Because university is a dementor.
I have no soul.
Anyways, I wrote a paper on YA lit for one of my school courses (women and gender studies) and I thought I'd share it because that's what productive book bloggers are supposed to do!
Another neat thing about this paper is that (moment of unashamed self pride) my TA wanted to submit it for a writing award, but couldn't because I'm not in first year.
DISCLAIMER* I'm aware that some of the arguments surrounding my thesis don't do justice to the entirety of some of the books mentioned. However, I had to stretch specific points of evidence to support just how interwoven heteronormativity is in the androcentric patriarchal society we live in.
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Heteronormativity and Homosexuality in Young Adult Literature
Literature, and fiction specifically, is a place many
people, young and old, retreat to in an effort to escape the trials and taxes
of everyday reality. As an ardent reader of the young adult genre of literature
and as a student of WGST 1F90, I thought it would be interesting to further study
some of my favourite novels and employ what WGST has taught me thus far. In my
analysis, I will discuss how the young adult New York Times bestselling novels
of Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones,
Divergent, and The Hunger Games
unwittingly endorse heteronormativity, homophobia and gender conforming
behavior through the portrayal of women and the othering of homosexuality. Cassandra
Clare, Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins subliminally supply young adult
readers, ages twelve to eighteen (Wendig 2012), with fictional worlds that
promote gender roles based primarily in heterosexual identity. While examining
the heterosexist protagonist relations, hegemonically masculine societal values
and the emphasis placed on gender appropriate behavior, I will argue that these
novels perpetuate and present sexual and gender inequality. I look forward to
employing pleasure-critique nexus in an effort to recognize how deeply ingrained
heterosexism and gender inequity is in pop culture and North American
mainstream media.
Heteronormativity as delineated by Mann (2012) is the
belief that heterosexual identity is normal, natural, and right. Normativity,
defined as the conventional form of association, belonging, and identification,
amassed with heterosexual behavior generates an othering in homosexuality. In
turn, this expulsion of homosexuality makes way for homophobia; a heterosexual
fear of/ discrimination against gay men and lesbian women. Homophobia enforces
the idea that people who identify as homosexual are fundamentally different and
in some cases sick/mentally unstable because of their violation of
heteronormativity (Mann 2012). Mann’s queer feminist theory informs the
endorsement of the heteronormativity, homophobia, and gender conforming
behavior present in young adult literature through the intersectional chain
reaction one concept has with another. The normativity that revolves around
heterosexual YA literature is telling of the homophobia they covertly
reinforce; the rarity of a YA novel centering in homosexuality is profound in
this discussion of heteronormativity. As point of evidence, Cassandra Clare’s
(2007) Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
contains a passage that champions’ heteronormativity and homophobia;
“Why not?”
“Because I like someone else,” Simon said.
“Okay.” Simon looked faintly greenish, the way he had
once when he’d broken his ankle playing soccer in the park and had had to limp
home on it. She wondered what on earth about liking someone could possibly have
him wound up to such a pitch of anxiety. “You’re not gay, are you?”
Simon’s greenish color deepened. “If I were, I would
dress better.” (Clare, 39)
In this interaction, Clary deduces that the only reason Simon could be
“faintly greenish” and “wound up to such a pitch of anxiety” is if he was
ashamed of his homosexuality. Additionally, Clare writes her character to
compare the shame of identifying as homosexual to the physical pain of a broken
ankle. In response to this, Garcia (2013) recognizes the “harmful castigation
that it is a problem if Simon is gay; it (the passage) reads more like an
accusation or a mean spirited joke” (Garcia, 87). Mann outlines in her queer
theory the paranoia that heteronormativity and homophobia instigate; research
concluded that “fear of being called ‘fag’ in high school looms over nearly all
boys and results in compulsive displays of masculinity, aggression, and
violence against girls” (Mann 2012). Furthermore, Simon casts his own cliché
understanding of what homosexuality exhibits, and claims that if he was gay, he
would “dress better,”(Clare, 39) causing readers to believe that if you like
men, you’ll miraculously begin to dress in a specific manner. Garcia testifies
that heteronormativity is broadened in young adult literature through the “pejorative
assumptions about LGBTQI behavior” and in this, challenges the perceptions of
homosexuality being “abnormally different” (Garcia 87).
