I follow a number of blogs about books and today on Bookshelves of Doom the author posted about comments causing three books to be removed from a list of 100 young adult books for the feminist reader by B**** Magazine (here's the link for the list 100 YA Books for the Feminist Reader ) I am a sucker for lists of books, movies, tv shows, almost anything pop culture related so I felt the need to check this list out when I saw it before the uproar. Now I do not consider myself a feminist, but I do think that as a woman I can do what ever I want regardless of my sex. I have only read 9 of the books and as of my original viewing of the list was in the process of reading what would have been my 10th book from the list Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce, a re-imagining of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. When I went to look at my regular blogs today, I found the post on Bookshelves of Doom saying that three of the books on the list, including Sisters Red were removed because of issues that certain people who commented on the B**** Magazine's website (the author of the list) claimed were in these novels. Now I'm not going to argue whether or not these books include such things as "triggers" (which to my understanding is something that causes a person to remember or relive a painful experience.) Some people felt that certain scenes in some of the books which were removed could be triggers. It is my understanding that what maybe a trigger for one person is not going to be a trigger for someone else. Something as innocuous to me as a red hat may be a horrible trigger for someone else. Who has the authority to pull something off of a list claiming it has the potential to be a trigger for someone??? They cannot have claim to know all the triggers in the world and use that as a reason to remove the book. I am not trying to belittle triggers by saying this because triggers are very real and terrible for people, but a trigger could be anything! It doesn't have to be a rape or another violet act.
I have not read any of the books that were removed and have not yet finished Sisters Red, so I am not going to try and argue against these points. To begin with when I read, especially for my own enjoyment I am not thinking about different interpretations of a book or other stuff because unless I am reading the book for a class, I only care about my own thoughts while I'm reading the book. I am arguing against the people at the magazine who caved to the those peoples comments and removed the books instead of the defending them. The reason they were not defended? Well apparently not enough people had read the books in question to defend the choices. If something such as this is going to be created you as the creator need to be able to defend what you created and not immediately cave to the pressure that it should be removed! Also, make sure you have READ the books you are going to list this way when your judgment is questioned, you can defend your decision. As someone going into the library field, I am sure I will run across people who have issues with a book that is in the library's collection and they will give me reasons why it should be removed. I want to be able to tell them, if I have read it, why it is there and if I have not read it, then read it for myself and see if the claim is unfounded or not. I am a strong believer that people should read what they want and not have the decision to choose what they want to read taken away from them by a higher authority. This list is by no means the "be all and and all" of YA books for feminist readers, but it does carry some weight because this publication has come credit (that's what I've read, I don't know because I haven't read the magazine). By removing the books from the list, B**** Magazine has now given the impression that these books are somehow "wrong" they have taken away their stamp of approval (as a publication supporting feminism) of the book by taking it off the list (even though it is still in their lending library) and chosen not to recommend it as a YA book for feminist readers. For me, this list has now been marred by the incident and hardly seems worth what it could have been. Yes, it is only the opinion of one group of people, but since it was their idea they should have stuck by it! Now whatever weight this list may have held is gone for me. Several authors have commented and requested that their books be removed after they found out about the removal of the first three books from the list but B**** Magazine said they will not do so. Well, to me it seems a little too late now. If I was an author, I would not want my name to be associated with such a list.
If you care to read another reaction check out the blog post over at Smart B******, Trashy Books
I find this situation very upsetting. It could have been solved if the group that put the list together had done their homework, stuck to their decisions, and explained why the books belonged there and addressed the comments against them.
Listening to "Under Osaka - Pure Madness!" by Ellery Klein
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