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rating kid lit?
Jan. 27th, 2010 09:07 pmSo I was looking through my google reader and came across this post arguing for content warnings on children/YA lit, providing more info for the parents. My initial reaction was 'HELL NO' and then I thought more and my position grew firmer. I posted this link to tumblr but then I had to cut myself short because I haven't figured out cut tags on the site yet.
I'm tired and I hate leaving posts half finished. So in brief, I'm really against this, I thought I could get around the idea of it but I kept coming back to if a parent wants more warning and information about the content of a book, they are free to read it, or even utilize the internet and seek out what they want to know. I can think of sites that sort movies according to their content, I'm sure there is something similar for books.
The OP is quick to say how he's not homophobic, he's just against that sort of language being in a novel marketed to 14 year olds; and I'm not going to accuse him of homophobia because I don't know him or anything like that. But I will say that to propose extending the ratings system of the MPAA, which already discriminates against same sex content, and then not acknowledge those problems when they're raised in comments, is something someone who isn't affected by those practices can do. I've seen This Film is Not Yet Rated, but even being unaware of that movie, the whole notion of even the appearance of a homosexual character is somehow more sexually charged than a heterosexual character, and the thing is the characters aren't even mentioned as heterosexual because it is so often assumed to be the default.
Side rant: I'm so tired of so many people acting like being gay is something that just switches on at adulthood or only if you engage in sex. Every time I see an uproar about a younger queer character I get upset because everyone deserves representation and when people get all 'righteous' about corrupting children with that kind of stuff, I have to say 'well what about the children that are like that?' What if you never saw yourself in a book or media? And then when you did, people were angry that you even existed?//
Still tired so:
I'll most likely post about this tomorrow or later this week. But I'm so against this for so many reasons and all of them are flitting around my head.
I'm tired and I hate leaving posts half finished. So in brief, I'm really against this, I thought I could get around the idea of it but I kept coming back to if a parent wants more warning and information about the content of a book, they are free to read it, or even utilize the internet and seek out what they want to know. I can think of sites that sort movies according to their content, I'm sure there is something similar for books.
The OP is quick to say how he's not homophobic, he's just against that sort of language being in a novel marketed to 14 year olds; and I'm not going to accuse him of homophobia because I don't know him or anything like that. But I will say that to propose extending the ratings system of the MPAA, which already discriminates against same sex content, and then not acknowledge those problems when they're raised in comments, is something someone who isn't affected by those practices can do. I've seen This Film is Not Yet Rated, but even being unaware of that movie, the whole notion of even the appearance of a homosexual character is somehow more sexually charged than a heterosexual character, and the thing is the characters aren't even mentioned as heterosexual because it is so often assumed to be the default.
Side rant: I'm so tired of so many people acting like being gay is something that just switches on at adulthood or only if you engage in sex. Every time I see an uproar about a younger queer character I get upset because everyone deserves representation and when people get all 'righteous' about corrupting children with that kind of stuff, I have to say 'well what about the children that are like that?' What if you never saw yourself in a book or media? And then when you did, people were angry that you even existed?//
Still tired so:
I'll most likely post about this tomorrow or later this week. But I'm so against this for so many reasons and all of them are flitting around my head.