As heteronormativity and homophobia intersect in
observation of Clare’s Mortal Instruments:
City of Bones, so does heterosexuality and gender conforming/non-conforming
behavior in Suzanne Collins The Hunger
Games (2008). Kane (2013)
establishes that gender non-conforming/conforming behavior is based on the
actions and decisions made which coincide with what is socially viewed as
appropriately acceptable, evidentially in cause of gender being culturally
constructed. Moreover, Messner (2013) assists in clarifying the subject of
gender behavior and performance with his proposal that “each of us actively
scripted our own sexual and gender performances, but these scripts were
constructed within the constraints of a socially organized (institutionalized
system of power and pleasure” (Messner, 195). By acknowledging gender
performance as being representative of ‘institutionalized systems of power’ it
is understood why gender conforming behavior is demanded of the character
Katniss. In Hunger Games, Collin’s heterosexual protagonist Katniss spends more
time being groomed and primed for audiences than she is prepared for the
carnage she will reap in the arena. She is only praised by Effie when she
conforms to her gender, and the majority of their interactions are spent with
Effie berating Katniss about her lacking of feminine wiles; her smile, her
ability to walk in heels, and her tendency to glare (Collins, 115). For Effie, it is clear that the stress she
contains over Katniss is found in her fear that if she does not act like the
lady the Capital (institution of power) demands, she will not receive assistance
from sponsors when she enters the bloodbath of the arena because she has not
impressed them. The importance in this, is that Katniss’s favorability is dependent
upon gender constructions: she is a female, so she must be pretty and banal and
submissive. It is a ludacris concept in The
Hunger Games because once the tributes are placed in the arena, appropriate
gender behaviors are eradicated when they all try to kill one another.
In Roth’s (2011) Divergent,
the dystopian city of Chicago is separated into five factions; Amity (the
peaceful), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the
selfless) and Dauntless (the brave). Characters in the novel are born into
their family’s faction, and then on their sixteenth birthday are granted the
opportunity to either stay in their faction of birth, or leave and acquire the
attributes of a faction of their own choosing. The protagonist of the novel, Tris,
decides to leave her original faction and join Dauntless, a faction that is
very much exemplar of hegemonic masculinity. Predominantly lead by male
figures, the people who belong to Dauntless are defined by characters in the
books as “Hellions… pierced, tattooed, and black clothed. Their primary purpose
is to guard the fence that surrounds our city” (Roth, 7). Although Roth
initially provides her readers with a superficial representation of strength
and bravery in the attire of the Dauntless faction, her protagonist quickly
learns that her own value will be determined in her ability to physically fight
another person. Connell (2013) defines hegemonic masculinity as “a position of
cultural authority and leadership (and) an expression of the privilege men
collectively have over women” (Connell, 171). Hegemonic masculinity is
portrayed in the text through the strength that most men contain over most
women; a natural privilege that they possess and in Divergent, exploit. As Roth establishes, the brute strength of a
person is determinative of their worth in the faction and as Tris experiences,
it is her lack of physical strength that makes her a target of her fellow
initiates. In order to evaluate them, the initiates undergo a training regime
that mentally assesses their bravery in the face of their deepest fears, and
pits them physically against one another. Tris, primarily ranked lower in the physical
aspect of training, succeeds in the simulations that test her mental endurance.
However, as Tris surpasses the men in her group she is viewed in direct
violation of the concept of the commandments of mars. A behavior that some men
exhibit, the commandments of mars subsist off the need to “dominate to control,
succeed at any cost, fight the female (and) protect the male image and ego” (J.
