ATYD and the Death of Critical Literacy
I’ve noticed that every time I post about All the Young Dudes on tiktok I invariably get a number of comments complaining that ATYD is problematic and therefore a ‘bad’ fic.
Now I don’t pretend to be an arbiter of taste. People are more than welcome to dislike atyd because the story just didn’t gel with them, or they didn’t like the writing style, or any other number of reasons. That’s all valid and I have no issue with it.
However, what I push back on is labeling it as a ‘bad’ or ‘problematic’ fic.
Firstly, it’s a piece of fanfiction (not a published book) that someone wrote for free out of the goodness of their heart. There’s no reason to publicly bash them on the internet for something they did for free.
But even putting that aside, this eagerness to label fics as ‘bad’ for containing unsavory or ‘problematic’ plot points really troubles me, and I think it speaks to a broader decline in critical literacy skills, especially among the younger generation (I notice people making these arguments are often quite young).
Readers often claim Mary is ‘shallow’ or ‘just there to cause tension’ between Remus and Sirius. In reality, Mary is one of the more fully realized female characters in the fic. We see her growth from a lively, confident girl into a brave woman who sacrifices her place in the wizarding world to protect her family. Her interest in dating and enjoying life as a teenager doesn’t make her shallow — it makes her realistic. Ultimately, Feminism in fiction means allowing women to be complex. A woman can care about relationships and still be brave, loyal, and intelligent. ATYD depicts her as such.
The other main complaint that gets leveled at ATYD is the characters (especially Remus and Sirius) come across as angry, mean, or ‘out of character.’ In my opinion, this criticism often stems from readers expecting ‘fluffy,’ sanitized versions of the Marauders — the kind seen in TikTok edits and headcanons — rather than fully realized, flawed young adults. People would do well to remember that ATYD is set in the 1970s, a time shaped by real-world sexism, homophobia, and class divides. Ignoring those social realities would make the story less authentic, not more. Furthermore, fiction that explores internalized homophobia, trauma, or anger isn’t endorsing those things. It’s representing what growing up in that world might actually have looked like. Ultimately, conflict and imperfection make for compelling storytelling. Characters who never make mistakes, never lash out, and never contradict themselves are not believable or interesting.
There are more so-called problematic aspects of ATYD discourse I could address here, such as the depiction of Greyback and the werewolves, or how closely it actually aligns to canon. However, I feel that many of the arguments here are similar to those already mentioned. They boil down to either the author depicting but not endorsing a negative subject, or else creative liberties taken to build tension and development.
So how does this all relate to critical literacy? Well, if it’s not already apparent, a lot of these reactions seem to point to a fundamental confusion between depiction and endorsement. People appear to be missing the fact that, just because a story shows something harmful ( sexism, cruelty, internalized homophobia) doesn’t mean the author approves of it. In fact, showing a character struggle with moral or emotional failings often critiques those behaviors by forcing the reader to sit with their consequences. Reducing fiction to a moral checklist (“good characters do good things”) erases the purpose of storytelling as a mirror for human complexity. This is where critical literacy comes in — the ability to distinguish between what a text shows and what it says.
What we’re seeing in the Marauders fandom now (and all fandoms potentially) is a flattening of character and morality, a push toward stories that are safe, sanitized, and morally unambiguous. There’s been a cultural shift where readers expect fiction to reflect their personal values perfectly, rather than challenging or complicating them. The rise of “problematic content” discourse has made people afraid to engage with morally gray stories. Early fandom culture celebrated interpretation, ambiguity, and the idea that multiple readings could coexist. Now, readers often conflate “I don’t like this” with “this shouldn’t exist.”
At the end of the day, fanfiction is a form of storytelling, and storytelling depends on readers who can think critically about what they consume. Critical literacy means understanding that stories can include bad behavior, conflicting perspectives, and imperfect characters without endorsing them. You don’t have to love All the Young Dudes. But to dismiss it as “problematic” because it portrays difficult truths isn’t critical thinking; it’s a refusal to read deeply.
