Sex in YAF

My PhD on sex, drugs and alcohol in YAF
from 2011

At the weekend I mentioned to you that it had been two years to the day that I had done my PhD viva. My thesis title is 'The Issues of Representation/Representing Sex, Drugs and Alcohol in British Contemporary YAF.' There have been a few academics who have disagreed with my thoughts, in particular, the idea that YAF is a great place for teenagers to explore contentious issues through the vicarious experience. So today it was with great delight that I read an article by Malorie Blackman (see here ) where she said exactly the same thing. Along with Melvin Burgess who highlights that teenagers can cope with anything as long as it is put in context.

Many suggest that YAF should be the last place that contentious issues such as sex should be discussed implying that innocence should be maintained. They seem to forget the open access many teenagers have to porn and the such like via various mediums including the internet and let's be honest this is the last place we want them to be learning about sex. It objectifies women and brutalizes the sex as also highlighted by Malorie. It is anything but real.

Reading allows a teenager to find out who they are, or even, and perhaps more importantly, who they are not. Searching for an identity. Reading, either via a book or an e-book, allows them to take away what they want to from the narrative.  It enables them to safely ask questions of the narrative without fear of embarrassment or mockery. It is all about the vicarious experience where a teenager can decide how they would react in any given situation by reading stories and seeing how the character's behave. They may agree/empathise with them, they may not. There are no rules just opportunities to explore. To test the world.

Importantly no teenager is going to come to a story in ignorance. They will probably know a lot more than they can even articulate. As writers it is up to us to provide them with those stories. They must be strong and are so real that they ring true with the reader and therefore they will connect with them. My research highlighted how sex has become more graphic in YAF but I see this as no bad thing. I would rather teenagers learnt about sex from the more realistic approaches of Malorie, Melvin Burgess and others than by trawling through any porn sites.

I am really looking forward to Malorie Blackman being the Children's Laureate. She talks so much sense and writes great books. What more could we ask for?

I have written several times in this blog before which you may be interested but is risky getting repetitive - come on everyone move on please
http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/sex-in-young-adult-fiction-move-along.html
There was also the 'sick lit' debate
http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-sick-lit-debate.html

I couldn't really put up any other music than Ian Drury & The Blockheads 'Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll'

Sex in Young Adult Fiction - Move along people nothing new to see here!

A bit of sex, drugs and rock and roll

Last week in the Telegraph there was a considered article by Alice Vincent entitled 'Sex in Young Adult Fiction - a rising trend?' For me it was a particularly interesting read as my PhD was all about the representation of sex in young adult fiction so I thought I would add my penny's worth. In particular, Vincent is talking about the rise of New Adult fiction - apparently young adult fiction with extra bits. In this case a bit of raunch or so called 'steamies.' The focus of the article does appear to be on books from the US. Perhaps this idea of New Adult Fiction is a way of getting contentious subjects through the strict regulations of some parts of the US - the home of Banned Book Week after all! It is worth noting that later in the article it is highlighted how several of these books were self published first, therefore, avoiding the publishing/editorial gatekeepers. Publishers are only picking them up once they see they are successful and it is fairly difficult for them to change to the content at that stage. I think there is probably a whole blog post just in those two sentences which I will leave for another day.

Sex is, as Dr Lucy Pearson, stated nothing new. She notes that there was a change following the publication of Judy Blume's Forever in 1975. Once again that is a US book. Sex has been portrayed in books for young adults for many years in the UK (you could potentially go back to Penelope Aubin and her books in the Eighteenth Century where her main characters are often young teenagers and sexually active). Another example is Aidan Chambers' book Breaktime (1978) where he split the page in two when he explored his main characters' first experience. On one side the sex was described from the perspective of Dr Spock's A Young Person's Guide to Life and Love while on the other it was how they actually felt. It was an honest and considered approached that pulled the reader in. In my own research, which focused on British young adult fiction from 1996, I noticed a distinct change in representation. It came out from under the metaphorical covers (literally in Melvin Burgess's Junk, where the sex is implied and happens in a sleeping bag) to being pretty full on in books like Burgess's Doing It, Malorie Blackman's Boys Don't Cry, Noel Clarke's Kidulthood, Judy Waite's Game Girls,  William Nicholson's Rich & Mad, Rachel Ward's Numbers and Tabitha Suzuma's Forbidden. This is just a brief sample and they provide a wide range of sexual experiences from the gentle and exploratory in Rich & Mad  to the offer of oral sex in exchange for drugs to sell so they can buy new dresses in Kidulthood.  This is just the tip of the iceberg. I explore it far more in my thesis. An important point that I noted in my research was that the more graphic sex did not represent an increase in sex among teenagers necessarily, instead it seemed to reflect a reaction by author's to the availability of information and influences of youth culture.