Janke, personal communication, October 21st, 2014). It is an ideology that takes
the power away from one group of people, and gives it to another, assisting in
furthering gender inequity and homophobia. The commandments of mars is
representative in the behavior of the men who, in an effort to remove Tris from
the training program, blindfold and attack her three to one;
“… Then someone grabs me from behind. I start to
scream, but a hand claps over my mouth. It smells like soap and it’s big enough
to cover the lower half of my face. I thrash but the arms holding me are too
strong, and I bite down on one of the fingers….A strip of dark cloth covers my
eyes… I struggle to breathe. There are at least two hands on my arms, dragging
me forward, and one on my back, shoving me in the same direction, and one in my
mouth, keeping the screams in. Three people. My chest hurts. I can’t resist
three people on my own… A heavy hand gropes along my chest.
‘You sure you’re sixteen? Doesn’t feel like you’re
more than twelve.’
The other boys laugh. ‘Wait I think I found
something!’ His hand squeezes me.”(Roth, 277).
In Roth’s text, gender inequity is demonstrated as derivative of the
commandments of mars; the men “fight the female” “protect their image and ego”
and “succeed at any cost” in the sexual assault and attempted murder of the
protagonist. In sexually assaulting her, hegemonic masculinity is found in the
privilege that the men feel is their right to take ownership over Tris’s body
and touch her without her consent. However, this behavior is not without a toll
on the men who exhibit it, and we see an example of this in the desolate
demeanor of one of the adversaries who assaulted the protagonist;
“I won’t hurt you. I never wanted to…’ Al covers his
face with both hands. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I… please forgive me,
please…’
My Body feels rigid and cold, and I am not angry, I am
not hurt, I am nothing.
‘Never come near me again. If you do, I swear to God I
will kill you,’ I say. ‘You coward.” (Roth, 300).
While hegemonic masculinity and gender inequity is present in the text,
it is also challenged and fought by Roth’s Tris in the agency she reclaims over
her own body, much to the delight of a feminist reader.
Mann’s queer feminist theory
advises my thesis because it recognizes the domino effect one concept has with
another; heteronormativity clashes with homosexuality and initiates socially
appropriate gender behavior. Heteronormativity and non-conforming gender
behavior cause homophobia and enforce hegemonic masculinity for fear of social
ostracism. When speaking on heteronormativity and homosexuality in YA
literature, an important characteristic to note of Clare’s City of Bones, Collins’ The
Hunger Games, and Roth’s Divergent
is their print to screen adaptations, and how when mainstream media intervened,
the slightest reference to homosexuality was removed and ignored in cinematic
reproductions. Heteronormativity is perpetuated, as Garcia says, “through
suppression of LGBTQI presence within novels” (87), and when this same
suppression is applied in wide scale multimillion dollar screen portrayals, the
normalizing reach of heterosexuality is extended. Hall advocates that “the establishment of
normalcy (i.e, what is accepted as ‘normal’ through social-and stereo-types is
one aspect of the habit of ruling groups… to attempt to fashion the whole of
society according to their own world view, value system, sensibility and
ideology” (Hall, 229). The ruling group in most cases consists of the white,
androcentric, heterosexual people of an elevated class structure, and it is
these people who dictate and approve how reproductions will be established, and
which identities will be ignored.
The topic of the sexual and gender inequalities in
young adult literature is relevant to social change because literature, and art
in general, is illustrative of the shared human experience. Art is inspired by
the interrelations of all facets of life and humanity, and social change cannot
come about unless transformation is made throughout every aspect of the working
definition of life. Young adult literature is a source of both safety and pleasure
for innumerous people, and written stories stay with a person long after they
are read. For social change, literature, as well as people, must become aware
and recognizing of the socially constructed gendered spheres that we occupy, in
order to begin to step outside of them. Literature holds this responsibility
because it is representative of the time and culture in which it was written. Literature
and art withstands time, and are beacons of reference to refer to in times of
trial. While I believe that authors do not have to contain this social
responsibility in their writings, I do believe that in order to be relevant and
to contribute to the health of society, all identities, genders, and
sexualities must be considered with the appropriate respect and acknowledgement.
This is why the topic of heteronormativity and homosexuality in young adult
literature is important.
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