*content warning* mentions of sexual assault
After Brooke and Hela mentioned Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games during their (amazing!) presentations, it got me rethinking some of the books that I loved growing up, and the increasingly problematic aspects of them that I continue to encounter.
What first got me into reading in intermediate was young adult and fantasy. It means I’ve always had a love of these genres for being such a big part of my childhood, but it is progressively more difficult to enjoy these books as I get older, even when transitioning to adult fiction. I find myself starting and not being able to finish multiple books before I can sift through to find the one shiny novel that maintains my interest. At first, I believed this to be a worsening attention span or simply looking in the wrong places, however, what I think is happening is that I’m simply no longer impressed by the lazy, clichéd tropes thrown at us by the authors I encounter.
Back in intermediate, the very first fantasy book series that I got into was The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. I will always have fond memories tied to the books, however, looking back on the content of the novel, I view the series in a very different light. One of the things I still remember is the shocking amount of incest/implied incest and sexual assault. Incest is already a topic that I find hard to justify the inclusion of at all; but at least if the assault-related content had been integrated into the plot as a trauma that the main character then struggles with or overcomes as part of their personal development, I might feel better about it. What it actually felt like was an attention-grabbing idea thrown into the series simply to add drama to the plotline; disgustingly romanticizing incest in the process. Including this kind of content in a series, especially with a young audience, without giving it anywhere near the kind of attention it deserves comes off as revolting and immoral. For a middle-aged author to be using real trauma for shock value is inexcusable.
But unfortunately, this is quite a recurring theme in young adult and fantasy fiction.
I’m all for using fiction, or literature in general, as an escape or distraction from reality – fantasy especially does not have to reflect the truth, however, this is not an excuse for normalizing harmful and toxic behavior.
The fantasy genre often features elements of – and therefore overlaps with – romance. And while there are some absolute heartwarming, beautiful gems I have found through the internet, the sunken standards for some of the books that make it onto ‘must read’ lists from Goodreads to book blogs continue to shock me. The romance genre has turned out to be a particular kind of minefield. Books with raving 4.5 star reviews and tens of thousands of votes for best books of their genre turn out to be some of the most backward, misogynistic, two-dimensional novels I’ve ever read! It is one of these reviews of a book that I was absolutely baffled by, that I came across the term “alphahole”. Yes, you read that right. One word that perfectly demonstrates what festers within the genre. An ‘alphahole’ (alpha-asshole) seems to be a term applied to male characters that are beloved fan favorites for being abusive, manipulative, sadistic characters. Why you may ask? Because they are also devastatingly attractive! How could anyone resist? Of course, their broody nature is explained away by a vaguely sad past… A history of trauma does not validate cruelty! And this should not be celebrated and romanticized! This also applies to the numerous depressing instances I’ve read about a male character sexually assault the love interest but it is skewed as sensual and alluring. This is all underpinned by the ridiculous idea that it doesn’t count as assault because both characters are attractive, and of course, they were always ‘meant to be’.
What pains me the most is that the majority of these authors are women! Why are so many female authors normalizing women being in abusive, toxic relationships? Even in ‘healthy’ relationships, a trope I have seen encapsulate almost every fantasy novel/series is the pattern of emphatically strong, feisty, capable, and independent female characters falling in love with the man that is strong enough to make her feel soft and feminine in comparison, the one that makes them want to be ‘dominated’.
Why does femininity have to be inherently tied to weakness?
They play it off as an equal partnership because her personality makes up for the physical strength and authority she lacks in comparison to her love interest, but there is consistently at least one of these inequalities. Yes, fiction can be an escape; a world where anything can happen – but that doesn’t change the fact that literature still has a very real effect on its readers. Are these really the types of ideas we want to be perpetuating?
It baffles me that in a genre where your entire purpose is to break boundaries and challenge truths, these outdated gender roles is what female writers choose to keep. Sure, vampires and werewolves exist and are running an underground supernatural black market, but god forbid my female character be too intimidating and scare off all the men!
