Threesomes in YA, the debate

Holla my sweet cremesickles of awesomeness! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I made the mistake of posting an article on my facebook page, then wandering out to the mountains and leaving it unattended, and it literally blew up my feed, which basically tells me, this is a discussion worth having. It all centers around this article from the New York Daily News, I will give you a minute to go read it:

Threesomes in YA

Back? Great. So, were you shocked? Appalled? Mildly disinterested? Does grandma need her heart medication?

Because this is a thing. And it’s real. And we should talk about it.

Here’s where I stand, and I know that opinions will vary wildly, and I welcome kind, respectful dissenting options in the comments (but I will delete a-holeness like a ninja).

Basically, I’m in the camp of CENSORSHIP IS BAD PERIOD. I get that parents cringe at the idea of their kids reading this stuff, and that is their right. Don’t let them read it then. Or even better, let them read it and then have an honest, open discussion about the nature of sexuality and sexual relationships. (I’m not sure which scares some parents more, their kids reading about sex from some outside source or having to actually talk to the about if face to face).

At the end of the day, I don’t think publishers or authors or bookstores should be bound to any restrictions on the content of a book. That’s too slippery a slope. Because I’ve had parents tell me, “I don’t mind language, but no sex”, or “I don’t mind sex, but no gay talk”. Even, “I don’t want language or violence of any kind in YA fiction”. So which of these people should get to decide where the line is?

None of them. You decide for yourself and for your kid, period.

I’m not even going to get into the fact that YA fiction is fiction written ABOUT teens, not necessarily FOR them (by definition of the genre any story featuring a teen protagonist is YA by default, no matter the content), or the fact that some teens are engaging in this sort of behavior (not that that makes it morally right) or the fact that fiction is escapist by it’s very nature and not some sort of how-to manual for life. I’m not even going to harp on the fact that statistically most readers of YA fiction are women ages 25-35. Because at the end of the day, none of that is really the point. No one gets to say what can or can’t, or for that matter should or shouldn’t be allowed in YA novels.

Which is why I’m such an advocate for disclosure, or basically a rating system for books. It’s one of the biggest misconceptions about my publisher, Clean Teen Publishing. It’s not that all their books are “clean” (because how could they be? What one person calls clean another might be totally offended by) but that they offer a rating, right on the cover. It’s a five point scale based on the levels of violence, sex, language, and alcohol/drug use. And if a book has an M rating (for mature content) there’s a barcode you can scan with your smart phone and it will tell you EXACTLY what gave it that rating. For example, my book Losing Logan got a 5 for language, and if you scan the code, it will tell you exactly which words were used. Queen of Someday got a 5 for sex because there is non-graphic closed door sex after a wedding. But with this system, you KNOW what you (or your kid) is reading before you even crack a page, or fork out ten bucks.

So why don’t all publishers do this? I’m gonna tell you a little secret, I spoke to one of the big 5 publishers at BEA this year and we talked a little about the disclosure system. He actually laughed and said, “If we told them what was in it, sales would plummet.” (that’s paraphrased because I can’t remember his exact wording, I was in too much shock. But that’s the gist)

Let that sink in for a second.

Now, threesomes are extremely rare in YA, despite what that article might say. Less than 0.3% of YA books have one. I know, because I looked. The article rather shames characters who “think about” threesomes, or that might feature masturbation or even just sex in general. So before you go burning your kid’s book stack, do some research. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, go search the title on Goodreads or Amazon, generally any mature content will pop up in a review somewhere.

Maybe I’m biased. My YA/Historical novel Queen of Always (releasing this September) features what I hope is a very tasteful, non-graphic threesome. The book is based on the life of young Catherine the Great, and if you know anything about her, you know it’s completely accurate to how she lived. I didn’t add it for shock value, or to morally corrupt teen readers, I did it because it was necessary to the story, and had been building for two books.  I think my job as a writer, is to tell the story in the most honest, real way I can, and hope that people accept it for what it is.

On the bright side, I may have actually hit that banned books list this time.

(and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please, go and have a peek. See how many of the books on that list you agree or disagree with)

Tell me what you think in the comments below, but remember, play nice and use your inside voice because this is my sandbox and I make the rules here.

XOXP