Diversity in YA Books
Feb. 20th, 2014 01:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithHere's an analysis of the diversity in a list of best Young Adult books. When checking for diversity in such a list, I like to compare the percentage of books to the percentage of population ...
Authors of color ranged from 6.9% to 12.4% while the population is about 27.6%. So authors of color are underrepresented by a large margin. Main characters of color ranged from around 15% to 22.3% which is better. At its highest, that was almost within a stone's throw of acceptable +/- 3% variation from the matching number in the population.
LGBTQ characters made up 12.4% of the total in 2014. Since queer folks are roughly 10% of the population, score! This is fair proportion. But it falls flat when you look in more detail and realize that almost all of those are about homosexual boys, with very little representation of girls or transgender people. Still, this is the best-performing category and it also shows a strong trend of improvement. Yay, yay! Cheer for the successful part!
Characters with disabilities ranged from 2.9% to 5%. Finding a parallel number in the population is difficult and messy and everyone counts it differently fuck this noise, but here's one that says about 12.1% for the United States. Again, this category is far underrepresented.
Now think about how this happens ...
* People in disadvantaged groups tend to have worse opportunities and experiences in school. So they are less likely to learn how to read and write well enough to become writers.
* They often have a harder time finding employment, housing, and other life necessities, making it harder for them to write as a leisure activity, although some write freelance as supplemental income.
* In order to submit their work for consideration, they may have to overcome hurdles of internalized and external oppression along the lines of "Who wants to see what YOU have to say?"
* Once they submit their work, they may encounter discrimination against themselves (if their race/gender/orientation etc. is discernible from name/bio) and/or their characters (if those are also disadvantaged people). Such books are less likely to be accepted and published and less likely to be promoted vigorously.
* After it's on the shelves, the same discrimination happens with reviewers, readers, awards, best-lists, and pretty much every other form of recognition; with the exception of venues explicitly targeted to promote books by or about disadvantaged people.
There is a complex, obnoxious feedback loop going on here where young people have a hard time finding stories that reflect themselves, so they are less inspired to create such stories of their own. They think there's not much out there, so they may not go looking for more. The books may not sell or check out as well as books by/about advantaged people, which discourages publishers, booksellers, and librarians from picking up any more of them. So then there aren't many available when young people come looking ... lather, rinse, repeat.
*headdesk*
There are, of course, alternatives. There are targeted awards and lists, which if you know about you can ask for: "Do you have a list of best queer YA from 2012?" There are small presses of color. See the problem? The advantaged version is the default dominating the mainstream; if you want anything else; you have to go to a "special" source. This perpetuates the slant.
Another option is crowdfunding. You can find an open prompt call and request whatever you want. You can build an audience of fans who like diversity. While my audience will ask for diverse things to reflect themselves, they don't read only the things that are self-reflective. They like to read about different characters too. So that's encouraging. If it can be done on a small scale, something similar could probably be made to work on a larger scale.
There are ways for readers to support diverse books, for librarians to increase diversity in reading selections, and for teachers to use diverse materials in the classroom. There are tips on diversification for authors.
Stuck for ideas? The Bingo Card Generator has prompt lists for Asexuality & Demisexuality, Chromatic Characters, Ethnic Groups, Handicaps, People with Disabilities, Types of Families, and other things that might inspire you to request or create more diverse cultural materials. Consider making one card for character motifs, another for plot (using Hurt/Comfort Bingo, Desperate Situations, Plot Tropes, etc.), and then overlapping them to put each character into action.
And diversity in my writing? I'm like Fix-It Felix. I run around hitting broken literature with a magic hammer yelling, "I can FIX it!" If you don't see yourself in my work yet, just wait for any relevant prompt call and push the button. I also like to encourage people to tell their own stories through writing, art, music, or however else their talents go. So I promote a lot of friends' projects too.
Authors of color ranged from 6.9% to 12.4% while the population is about 27.6%. So authors of color are underrepresented by a large margin. Main characters of color ranged from around 15% to 22.3% which is better. At its highest, that was almost within a stone's throw of acceptable +/- 3% variation from the matching number in the population.
LGBTQ characters made up 12.4% of the total in 2014. Since queer folks are roughly 10% of the population, score! This is fair proportion. But it falls flat when you look in more detail and realize that almost all of those are about homosexual boys, with very little representation of girls or transgender people. Still, this is the best-performing category and it also shows a strong trend of improvement. Yay, yay! Cheer for the successful part!
Characters with disabilities ranged from 2.9% to 5%. Finding a parallel number in the population is difficult and messy and everyone counts it differently fuck this noise, but here's one that says about 12.1% for the United States. Again, this category is far underrepresented.