So, I get what’s going through their minds when people hear ‘fantasy’ or ‘romance’ and fail to suppress a cringe – a lot of the most popular representations of the genres are indeed incredibly cringe-worthy; but the touching books I have read within the genres that I continue to cherish give me hope that for every 10 terrible ones, I’ll find one amazing story that will make the search worth it. I think we’ve probably all read a book that displays what its genre should and could be, but I guess until things change it’s up to us to keep sifting for gold.
Thanks for making it through my rant! This is purely based off of my own experience with literature genres and I would love to hear some of your own stances that might change my mind or validate my frustrations and please include any good book recommendations if you have them!
I really liked reading your post, and found it so necessary! I remember my younger self falling in love with all of these types of books, and it was hard for me to reread them at a later age and realise how problematic and flawed the ideologies and romances were. There should be way more novels in these genres that promote strong women in healthy relationships. I get upset when I see so many online stories that romanticise men ‘claiming’ women, and so many other unhealthy and abusive aspects of relationships. Even Netflix’s 365 days, is as an example of really widely distributed depiction of romance thats…. kind of problematic? It’s sad to see this on such a big and well reputed platform. Thank you for your post! It was succinct and raised so many important points.
A good piece! I agree with the idea that people should use fantasy as escapism, but as you’ve pointed out, the fiction still exists within the actual world. Any creator takes ideas from the real world and uses those in their media, either on purpose or unintentionally, so those ideas should be examined. Not even escapist fiction can escape the sheer will people have to give things meaning.
Don’t really have any book recommendations unfortunately; I haven’t been reading much myself.
Love this post Noor! I think many of us struggle with the inherent problems of texts we loved as young adults. Upon reflection, the continual narratives of ‘weaker’ female characters who are abused (in a sickening variety of definitions) were presented in a positive way. Like going through trauma was a good character building experience for them. This is not only disgusting but also perpetuates gender stereotypes to a young and impressionable audience. Some of these novels helped in teaching young girls to be gaslighted and manipulated by those around them- I know they did for me. Sometimes it’s really hard to reconcile the nostalgia and the problematics of these texts, but your post has certainly helped me in this never-ending quest.
I completely agree with you. I never realised how back so many books I read as a young girl were until I read the twilight books again (the twilight tiktok renaissance is to be blamed). Jacob’s character turns into this very strange controlling and pedophillic person?? To make matter worse we were all conditioned to choose between Edward and Jacob as if they’re both splendid options?? This experience has made me weary of reading books from my childhood and has made me critical of why I loved them in the first place!
This is a really interesting read, and it’s an idea that I’ve been struggling with myself. I’ve been trying to branch out my reading within the fantasy genre, and it’s fascinating the kind of stuff that you can find when you shift away from more traditional perceptions of fantasy. Admittedly, I’ve found very little within the YA genre that really pushes these boundaries, but I can give some recommendations (primarily for older fantasy).
‘The Goblin Emperor’ by Katherine Addison is an absolute favourite of mine. It’s basically a fantasy political drama, but the main character is refreshingly kind-hearted for a male fantasy character – he’s the half-goblin son of the elven emperor, and is suddenly forced into the role himself after the death of his father and older brothers. The world itself is based pretty heavily on the kind of pseudo-European court found in a lot of fantasy novels, but I really loved the way the setting was handled.
‘Stories of the Raksura’ by Martha Wells is also quite an interesting series. I’m most interested in fantasy from an anthropological perspective, seeing how we can explore what societies could exist when we don’t have to consider the bounds of real life. This series definitely scratches that itch – it’s about a society of matriarchal lizard-ish people, the main character is male but the structure of his society brings about gendered dynamics that are completely different from any other book I’ve read. His narration is also pretty amusing, he’s constantly getting thrown into situations where he has no idea what’s going on and I couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy.
I’ve just started the first book of ‘The Broken Earth’ series by NK Jemisin, and I’m really enjoying it so far. It’s a post-apocalyptic fantasy, that so far seem to have a number of BIWOC main characters, and was described to me as “POC actively dismantling systems of oppression’. A super interesting read so far.