Could/Should the YA genre be banned?

[DokiDokiTsuna]

If you already know and are going to take answers personally why did you ask on a thread.

I didn't "take" their answer personally; they quoted ME as if I needed to be told their opinion directly. So I just wanted to clarify that the opinion I presented in the OP is not mine, in case there was any misunderstanding.

[vizirs]

These are my opinions. And obviously I am not pointing this towards the OP, just in general.

Let's say, we do ban it. What then?

Cause banning has never solved anything, in the past and never will. If you mean, banning over here then people will just move onto other platforms.

If you say banning in general, then that won't stop anything, either, rather I feel like it will increase the reads, because it now comes with a sense of rebellion which many people love.

YA, is not just teen fiction though, it's anything that has a yound adults in it and cartered towards them. I have read contemporary YA, Historical Fiction YA, etc. YA is not a genre, it's a age demographic.

[Aims]

I doubt whoever was going on about banning it was thinking it through.

They were probably having an "art is dead" moment. Can't really blame them. That's just something small and struggling creators go through when they see someone making a name for themselves in a short amount of time with a overused easy to sell formula. It's just infuriating.

[NickRowler]

I am also confused by the point of this forum. You are stating that this is not your opinion yet you are defending YA romance being harmful???

This whole thing just seems one sided and a bit like clickbait.

[azzy-m]

As someone who has read a lot of YA - mostly because I am a teenager and I can't buy or read adult books yet - no, lmao. I do agree that plenty of YA literature is terrible especially the dystopia genre (oh god, other than the Hunger Games, I don't think I've ever read a dystopia that wasn't completely forgettable)

But honestly, a bunch of really popular bad YA books isn't all that YA is. I've read a good deal of YA books that are actually really good, it's just that it tends to get buried underneath all the bad ones.

Or, like. I don't know. It's been a while since I read anything, lmao.

And obviously you can't BAN YA. YA books makes a shit ton of money, no way publishing companies are gonna drop them any time soon.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I am also confused by the point of this forum. You are stating that this is not your opinion yet you are defending YA romance being harmful???

Ohhh, now I understand...in a word, yes? Kind of...I think you misinterpreted my words.

I said the romance tropes in fiction aimed at teens/tweens often contain harmful messages about romance: stalking, obsessing, having to "convince" the object of your affection and "prove yourself", etc.
It doesn't happen in all YA and it's certainly not a problem unique to that market, but it's far from uncommon. This is something I truly believe, and if you have a problem with that belief then your annoyance is justified.

HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I agree that YA should be banned, and the arguments I presented in favor of that position were not my own, as I said. I just wanted to make the distinction clear.

On a slightly unrelated note, I think some of y'all are misunderstanding what 'clickbait' is...an incendiary or dramatic title does not automatically make something 'clickbait'; that word implies deception. Trying to draw people into reading about an issue that is otherwise mundane.

I was just being literal...the commenter wrote that YA should be banned, and I wanted to start a thread to discuss that comment. It's...perfectly natural to title the thread after the topic of discussion; I wasn't trying to trick anyone or make this seem like something it wasn't. =/

[saintc]

People do get really creative when trying to find reasons why the works they like are not popular (and the very bizarre methods they plan to 'rectify' this.) It boils down to demographics. Leave authors and readers alone, and maybe encourage men to read.

[AWFrasier]

Okay, but the most profitable books this decade have been mostly YA so I dunno, the dude you're quoting seems ignorant about the industry as a whole and like he's just angry no one wants to read his books. And also, duderino clearly hasn't read YA besides maybe a couple of contemporary ones. There's as many genres in YA as there is in MG, NA and Adult. With as many themes, tropes and everything else. YA is a age category not a genre, so, I gotta admit, this all seems to stem from a super salty place more than anything else.

[chickknightgreenleaf]

I don't think YA (Young Aldult) is a genre, it's a targeted audience group equivalence of Shounen (Young boy) and Shoujo (Young girl) in Japanese Manga. how can you ban a audience group?

I suggest, instead of banning trash why not we signal boost gem whenever we found them

[HGohwell]

Okay, but the most profitable books this decade have been mostly YA

Not just this decade either but for a long while. Because a good YA novel can be read by kids and adults, after all. And YA is a relatively new branding tool. Much like the argument often seen over anime/mange categories, the only thing that defines it is the target audience not the audience who eventually picks it up. For instance, commonly mistake for an older and therefore "better quality" (or perhaps because of their quality) anime/mange like Attack on Titan, Death Note, and Deadman Wonderland are shounen, published in shounen magazines, the equivilent of YA (specifically males 10-18). And then think about books pre-YA tag that are designed for a younger market. Things like The Hobbit would likely be labelled YA if written today. And undoubtly YA are things like The Golden Compass and follow ups that has somehow managed to shake that stigma much like Harry Potter. The best way to tell is look at age of the MC after all, they tend to be around the same age as the target audience.

[AWFrasier]

@HGohwell

Yerp. About 40% of YA readers are above 18 so the whole narrative about it being for "dumb teen girls" is first of all: fucking dumb, don't shit on teenage girls. And second: incorrect.

