MyBookFixation

So this afternoon a teen librarian friend alerted me this tweet from the exceptional Angie Manfredi of Fat Girl Reading:

The print is super duper tiny, so let me blow it up.  This is a review of the book Run by Kody Kepplinger from the prominent library review magazine VOYA* aka Voices of Youth Advocates :

Agnes is legally blind, and leads such a sheltered life that she cannot even take the bus home from school or attend parties. Bo Dickinson has a drug addicted mother, an absent father, and is rumored to be the town slut. Although opposites, they become good friends through their kindness and acceptance of each other. Bo’s cousin Colt is almost a brother to her; they have grown up together and are part of the family “you steer clear of because nothing good can come of getting mixed up with that bunch.” Agnes has a different problem; her parents hover over her and limit her activities so it is impossible for her to be a normal teenager, until she begins sneaking out to go places with Bo. When Bo hatches a plan to leave town to find her father, Agnes decides to go along, thinking she and Bo will live together. They steal a car from Agnes’s family and begin their road trip, along the way visiting Colt, with whom Agnes has a sexual encounter. When Agnes discovers that Bo intends to live with her father, they separate and she gets in touch with her parents, leaving Bo to a disappointing meeting with her father, and an eventual return to the foster care system. The story contains many references to Bo being bisexual and an abundance of bad language, so it is recommended for mature junior and senior high readers.–Rachel Axelrod. 304p. VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, c2016.

I helpfully put in bold the part that gave me rage hives :D

This reviewer (Rachel Axelrod) and VOYA are saying the very existence of bisexual people is on par with swearing.  That the very existence of bisexuality can only be shown to junior and senior high schoolers. 

And this is where I need to disagree with Angie a little here because that isn’t a microagression.  That is full-on biphobia folks.  

And its a particular kind of biphobia that tags bisexual girls and women in a particularly pernicious way.  Mature is a coded word here.  Its hypersexualization – where being bisexual and being out and using the word ‘bisexual’ for bi women is considered on par with sex acts. And like I said on twitter this afternoon, you can draw a straight fucking line from this review to bisexual women being constantly sexually harassed and facing astronomically high rates of sexual violence and domestic abuse.  Bisexual women and girls are not seen as peoples, we are seen as machines that dispense sex.  I would expect a publication like VOYA to challenge that narrative, not reinforce it.  

Also, does VOYA think that bisexual teens under grade 11 just don’t exist?  Because TRUST ME they do.   And they deserve to read books that reflect their inner worlds just as much as straight teens.  I have NEVER seen a book review of any type claim that only juniors and seniors can know about the existence of straight people.   How many people at VOYA put their eyes on this review and NO ONE noticed that?

I spend a fair amount of my time on this blog complaining, critiquing, and analyzing books that refuse to use the word bisexual to describe their characters.  And while I haven’t read Run (though I put it on hold at my library today), all accounts are that the bisexual character Bo actually uses the word bisexual several times.  But instead of celebrating that as an important YA development, VOYA seems to think it needs a goddamn content warning.  

Oh but just wait.  

It gets better.  

It gets so much better.  

You might be thinking that perhaps this book just had a lot of steamy bisexual sex scenes and this is just a case of poor wording.

NOPE

In this reviewers mind, the actual HAVING of heterosexual sex doesn’t make this book in appropriate for younger readers, but the very EXISTENCE of a bisexual character would.  You don’t need to warn against actual sex but you choose to slap a ‘here be monsters’ on the map if there are bisexuals?

There is nothing to that but base and blatant biphobia.  

Librarians and booksellers use magazines like VOYA because they can’t read every book.  Now we have VOYA telling entire swaths of professionals that this book (and by extension bisexual people) are somehow inherently inappropriate.  VOYA has a reputation among librarians as being progressive, less enmeshed with book publishers, and more focused on intellectual freedom than other review sources (PW, Kirkus, LJ, SLJ).  Their name is actually Voices of Youth Advocates.  We trust their reviews to advocate for youth.  

