‘We often need literature to make our feelings intelligible to us.’ Joanna Trollope, The Rector’s Wife Robin Joyce Part 1 The strong response to a readers’ blog asking for examples of ethical fiction, (1) a list of topics under…
Tag: young adult literature
Young Adult Literature – Censoring Teenage Sexual Autonomy
In the novels by Blume, Klein, et al, ‘two nice kids, in love, have sexual intercourse and no one dies.’ In both Blume’s ‘Forever’ and Klein’s ‘It’s Ok if you Don’t Love Me’, the male love interests are the ones left alone, the girls having moved on and embodied the traditionally ‘masculine’ relationship role. The young women in these books enjoy sex, and their experiences are discussed in detail. Crucially, they enjoy sex as just one component of a rounded lifestyle, as with Blume’s Sybil: ‘Sybil Davison has a genius IQ and has been laid by at least six different guys.’