Leave them kids alone
NS November 18th, 2009
I know that I risk offending some of you lovely people when I say this (would it help if I said ‘sorry’ beforehand?) but I am really really sick of being beaten over the head with the large, ugly stick that is Teen Genre Entertainment. This includes but is not limited to: High School Musical, Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, Harry Potter, Twilight and whatever the hell else the kids are crazy about these days. I don’t use MySpace or LiveJournal so I can’t be sure, but I’m certain there are others I don’t know about. Now, I’m not dissing these people or films or books per se, I’m sure they’re fantastic for young adults, but that’s just it — they’re for young adults.
‘Cause see, I’m 30. I was last a teenager more than a decade ago and when I realise that I was drawing red ink hearts on my ankle and popping gum at the mall before these kids were even a tequila-sodden glimmer in their parents’ eyes, it can seem more like a lightyear. But if there’s one thing I remember about being a teen, it is this: adults trying to muscle in on teen trends is not cool. If my mother had started reading all the Sweet Valley High or Babysitters’ Club books, or peppering her walls with posters of Patrick Swayze in his Dirty Dancing days, I would’ve been downright mortified. Mortified and also disgruntled because when you’re a kid it feels like the whole world is geared towards adults and for adults and that the ideas and entertainment that are truly aimed towards kids without being patronising or cheesy are few and far between. So for respectable, grown-up newspapers up and down the nation to be putting ‘Edward’ and ‘Bella’ (yes, I know their damn names just from glancing at the newsstands) on their front pages and explaining to us, in detail, why we should be lapping this shit up sends shivers down my spine and puke dribbling down my chin.
I suppose if you have a teenager and they ask you to read one of the books or see one of the films with you then fair game, go along to whatever extent you and they are comfortable with. But when I see legions of adult women with no acne-ridden children in sight fawning all over this pubescent bloodsucker and his oh-so-tragic, heartsick girlfriend and commanding others to ‘Just read it, you’ll love it! Don’t be such a snob, it’s FUN! Oh my god, I have wet dreams about Edward every night. (giggle),’ I have to wonder if they haven’t noticed the daggers coming out of the 15-year-old goth girls’ eyes. There is nothing more tragic (not even two vampire-people tortured and torn apart by true love, or whatever Twilight is about) to them than all of these self-styled Hip Mums trying to muscle in on their media and relive through lighthearted, whimsical nostalgia what they are actually living through (painfully, awkwardly, clumsily) at this moment.
The melodrama may be entertainment to us adults but for kids going through the process of growing up, becoming independent, falling in love, forming friendships, finding their feet and their voices, surviving at school and with the hormone-o-meter in the red zone, it’s not a trip down memory lane but crazy, tortuous, angst-filled reality; a reality that they need to keep private and separate from their parents’ and their parents’ peers. It’s a real shame we’re taking that away from them.
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- Comments(18)
The Harry Potter people – I don’t get those nuts at all. NOT AT ALL.
But Twilight —- oh, that’s a different story. First of all, I really don’t think it’s appropriate reading material for a 13 year old… I honestly do not think I’d allow my teens to read it. It’s like a freaking Harlequin romance. It is pure SEX (without them actually having sex until the 4th book, which makes it all aching and wanting for the first 3.) If you want to get a teenage girl all horn-dogged up, give her the first book in this series… I’ll count the days until she loses her virginity.
I’m actually surprised that it was marketed to kids at all. Reading it, it honestly seems like it’s for adults. I’m not a “fantasy fiction” or “genre” reader – so the fact that I love (and I mean LOVE LOVE LOVE) these books really shocks the shit out of me too.
But no. I will NOT read Lord of the Rings. Or Harry Potter. I have my dignity.
I’m torn. On the one hand, I agree (especially about Twilight). On other, I think about my and supermum’s ongoing Diane Wynne Jones habit and I’d have to differentiate between books written for a target demographic and books written for an audience that just so happens to start at age ten or eleven rather than twenty one or so. If you’re muscling in on a teen fad, you should be embarrassed. But I really see Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book as written just as much for me as
my children (when they’re old enough to read it).
While not offended, I’d like to offer the perspective that these books offer a nice, light reading to some of us. Please note that I have only read the Harry Potter series (and have no desire to read the others), so my response is based purely on that.
That said, I do not discuss the Harry Potter books with the fangirl passion that a lot of folks do. I am not invested in the characters as a way to relate to teenagers or anything like that. For me, its just the simple fact that I love J.K. Rowlings’ world. And while my favorite characters are the adults and not the kids, I do think its quite nice having a series that empowers children and allows the adult readers out there to watch these characters grow as they would their own children.