Well I’m sorry VOYA but you need to explain to me how promoting this kind of biphobia makes you a ‘youth advocate’.  Or how it helps you uphold the mission statement of your publication – which reads: “Young adults have rights to free and equal access to information in print, nonprint, and electronic resources, without infringement of their intellectual freedom due to age or other restrictions.”   How exactly does advocating an age restriction on a book solely because of the sexual orientation of a protagonist advance that right to free and equal access to information?

This also frustrates me to no end because we’ve all heard that mantra about how ‘diverse books don’t sell’.  WELL NO SHIT THEY DON’T SELL WHEN YOU REVIEW THEM LIKE THIS!  This is a textbook lesson in how to use base-level bigotry to bomb book sales.  I swear to god, the next person who tells me that books with bisexual characters who actually use the word bisexual ‘just don’t sell’ is gonna get nothing but a giant squid of anger.    

Right now, I’m calling on VOYA magazine and it’s Editor RoseMary Honnold to apologize to author Kody Keplinger and to the entire bisexual community.  This review is offensive and it needs to be retracted.  I’d also say that Rachel Axelrod needs some LGBTQ cultural competency training (with a particular emphasis on the B in there).  

This is #BiWeek, the week where bisexual community celebrates our history, culture, and art.  It would be a great time for VOYA to remove their foot from their mouth and apologize for this biphobic trainwreck.  

- Sarah 

*I know you’re really not supposed to post content such as entire reviews up on the internet from trade publications but if VOYA doesn’t like it, then fuck it, they can C&D us.

Bisexual SFF author Tristina Wright sent this email to someone at VOYA (gonna guess the editor RoseMary Honnold but to be clear that is just my base speculation)

And this was VOYA’s utterly reprehensible response:

I am stunned.  I am horrified.

This isn’t about destroying our enemies during BiWeek.  It’s about VOYA making a serious mistake that isn’t aligned with their purported values or what’s best for teens.  

First, Tristina has confirmed that the email does come from Editor In Chief RoseMary Honnold.  

Second, Bisexual Book Award winning bisexual author Hannah Moskowitz has also written a letter of condemnation 

Third, literary agent Barry Goldblatt (who is a BIG DEAL in YA lit world for those who don’t know) is pulling his ads from VOYA:

Fourth, VOYA has published Tristina’s email as a letter to the editor on their site, as though they are proud of it.  

Image one: Tweet from Angie Manfredi ( @misskubelik ) - “This is from the VOYA review of RUN by Kody Keplinger. See if you can spot the microaggression!” [Includes screencap of said review]

Image two: Gif of a cat with an empty can on its head and two other cats in a hide in the background. The cat in the foreground rolls its head emphatically, while text above reads, “Oh hellllllll no”; one of the background cats turns to the other and ‘says’ “damn”.

Image three: Gif of an elderly Alan Rickman flipping a table.

Image four: The Scream painting with “Spoiler Alert” in flashing black and white letters.

Image five: Two tweets from Kody Keplinger ( @Kody_Keplinger ) - “The irony? (And this might be a spoiler so beware:) There IS a sex scene in the book Between the STRAIGHT characters. Not Bo, the bi MC. But Bo’s sexuality - Bo who doesn’t have a sex scene while her straight co-narrator does - is the one considered ‘mature.’”

Image six: Thin, light-skinned masculine person exit-dancing stage right, with the caption “[[dancing away from your bullshit]]”

Image seven: Letter from Tristina Wright; transcript follows.

I just read your review of Kody Keplinger’s RUN and I’m very disturbed and insulted by the final sentence, which reads:

“The story contains many references to Bo being bisexual and an abundance of bad language, so it is recommended for mature junior and senior high readers.”

I’m bisexual. This week is Bi Visibility Week, which exists in part because of biphobic language such as this. Bisexuality is not something that needs a content warning. There are Elementary, MG, and YA kids who ID as bisexual and this sentence has just told them they are something to be warned against. You’ve placed a sexual orientation in the same sentence as bad language and used those two to justify a content warning for mature readers.

Imagine being a young reader and seeing this. Seeing a review that implies that your orientation – simply the genders you find attractive – is something to be warned against. Is something not okay and “only for mature readers.”

How dare you.

