Over the past few years, there had been one been debated about; it appears that Young Adult literature has been based around one man, John Green. However, Green is not in any way a bad man, he is a quite popular figure in society, he does have a high standing among teens with YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter, his voice simply holding power (Ramano, 2014). His books provide a real glance into the troubles of a teen coming of age in the real world, which is nothing close to perfect (Romano, 2014). However, the main discussion is the power he has in the genre, stating his voice is taking away from the woman writers (Ramano, 2014). In the past woman, having most power in the genre, and suddenly one man seemingly has it all (Kelly, 2013). Writer Kelly Jensen (2013) talks about it from her view as a reader looking in on her blog. …show more content…
He’s worked tirelessly to gain a following and fan base. But the fact that we as a reading and book culture – hell I’d even go further to say those who are casual readers – continue to uphold him as some Savior of YA and the success toward which to aspire is amazingly problematic. Because it follows in the same problematic gender norms that have plagued us since forever. The cis-gendered white male is the standard for best. (Jensen, 2013) Within this blog post, Jensen (2013) goes on to explain that a white cis-gendered male is what everyone is reaching for. This is not only spoken about by the past librarian but more and more the bookish woman of the internet seem to be reaching out, saying his control is making the genre parish (Ramano, 2014). A prime example of this is the Rise of Rainbow Rowell’s own book Eleanor and Park. Two months after a reviewer ‘Green lit’ spoke about Rowell’s book it gained a small rise in popularity; however a few months later John Green spoke about the book and it was suddenly widely sought out for (Ramano,
In the first paragraph of Laurie Penny’s essay “What to do when you’re not the hero anymore” she tells the reader how she recently went to see the new Star Wars movie. To her surprise a female character, Rey, fought off a bad guy as an equal. Hollywood has incredible power in how messages are portrayed in books, TV shows, and movies. It is no secret that media representation normalizes the reality of white male power. Penny explores how it is becoming more common to see a women lead in books, movies, and TV shows, rather than the stereotypical male.
Who can resist a book with a chapter titled, "Labia Lumps, Chunky Discharge, and Other Things They Never Taught Me in Library School"? Released this past summer, Revolting Librarians Redux: Radical Librarians Speak Out takes no prisoners as its contributors ponder everything from the backtracking of '60s values by ALA's baby boomers to librarian imagery in erotica. This edited volume is a sequel to a 1972 self-published book titled Revolting Librarians. The original is worth checking out for its historical value alone. The editors of the 2003 volume, Katia Roberto and Jessamyn West gathered essays from ten of the original writers from the 1972 book for this version and it is interesting to see what thirty years has done to these radical librarians.
Hughes-Hassell, Sandra. "Multicultural Young Adult Literature as a Form of Counter-Storytelling." Library Quarterly. 83.3 (2013): 212-228. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. (Hughes-Hassell 212-228)
Much discrimination and misogyny still permeate our social stratosphere, but while reading written words one cannot help but to be placed in the author’s shoes, and therefore accept their words as our own. Cain writes, “Many of the texts written by women during this time reflect the idea that there are natural differences between the sexes. Usually a female narrator…privately addresses a mainly female audience about issues that might seem mainly to concern women” (825). Because the text is written in a female voice, the reading adapts themselves to that voice, and gives credit to the
Gay suggests another way characters within pop culture are portrayed as unlikable or at least not powerful, is by being a person of color. As stated earlier, there exists a narrow conceptualization of womanhood and femininity, which primarily mirrors the privileged class, which dominates pop culture in terms of the books we read, television we watch, ads we consume, heroines we aspire to be, and music we listen to. However there does exist different identities of what it means to be a woman. In Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens. Cathy J. Cohen imagines the contemporary view and power of women to be in relation to their homogenized identity. This meaning, to be a woman also depends on other factors of identity; to be a woman in relation to if you are poor or rich, black or white, gay or straight, queer or fall into the dominant class. Luckily, this understanding of womanhood has somewhat expanded. The scope of racial expansion somewhat increases by moving to include Gay’s idolized Black Miss America. Unfortunately, this expansion follows the