chelseapitcher:

I want to respond to the people who say we aren’t really fighting for diversity if we aren’t specifically calling for more “boy books” in YA.

We live in a world where millions of girls are illiterate or forbidden from attending school. Today. Right now. (We also live in a world where hundreds of girls are stolen and sold into sexual slavery and the media doesn’t even report on it. Yep. Right now.) And after years, decades, centuries, millennia of trying to turn those tables, we FINALLY have huge amounts of girls reading in ONE GENRE, and you think that’s a problem?

SERIOUSLY?

No. The problem is that girls are taught to read books about boys AND girls, but boys are taught that girls’ stories aren’t valuable. Today. Right now. Boys continue to be taught that anything with a girl on the cover, anything that talks about girls’ lives, loves, adventures, or interests are silly and less-than and only for other girls.

And that’s a HUGE problem. It’s a huge problem in and of itself, but it also contributes to societies where girls are undervalued, used, tricked, raped, stolen, beaten and killed.

So honestly, if you want to get more boys reading YA, I think that’s awesome. You should absolutely fight for that. (And I hope you’re including queer boys, PoC boys, and boys with disabilities in that fight!) But don’t fight the people working for MORE diversity. That’s absolutely counter-productive.

Fight the notion that girls’ stories are less-than. Fight the misconception that girls’ stories aren’t universal. Fight yourself whenever you tell someone to “man-up,” “don’t cry like a girl,” “grow some balls,” and “stop being a pussy.”

Because that’s the problem.

And if you genuinely want to work together to make YA (and all literature) all-inclusive, we would love to have you.