I also like having a series that I can talk about with my niece and nephew (who are not big readers, but loved the books). We definitely read them for different reasons and we get different value from it, but we can also have some fun discussions about how neat it is to think there might be an alternate world out there where magic is real, etc.
The difference is that adults can read these books, but they need to put it in their own perspective.
My hairdresser told me yesterday I should be reading the Twilight books. My response was: isn’t that for hormonal teenagers? I have to agree with you; I would have been mortified if my Mum had fancied Jason Donovan and read Judy Blume….
Harry Potter on the other hand I loved but I would say that’s more universal, a bit like Lord of the Rings or something. (who am I kidding?)n
I can’t speak for HSM or Twilight but Harry Potter is not exactly a teenage book . There are plenty of examples of children’s literature that adults also enjoy reading (Alice in Wonderland?) and in those cases I don’t think that adolescents are necessarily feeling muscled in upon in the same way as your 15 year old goth or Judy Blume reader who needs some semblance of separation from her parents.
I am under the strong impression that Hannah Montana, HSM and the Jonas brothers are not for teenagers, but rather for ‘tweens’ (bleugh) and being marketed at pretty young kids who will need and even like some parental involvement. I am seeing this stuff sold to children in elementary schools and outgrown by sixth grade, so maybe Twilight is the real back-off territory? I don’t know having not read it.
I do see your point about not going gooey over the teenagers’ territory, though. I would have VOMITED if my mother had had a crush on any of my teenage heroes. Instant turnoff.
Hear hear. If I was fifteen I would have loved it, I’m sure. But I’m not. I’ll read my Margaret Atwood “year of the flood”, and watch my Mad Men and Battlestar Galactica DVD’s like a normal adult. Besides, nothing in the vampire genre can top “interview with a vampire” or “Buffy the vampire slayer” anyway!
Seriously? Hannah Montana and the Harry Potter series, painted with the same brush?
I suppose it’s somehow less mortifying for teenagers to see their mothers reading drivel like Danielle Steel and watching Lifetime movies, because those are marketed to adults. Or maybe I can only read nonfiction? Or do I have to start liking crime fiction? Was I supposed to like chick lit in my twenties and give it up when I turned 30?
There should probably be a list somewhere, so I know what to do. I’ve spent most of my life just reading what I like without worrying about the book police – quelle horreur!
i think there are two different levels here – the adult who reads and enjoys light fiction as an alternative to their regular reading (which really, is what i would classify Harry Potter as, and although i haven’t read it, my impression is the Twilight series is Anne Rice Lite). and those who read these series in order to live as a teen again vicariously – including all the swooning crushes and fan-fiction etc, etc. i don’t think those two fall into the same categories at all.
i have yet to meet or hear of an adult that is genuinely caught up in Hannah Montana or High School Musical. that would be sad.
but also – i’m not sure there’s a huge difference in teen reading and adult reading. personally i read a lot of “adult” stuff as a teen that i would more than happily re-read now. most teens *want* to read stuff that is thought to be “more mature”, with themes about sex and death, etc. so i honestly think there isn’t a hard and fast distinction to be made.
@The Feminist Breeder – Huh, I don’t think Lord of the Rings would qualify as teen lit. Teens may like it but it wasn’t marketed to them specifically.
@Dad Who Writes – I agree with your point on which demographic is being targeted and that not all books are either for kid or for adults. They can certainly be both! I just happen to think that some series of books, even if enjoyed by adults, should be left to them to fawn over and not given so much publicity in adult forums (like newspapers, etc..) because then it won’t seem so much like it’s ‘theirs’ and that it’s being coopted by their parents, if you see what I mean?
@Lisa – All the things you list there are perfectly reasonable and great ways to view young adult lit. It’s the “fangirls,” as you say, who I think go OTT and kinda ruin it for the actual young adults.
@nappyvalleygirl – See, someone telling me I just ‘have’ to read a series of books irks me, no matter what it is or how good it may be. It’s the gushing and insistence that strike me as strange, not the books themselves.
@mothership – Ah, ‘tweens’, how could I have forgotten about them? Fair enough, I didn’t realise they were for a crowd that young. I thought it was more for the 10-14 crowd, not 6-9!
@geekymummy – I love Margaret Atwood *and* MadMen. We are soulmates.
@Krista – I’m not policing anything and I’m sorry if you felt I was trying to say you shouldn’t read them at all, that’s not what I was getting at. It’s only when a certain level of, err, excitement over it all takes hold and when it’s platered all over adult-specific media that I think it can be disappointing for the young adults for whom it was really intended. I remember how important it was as a teenager to have thing that the adults didn’t know about or understand, or at least believing that to be true. Read whatever you want, by all means, but I still don’t think there’s a need for all the crush-talk about Edward, the level of media saturation it has received and the fanatacism that some people have exhibited.