privilege trend where only a certain type of green girl is able to satisfy the role of Black Miss America. A large issue that Gay has with representation of women of color is that they are tokenized, they are stereotyped, and they are grossly generalized. Instead of this poor misrepresentation of women of color, both Gay and Cohen seek, “a new political direction and agenda, one that does not focus on integration into dominant structures but instead seeks to transform the basic fabric and hierarchies that allow systems of oppression to persist and operate efficiently” (Cohen 165). Gay concludes that inclusion of women of color in pop culture fails to portray them as more than one dimensional characters. This lack of depth is attributed to the lack of respect that women of color face in real life as well. While the
Why is it that a book that follows the life of people of different races sparks so much interest in others? Is it the fact that so many can say yes, that resonates within me, I know the struggle, I know what this character is going through (you see that’s when a novel becomes something more other than a false hope that young adult novels seem to advertise through the false sense that this is what the real world is like, beige characters that seem to repel multifaceted characteristics that make them tangible and attainable) in comparison to the usual book with almost all white characters such as that in most young-adult popular books? What’s going on within the literary world if we can’t form connections with characte...
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
Lane, Ruth. 2007. “Book excels in gender issues: Encourages student in identifying, coping during changes.” The Spectator, September 27, 6B.
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.
Kimmel, Michael. “Men Will Be Boys.” The New York Post. 7 Sept. 2008. Rpt. in Writing Communities & Identities. Ed. Cynthia Debes et al. 6th ed. Plymouth, MI: Hayden-McNeil Publishing, 2009. 56-64.
He starts off his books by asking questions that interest him or pique his curiosity: “Why are we so interested in leaving a legacy? Can we construct meaning in a world that is so profoundly apathetic towards us? Is it possible to have a full life without having a long life?” (John Green). With these great questions as well as characters, he is able to create stories that touch his readers. He has written the books: Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and The Fault in Our Stars. Along with this, he is a coauthor with David Levithan in Will Grayson, Will Grayson, and he wrote a short story “A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle” with Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson in the book Let it Snow. Around eight years ago, John met a teen girl online named Esther Grace Earl (Talbot). She was one of his biggest nerdfighters and had thyroid cancer (Talbot). They became close, but she died in 2010 when she was sixteen, and John said that he “couldn’t have written it (the book) without her” (Talbot). After she died he helped her parents publish a book filled with her essays and drawings through Dutton (“John Green Finally Goes to the Movies!”). The Fault in our Stars is easily Green’s most popular book. Before it was even finished or published, it reached the top spot on the Amazon and Barnes & Noble websites (“Teen Beat”). This happened because he announced that he would be signing the entire first printing (around 150,000
A soldier’s journey, a trip back home from World War II and a collision with reality is described in the opening of Henry Green’s novel, “Back”. The opening deals with the soldier’s journey, his experience at the warfront, the death of his love, and finally a child who is his own son, the last thing he has of his love. Charley, the soldier is seen reminiscing the moments he had with Rose and his experiences at the battlefield while he walks through the graveyard towards the body of his love. The author conveys a lot more than just what the words say in the first few paragraphs, leaving the reader eager to turn the page as well as giving the reader the freedom to interpret what certain words and sentences mean.
context out of which a work of literature emerges molds the interpretation of gender in that work.
Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.
The kinds books children and young adults read today are read because they offer either important lessons or qualities that the children and young adults should portray. Books that children read reflect on the social structure on our world. A significant social issue today is one of gender inequality where men and women are still not seen as equals at home or in the workplace. This inequality reflects the sexism that occurs against women. Sexism is discrimination and stereotyping based on sex, most commonly against women.The sexism between men and women that exists today reflect the female stereotypes often seen in literature new and old. Literature published in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century, like Little Women and Peter Pen, and even