining. I just wish that Kat's feminism extended to her sexuality. Maybe it will, we'll see, it's just that over and over again the message being sent is that girls need to be protected from sex and when they have it, it's a mistake. They get no credit, nor do the boys who always check the "Sex? Yes please!" box without discrimination. Kudos to the wacky OB/GYN dad who at least touts protection along with his own fatherly over-protection.

I just want to know what gives, ABC Family? By reinforcing stereotypes regarding young peoples' sexuality, are you are promoting an agenda, or lazy writers who rely on cliches of gender roles? Either way, I am not a fan. I just feel like this is perpetuating old, damaging ways of thinking, and until something changes, we're doing our young people a disservice. How many times an entry do I type that line, I wonder? I'm bothered by it though, much more bothered than I want to be by throwaway summer programming. GAH.

This new site does my angry heart good, and reinforces my faith in the youth of today, no matter what the network people are trying to tell us.

Currently reading (when I come to my senses and turn off the TV): Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen - it jumped to the top of my list because it arrived at the library and I take my due dates very seriously.

Written material copyright 2009 Dawn A. Emerman

My Bad

After the Moment is a different sort of YA book in the way that most Freymann-Weyr books are. I find her novels to be very adult, not always necessarily in theme, but in terms of sophistication and in what is left to the reader to figure out on her own. The characters deal with typically adolescent rites of passage (applying to college, dating) but the way that they go about doing it is in a measured, serious way. Adults themselves have an unusually large presence in her books, this one especially, sometimes in a benevolent way, often not, but they are among her most fascinating characters. I'm not sure if I feel this way because I am an adult myself, but it was Leigh's elders who engaged me the most. I wonder if they speak to younger readers in a significant way?

Family, who constitutes family, and the idea that the people who have the greatest impact on your life might not technically be related to you seem to be a trademark of this author and one that I particularly admire. There are no easy stereotypes in her world, and in a society made up of increasingly blended families, I adore that stepparents and ex-stepparents and longtime companions get their due.

As for the main characters, I found Maia really hard to warm up to, as she is frustratingly delicate, but I think this may be on purpose. Leigh, too, is distant and enigmatic, which usually doesn't work for a protagonist, but here it's effective because it's as if the reader is missing the same things he's missing. We didn't put the puzzle together before he did, and that added to the depth of the story. I thought it was artfully structured, I enjoyed the way the author subtly mimicked the pattern of a typical romance novel, and the choice to work with a male point-of-view character was an interesting way to frame the story. I liked how she was able to reference different ideas about what constitutes sex, and it was great that responsible, safe and mutually respectful sexual interactions were (with one exception) a given.

All that said, it was not my favorite of Freymann-Weyr's books, and I'll be the first to admit that the crux of the story--the quagmire formed in the aftermath of a young woman being sexually assaulted by an acquaintance--is a subject about which I am experiencing serious brain fatigue. The downside of having such a singular, political-minded focus for this blog is that it's hard for me to turn it off. My ongoing struggle is to be able to read and think about a book on its own merits. Clearly sexual assault is a very real issue that needs to be written about, and I think that Maia's insistence that she take the reins in regard to how her case would be handled is remarkable, even if her choice was eventually undermined. There's a valuable lesson there about respecting the victim, and a lot of food for thought in regard to the fine line between self-blame and personal conviction. Of course the people who care for the victim have a right to cry out for justice on her behalf, but her right not to pursue the same justice for the perpetrators requires its own consideration. It's a sticky wicket, and I think it's approached in a very smart way-- in no way is this Another Rape Novel. I'm just honestly burned out on women being put at a disadvantage when it comes to sex--not to say that rape is about sex, but sex is part of it.  I do, however, feel that After the Moment warrants a lot of attention and discussion, and look forward to hearing other people's thoughts.

Currently reading: The Waters and The Wild by Francesca Lia Block; Treasure Map of Boys by E. Lockhart

Written material copyright 2009 Dawn A. Emerman

OMG SITLM!

It's Sex in Teen Lit Month. Didn't you know that's what it was? I actually just found out today, and not a second too soon. How fabulous. I inadvertently picked a doozy of a book on which to kick it off: Garret Freymann-Weyr's After the Moment. I don't have the time the book deserves to fully weigh in right now, but I will make a priority to get to it next week not only because it lingers in my mind even now, days after I finished it, but because it presents an interesting way to apply ideas about teenagers and sex. And so much more.

As for Grace Dent's super hilarious and unexpectedly sweet Diary of a Chav, I really enjoyed it and laughed out loud more than once. I'm looking forward to reading its follow-up, but I have to say (and this goes for you, too, Miss Georgia Nicholson), I do so wish that these books would ease up on the thoughtless homophobic comments. For me, they add nothing to the story or the characters. Just saying.

Happy July 4th to those who celebrate, Happy Summer (maybe? finally?), and of course, Happy Sex in Teen Lit Month!

Written material copyright 2009 Dawn A. Emerman