@jen – I agree that there’s nothing wrong with reading the books themselves. I thought I made it clear that it’s all the OTT adult swooning and ‘fangirl gone mad’ stuff that I found annoying and a bit unfair, but perhaps I didn’t make that point strongly enough. I don’t care who reads the stuff but being so openly crazed about it spoils a bit of the fun for the younger adults, I think.
So could I not interest you in a re-showing of BMX Bandits?
Caveat: I’m only 23 years old myself.
I loved the Harry Potter books and the fims, too. I point blank refuse to read the Twilight series because it’s basically a story of abuse, encouraging teenage girls to accept patently abusive behaviour from their boyfriends because “really, he does it because he luuurves you!” I can’t say I’ve seen any of the other things you mentioned – the only channel we watch in this house is Cbeebies.
I dont get the Twilight thing either. I havnt read the books, but have read Harry Potter. I find it very odd that such a sexual genre is aimed at tweens or teens. Infact I know a number of grown woman who not only read twilight, but also post facebook status updates declaring their adoration of the lead bloke. The same ones who light Zac whatshisface from HSM. It is a very odd thing indeed.
i have read the entire harry potter series as well as all of the twilight series. i enjoyed all 11 of those books. they were light, easy reads. i don’t think my age (30) has anything to do with my decision to read those books. sure, i didn’t giggle every time i saw edward on the screen (yes, i saw the first twilight movie, too).
i think that any age person is entitled to read and enjoy any book out there. when i was a teacher, i used to LOVE to read certain picture books to my young students! would i open one of those books now (as a non-teacher), sure! there’s something enjoyable about opening a good book, no matter what age group it is intended for.
Hannah Montana and High School Musical are for ‘tweens’ (don’t you know) so there won’t be many parents ready to admit any ‘fan’ feelings towards them, though Zak Efron is becoming a figure of lust for some since 17 Again as he ‘crosses over’.
I think it’s worse with music too. Years back I remember a new word being coined in newspaper reports – ‘kidults’ and this was used to describe people who liked ‘boy bands’ and Saturday morning telly – can’t be many of them left!
[...] Harry Potter, Neil Gaiman, Twilight. trackback This post is generally a reaction to a post on Noble Savage’s blog about Twilight and young adult literature. Now, while I was not offended per se, I did [...]
Hiya NS,
I may well have to disagree with you strongly about teenagers needing literary separation from their parents! Maybe I just have an abnormal relationship with my family, but enjoying things together has always been a big part of our life. Perhaps because my mother was a librarian! We’ve always been interested in the same things – literature, movies, tv, food…Of course there are things from my teenage years that were private and personal and I needed that, but I don’t think I could ever have hated my family for appropriating ‘my stuff’. Everyone’s different I spose
I agree with @FeministBreeder re: Twilight, it’s not really fare suitable for tweens or even teenagers. I *might* consider letting my teenager read it, but with discussion about obsession, codependence, depression, sexual tension and desires, soul, and fidelity. I would be very concerned for her to read that (or even my son) and have her think that this was all normal – much like romance novels of the Harlequin variety, fiction like that on a young and impressionable mind can really do some damage to real-life expectations.
The reason I think so many adults, women in particular, are drawn to the Twilight series is because we know it’s a fantasy and can wrap our heads around it. We don’t think dating a gorgeous 17 yo with the mind of a wizened 107 yo (or however old he is) is even remotely feasible, but it’s a delicious thought based solely in its absurd fantastical flair. A young woman, its intended audience, might not realize that. So there we have two demographics loving the books for two totally different reasons: one for fantasy, the other for hope.
Anyway, I know I went a bit off course, but I just had to throw in my two cents about Twilight. Personally, I was on Cloud 9 reading them and really do recommend every grown woman, especially married ones, to read them. It’s like a hot bubble bath, glass of wine, foot rub, and full night’s sleep all rolled into one.
God, the Twilight thing and all the vampire junk that it has spawned drives me nuts. Though I’m not sure that is really a ‘teen’ thing. I loved the Harry Potter books and I didn’t have kids at the time. But I think that it’s important to try to relate to your kids as much as possible, will make the teen years more tolerable. If that means that I have to feign interest in whatever teen book/movie/music they get into at the time, then I’ll give it my best shot. One of the many reasons I started to drift away from my parents around 13 is that they didn’t take my interests seriously. I know that that drive to independence is unavoidable and healthy, but if I can relate to my kids on more levels I’ll do it.