In my opinion, sex in young adult fiction does have its place if it fits in with the story. I have said this many times before, it is all about being in context. I have quoted both Pullman and Burgess ad nauseum about this so won't do it again. But it is all about the vicarious experience. (See this TED talk by Dan Gilbert which talks about this too)  Giving teenagers somewhere safe to go to and explore. However, I do have concerns when the publishers state they want to capture 'Fifty Shades of Grey effect for teenagers'. Do we really want girls (or boys even) to think that it is perfectly acceptable to be treated like this? Or maybe I am just an old fashioned feminist who is not overly keen on being in an abusive relationship.

And here is Jake Bugg with his song 'Two Fingers'

Children's books are brave and bold

I was reminded this week of the resilience of children. My step grandson had a massive operation. We were all terrified by it, he was pragmatic. It was something that needed to be done as far as he was concerned. This wasn't a case of ignorance on his part. He knew exactly what was going to be done to him and could explain to you in graphic detail if you were willing to listen. He was brave beyond belief.

His attitude made me think of the post written by the DGA agent, Kirsty McLachlan, on the Golden Egg website. If you have any involvement in writing for children you should read this post. It is inspired. OK, maybe I am biased, her approach to children's literature is the same as mine. Children's books can be challenging. They can take children to places where as adults we might fear they should go. As Kirsty says 'Children's books are brave and bold. They are fearless.' Just like children and so they should be. As I have said before Philip Pullman in his Carnegie Award Medal acceptance speech spoke about how there are some ideas just too big for adult stories but children's fiction is exactly where they should be dealt with. While Melvin Burgess also suggested that children (I am including young adults in all this too) can cope with anything if it is put in context. This has all been mentioned fairly recently anyway with the whole 'sick-lit' argument, which you all know my thoughts on.

The important thing to remember when writing for children is that they have this insatiable thirst for knowledge. And books are a great place for them to ask questions of the text but also of themselves. Books can help them work out who they are and to make the connections in their own lives. As Kirsty also said 'Children always defy our expectations,' and so should their books. Somebody said to me the other day 'Oh I think I am going to write a children's book because it must be easy.' You can imagine my reaction. But more importantly, and regardless of the fact that writing a children''s book is not easy, is the fact that we should not demean children's books like that. Are they not entitled to the best written stories ever? More so, I think, than adults. I was convinced to do my MA in Writing for Children because I was told if you can write for children you can write for anyone because it is so hard.

There have also been some interesting articles flitting through the ether talking about how the gap between girls and boys reading is closing. It is believed as a direct result of the ebook. In other articles it was suggested that children still want 'proper' books as well as ebooks. They are embracing the technology and moving with it. We must make sure we move with it as writers. Thinking how our stories can be multi-platform, being open and flexible to all opportunities.

I am going to end on a quote from Kirsty again, which I think just sums up the importance of good books: 'A child that reads is not alone; they are with a best friend.'

And here is a beautiful piece of music composed and played by Shin Suzuma, brother of my friend Tabitha Suzuma. A gentle something for a Saturday full of marking and work....remind me again, what is a weekend for? ;-)

Different countries, different books

My brain

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis maybe aware that I am an academic as well as a writer. And it was as an academic that a few months ago I was approached by a journal who asked me to write a review essay for them. They very kindly sent me a collection of six YA books which I had to read and they wanted me to compare them with UK YA fiction.

For part of my PhD I explored the representation of drugs in British contemporary realist fiction and how it had changed since Melvin Burgess's Junk. The idea for this review essay was that I would look at these new books from a foreign land and see how they represent drugs in their YA books.

It has been an interesting experience as I was surprised how different they were. The drugs they use to illustrate drug use tend to be different to ours and some of them were far more didactic. You could almost feel the author wagging their finger at you and shouting 'DO NOT TAKE DRUGS' as they lurched from one episode of drug taking to the next. It seemed to me that some didn't follow Blanchot's idea of leaving questions on the page ready for the reader to pick up and explore. These weren't questions they were statements/directions.

But it also made me think about my own writing and how 'international' it could be and should that be something I even thought about as I wrote. Is it something you planned or it just happened?  I have moved the setting of my story from France to  a non specific city in the UK. I am assured this is a good move but we will see. I would love to hear what the rest of you think about this and whether you consider it when writing?

The picture above is mine but it also represents my brain at the moment as I try and flit between the academic/critical writer and my creative brain as I am thinking of a new story.Wish my luck, it is a bit like pulling teeth.

And in the spirit of things here is Karima Francis playing The Author, which seemed appropriate today: