That's Right, I'm Un-Following!

I had to do it. I had to click that little button that unlinked me from The Rejectionist.

And I really do love her sense of humor. We would probably get along great, at a bar. However, she had to go and post a "review" of Shiver which was really just a rant about Stephanie Meyers, by way of Maggie Steifvater, who happens to be a fellow blueboarder. The Rejectionist wrote a lot of things I'm sure she wouldn't say at Publishing Industry Cocktail Hour, and lots of things the rest of would know better than to say on a public forum. And it was offensive to me, frankly.

So you didn't like the book. Fine! So you wouldn't recommend it to anyone, ever. Fine! Bad reviews get more attention than good ones, I know. I watch/read end of the year movie reviews just to see who came out at the very, very bottom. But Miss Rejectionist didn't really talk about the book so much as rant about an apparent trend in YA fiction of "enfeebled" and needy female protags who are waiting for a man to show up and fill the void so that their lives can truly begin. She went on to basically blame Meyers and Stiefvater for this, throwing out a literary history that includes everything from European fairytales through Shakespeare all the way up through modern day chick lit and every movie ever tagged as a romantic comedy.

Rather than post a thoughtful discussion on the topic of the nebulous concept of strength in female characters, the Rejectionist instead called the writing crap, and Twilight and everything after shit. Bad form.

I've never read Twilight. I probably never will. It doesn't really seem like my cup of tea, just from the vampires-fighting-werewolves angle alone. But I would never call someone stupid for having read it, or actually enjoying it. Somethings are just for fun. Expecting every female protagonist in YA lit to exemplify strength through independence, courage and a total lack of sentiment is no different than the demand that every depiction of sex or drug use in a YA novel must be accompanied by some sort of depiction of adverse consequences.

Meyers and Steifvater wrote books about girls who may be a little too wrapped up in their boyfriends. And? Does that really not describe a single modern teenage girl (or let's face it, full grown woman)? Is this really the worst thing that's happening to our young women? Forget all of advertising, forget beauty pageants, forget playboy bunnies getting reality shows, forget the endless stream of dating shows where a herd of needy women compete for the attention of some total @*!# with a rose; it's a few YA novels that are contributing to the lack of self esteem among young women in our culture. Sure. And that book about the male penguins hatching an egg is turning our kids gay.

If you don't like something, you have every right to say so. There are plenty of things I avoid like the plague just because they have gotten too popular, and I can't stand hearing about them for one more minute. There are also plenty of things I like, which according to my hipster smart-ass accreditation I should not. I like LOST, okay? I play Farmville, and I saw Love, Actually in the theater twice, and I now own it on DVD. I know they are all stupid. I got it. They're also fun. I'm smart enough to know the difference. I don't really think I own a farm, and I don't really think that Oceanic 815 crashed onto a mysterious island, and I don't really think that hot Spanish guy would leave Laura Linney because she answered her phone too much. I can tell the difference between fantasy and reality, and I think most teenage girls can, too. Especially the ones who read a lot of books.
I think the last thing we want to do is make any young girl feel ashamed of the writing she loves to read.