Now think about how this happens ...
* People in disadvantaged groups tend to have worse opportunities and experiences in school. So they are less likely to learn how to read and write well enough to become writers.
* They often have a harder time finding employment, housing, and other life necessities, making it harder for them to write as a leisure activity, although some write freelance as supplemental income.
* In order to submit their work for consideration, they may have to overcome hurdles of internalized and external oppression along the lines of "Who wants to see what YOU have to say?"
* Once they submit their work, they may encounter discrimination against themselves (if their race/gender/orientation etc. is discernible from name/bio) and/or their characters (if those are also disadvantaged people). Such books are less likely to be accepted and published and less likely to be promoted vigorously.
* After it's on the shelves, the same discrimination happens with reviewers, readers, awards, best-lists, and pretty much every other form of recognition; with the exception of venues explicitly targeted to promote books by or about disadvantaged people.
There is a complex, obnoxious feedback loop going on here where young people have a hard time finding stories that reflect themselves, so they are less inspired to create such stories of their own. They think there's not much out there, so they may not go looking for more. The books may not sell or check out as well as books by/about advantaged people, which discourages publishers, booksellers, and librarians from picking up any more of them. So then there aren't many available when young people come looking ... lather, rinse, repeat.
*headdesk*
There are, of course, alternatives. There are targeted awards and lists, which if you know about you can ask for: "Do you have a list of best queer YA from 2012?" There are small presses of color. See the problem? The advantaged version is the default dominating the mainstream; if you want anything else; you have to go to a "special" source. This perpetuates the slant.
Another option is crowdfunding. You can find an open prompt call and request whatever you want. You can build an audience of fans who like diversity. While my audience will ask for diverse things to reflect themselves, they don't read only the things that are self-reflective. They like to read about different characters too. So that's encouraging. If it can be done on a small scale, something similar could probably be made to work on a larger scale.
There are ways for readers to support diverse books, for librarians to increase diversity in reading selections, and for teachers to use diverse materials in the classroom. There are tips on diversification for authors.
Stuck for ideas? The Bingo Card Generator has prompt lists for Asexuality & Demisexuality, Chromatic Characters, Ethnic Groups, Handicaps, People with Disabilities, Types of Families, and other things that might inspire you to request or create more diverse cultural materials. Consider making one card for character motifs, another for plot (using Hurt/Comfort Bingo, Desperate Situations, Plot Tropes, etc.), and then overlapping them to put each character into action.
And diversity in my writing? I'm like Fix-It Felix. I run around hitting broken literature with a magic hammer yelling, "I can FIX it!" If you don't see yourself in my work yet, just wait for any relevant prompt call and push the button. I also like to encourage people to tell their own stories through writing, art, music, or however else their talents go. So I promote a lot of friends' projects too.
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(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-20 10:28 pm (UTC)My partner is working her way through Joanne Greenberg's works... I don't know if you know them, but a general theme is minds (including her own) who are... not neurotypical.
But then again, *her work* is not typical, either... I really think the creative jam environment is the best place to encourage folks to think outside the big house's silly rules.
Yay!
Date: 2014-02-20 10:45 pm (UTC)I love having an audience who appreciates that. I love being able to point people to other works, and have those authors point back to me, so that we can build a pool of readers and donors who are into this stuff.
>> Dale and Kelly, Morgan, Igor and Victor, and.... I haven't read enough to remember her name, but the detective with wheeled mobility... <<
Brenda Cochlain is the wheelchair rider in P.I.E.
>> all sorts of characters who very much aren't me but who are very interesting... Oh, and Damask, too. It's really cool seeing the inside of a multiple's head... <<
That's good to hear. I really got a kick out of "One Step Ahead" by
>> My partner is working her way through Joanne Greenberg's works... I don't know if you know them, but a general theme is minds (including her own) who are... not neurotypical. <<
Interesting. One of my favorite neurovariant books is This Alien Shore in which one main character is multiple, another is something like autistic/OCD, and many of the supporting characters have other variations.
>> But then again, *her work* is not typical, either... I really think the creative jam environment is the best place to encourage folks to think outside the big house's silly rules. <<
Agreed. I love prompt calls -- mine, other people's, whatever wherever. The
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-21 03:59 pm (UTC)So yeah, even within that area, broad representation is hard to find. Thank you for writing all over the spectrum.
You're welcome!
Date: 2014-02-22 06:48 am (UTC):( That sucks.
>> So yeah, even within that area, broad representation is hard to find. Thank you for writing all over the spectrum. <<
I'm glad you enjoy that. I'm grateful for an audience that gives me diverse prompts!