as someone who used to love sjm before realizing how harmful/hurtful her writing is, i understand why people adore her books. there’s just something about her stories and characters that is addictive; she knows how to keep you hooked from page 1. so when people who can recognize how detrimental her narratives and ideals are but still choose to read her books/support her use the argument that “yes, her writing is problematic but i’m able to look past it because i like the story itself”, i understand that to some degree, because i myself used to do that.
i remember being a lot younger and reading acotar for the first time; i didn’t even realize that what rhysand did to feyre was wrong, let alone sa. it shames me to admit this, but i know that back then i was a younger teenager who had little understanding of what is considered abuse, so it’s safe to say i’m older and more educated now. i also believe that a big contribution to my perception of acomaf’s events at the time i first read it was sjm’s narrative - she crafts her stories in such a way that half the time you don’t even realize when a character does a Bad Thing because the narrative convinces you that they were Doing It For A Good Reason, or that the Bad Thing was Not Actually A Bad Thing.
this is so damaging for younger readers who form certain mindsets from what they read in their books, because then they might take these mindsets and apply them irl.
so my point is this: when we all decide we can look past things such as the abusive actions of a character towards a loved one that get explained away by the narrative as not actually being abuse or as being “for their own good”, this tells authors like sjm that they can get away with writing these things because, while readers will recognize that they are wrong, if the story is good enough then they will be able to ignore them and continue to consume the authors’ material.
we will never break the cycle of normalized violence, misogyny, and abuse towards women in novels if we do not hold these authors accountable for writing this content. no matter how amazing a story is, it isn’t worth sacrificing our perceptions of right and wrong simply for the enjoyment of it.
no good author should ever demand this of you.
2087
germansingergirl
jbbartram-illu
titsay
janainaart