This is absolutely unacceptable and this type of attitude is what contributes to biphobia, bullying, and mental health issues in younger queer children who are told time and time again that their sexuality is invalid or something to be ashamed of or wrong.

We are more than who we sleep with. We are more than sexual content. We are not defined by our partners or lack thereof. Bisexuality is just as viable as heterosexuality, homosexuality, and every other sexual orientation under the sun. Just because someone is bisexual doesn’t mean they’re even sleeping with anyone. It doesn’t mean there will be explicit sex on the page. Sexual orientation does not equal sex scenes and I’m extremely offended you imply as much with this unreasonable content warning.

To see this sentence in your review makes me wonder how you would treat my 6yo daughter, who is genderqueer. It makes me think about my 15yo self who was just realizing she was bisexual for the first time. It makes me wonder how you would treat my teen readers, many of whom ID as bisexual and find refuge in books with bisexual characters.

Image eight: VOYA’s response to Tristina Wright; transcript follows.

Hello, Tristina,

Thank you for writing. Feedback from our readers is valuable to us.

I am sorry that you took offense at our reviewer’s recommended audience for Run. When I was a YA librarian, I found VOYA’s ratings very helpful when doing readers advisory with teens. Knowing if a book had mature content, which would include sexuality and “foul” language as this one does, would help guide me to the readers who would most enjoy and appreciate the book. The subject matter would also help, especially when it is a topic that has limited titles available. While many teens might love this book, my knowing it has a bisexual character could be helpful if I wanted to include it in a booktalk or display or booklist to make sure it would reach teens who are specifically looking for this topic. Many junior high and senior high students still include the full age range of grades 7 through 12.

I find it awkward that you feel it is relevant and necessary to announce and label your five-year-old (sic) child’s sexuality (sic) to me. That definitely is private and up to your child to discover and announce.

Our writers and reviewers have various lifestyles and beliefs and that has never been a concern of mine and usually not even revealed to me unless the writer wishes to do so, so the assumption that I or VOYA magazine might be bi- or any other kind of phobic is just that, your assumption. A misguided one.

Since this is Bi Visibility Week, I understand your need to find and destroy your enemies in a public forum, however, VOYA magazine and I are not your enemies.

Thank you for reading VOYA magazine.

Image nine: Open letter to VOYA from Hannah Moskowitz; transcript follows.

VOYA. I cannot remember the last time I have been this angry, disgusted, or insulted.

I cannot believe that there are enough people working publishing that this goes to print.

That you feel free to insult a mother and print her name in a public way.

It’s not surprising that you attributed her motives to “find[ing] and destroy[ing] [her] enemies” rather than trying to make sure that queer teens get the books that help them, since that’s clearly not any sort of priority you’ve ever considered. Rather, it’s much more important to shame anyone who speaks out, to shame a young bisexual author and her book, and to insult a mother who isn’t ashamed of her child’s GENDER IDENTITY, which is not the same as sexuality (a mix-up that proves how utterly inept you are and how unqualified you are to participate in any discussion of queerness).

I’m an author of over a dozen published books. VOYA has given me excellent reviews in the past.

And if you ever review another book of mine it will be far, far too soon.

This is REPUGNANT. This is UNFATHOMABLE.

Every single person who saw the original review and, especially, who saw this response, and whoever was unbelievably petty, vindictive, and, OH YES, biphobi (sic) enough to publish this on your website, should be fired, and VOYA should issue a proper apology to Kody, Tristina, the bisexual community, and every librarian who has ever bought or not bought a book based on your prejudiced recommendations.

Shame on you. Shame, shame on you and what you do to teenagers.

Sincerely, Hannah Moskowitz.

Image ten: Tweet from Barry Goldblatt ( @barrygoldblatt ) - “Welp, @voyamagazine, all of your advertisers will be getting letters from me. And I’m sure I won’t be the only one. Wave by bye to the $$.”

Image eleven: Gif from Fresh Prince of Will Smith looking absolutely horrified.

When 11,000 people took to the streets in Celaya, Mexico this weekend to protest marriage equality, a 12-year-old boy stood in their way.