I think The Hobbit would likely be more in MG since Tolkien did intend for that and LOTR to be for kids. And then there's Jane Austen - she'd likely be labelled YA today, considering she wrote about young women from the perspective of a young woman.

The dude mentioned in the OP just seems salty YA is the big seller demography right now.

[Jenny-Toons]

so the whole narrative about it being for "dumb teen girls" is first of all: fucking dumb, don't shit on teenage girls. And second: incorrect.

See, this is what kinda confuses me about this thinking: creators like this dude want a bigger audience, but they also shit on readers for liking works they personally don't like. Whether or not the stuff is actually good is another thing -- it's that attitude that turns me away from reading someone's work.

Instead of trying to figure out why something does well and maybe mimic certain elements in one's own work (which isn't selling out, mind you), they just...decide to shit on popular demographics and genres.

YA are just books aimed at young adults. Which means you can write anything -- you just gotta try and aim that at young adults (y'know, if you wanna write for young adults). Like...there are horror YAs. There are sci-fi YAs. It's just all about learning how to market yourself, how to work with existing tropes and twist them to fit your story-telling, as well as being experimental, proactive and willing to learn.

I dunno -- it just sounds lazy to think all YAs suck just because a few popular YA books may or may not be that good.

[AWFrasier]

Not to mention, teen girls is the dream as a demographic. They're the ones who'll buy all the merch, who'll show up at book signings, buy everything you sell. They're so incredibly dedicated to the things they love that they basically influence big-ass markets, like the music business. (Look at boy bands for example)

Why in the name of all the lords wouldn't you want them as your demo? Teen girls are freaking powerful in their love.

See, this is what kinda confuses me about this thinking: creators like this dude want a bigger audience, but they also shit on readers for liking works they personally don't like. Whether or not the stuff is actually good is another thing -- it's that attitude that turns me away from reading someone's work.

Also I cannot boost this enough. If you want people to consume what you're putting out there: Don't shit on them. It's literally that easy. Don't go and act like a total fool in public where everyone can see your unwashed ass.

I dunno -- it just sounds lazy to think all YAs suck just because a few popular YA books may or may not be that good.

It's also naive to think that somehow everything in certain age demos has to be absolutely amazing in order for it to be allowed to exist. I'm not seeing anyone hold MG or Adult to the same standards. "Oh look, there's been 4 best selling Adult books that were all super crappy, let's straight up ban Adult books now."

I see this happening so often with everything that isn't white cis/het male dominated. If everything within that space isn't mind-blowingly amazing, why even bother with it at all? And it's ridiculous because it's obvious the whole critique stems from "I'm not getting what I want so let's just ban all the things that are working so people will only have my stuff to consume ):< "

[HGohwell]

I'm going to get half way controversial for a second:

Is this not interesting that this same argument is often applied to BL as well (specifically the "it's all badly written and employs and romanticizes toxic relationship tropes all the time because the few we've seen of note do" mentality) given the BL is a genre seen primarily as the realm of teenage girls, aka the market YA is supposedly aimed at completely? As someone above said, it feels a lot like anything seen as something teenage girls enjoy isn't allowed to exist without being rubbish. Teenage girls only like trash being their stupid teenage girls, obviously, rather than making any effort to discover why these things are popular even if you personally dislike it.

[AWFrasier]

Is this not interesting that this same argument is often applied to BL as well (specifically the "it's all badly written and employs and romanticizes toxic relationship tropes all the time because the few we've seen of note do" mentality) given the BL is a genre seen primarily as the realm of teenage girls, aka the market YA is supposedly aimed at completely?

Yes. Look at soap operas, rom-coms, chick-flicks, pop music, Romance books etc. People love shitting on teen girls for living their lives and spending money on what they like.

[Penni]

Bad writing can be found in any genre

And what is bad is subjective to a lot of varying degrees. They have the option not to read YA if they feel that way about it.

[droidmonkey1]

saying all YA books is subpar and riddled with hormones, is generalizing a genera.
by banning all of them you preventing the good ones or future good writers, their possible future.

[spadesart]

honestly i delved into adult/older audience novels a while back and it has the same problem along that 'if you include this one thing you dont have to try at all for the rest of the novel' (except you know. instead of love triangles its the sex.). i think i found three (all from the same series lol) out of a total 8-ish that were genuinely good. the rest were the same cookie cutter filler plot meant just to space out the sex scenes. one was even just reskinned avengers fanfiction, like it genuinely didn't even try to separate itself from avengers except for a simple name change. it even had a sky portal.

the characters always look the same too, the main character is always some scrawny stringbean and the love interest is some mega hulk who can crush them just by breathing on them. just like how YA has the brunette white girl having to choose between some hot blonde guy and some hot brunette guy

[xabelmind]

The side of me that works in a niche field understands, the side of me that's totally up for working on the commercial side of art... better stop here, I can feel my posmodernist teachers getting shivers

[xabelmind]

We all up to boost the popularity of stuff that we feel deserves it, but there'll always be a moment were someone looses it and shits on that random straw that broke their camel's back

In other words, we're rationalizing a probably irrational outburst of some tired and stressed rando