Day Six-- Contributing to the Delinquency of Fictional Minors

So, I'm writing a YA book, and I picked up a few YA books to read lately. I've been noticing a trend in both TV and written media. I find it to be disturbing, but maybe I'm crazy and overly moralistic. I've been reading sites that say that nothing is off-limits in YA books as long as it's handled appropriately. This begs the question: Who is deciding what is "appropriately" and shouldn't SOME things be off-limits?

Drinking parties-- It used to be, back in the old days of the eighties and nineties, that if you wanted to portray someone as a rebel, you'd show them knocking back a beer snuck in a coke bottle at a wild party where everyone was trying to fit in. Lately, every book I've read has included under-age drinking. Sometimes, the focus of the party is just to get drunk. This isn't like nineteen year olds, but fifteen and sixteen year olds are out slamming back a six pack on a school night. The author slips it in like it's nothing. It's not to convey the teen's personality or the atmosphere of the party, but it's a prop--like a soda. They're treating it not as if it's rebellion, but it's normal-- a big "meh" on the normal teenage experience. These are the books that I'll be handing my children to read in ten years? Should we expect to preview all books by the time that decade rolls around?

Sex-- Yes, I said it. I'll admit I'm conservative, but the books I've read recently (intended for a teenage audience) haven't been about adults or older teens in monogamous relationships. Once again, fifteen and sixteen year olds--and it's treated like a big "meh."

Profanity-- Why are movies still getting "R" ratings based on language when apparently using the 'F' word twenty times in a book gives it a PG-13 age group? Plus, I've found, without fail, that the parents are portrayed as clueless in this regard because the minute their child says "damn" in front of them... or even "stupid" the parents jump on them screaming "We don't use that word around here." Twenty minutes later, they're at school dropping words that should burn holes in the paper. I'm disgusted to admit that our local high school only prohibits racist and hate language. It's also why waiting in line at a fast food place behind teenagers includes me covering my children's ears. I've even been "that" parent who taps them on the shoulder saying, "I have kids here. Can you watch your language?" There are still quite a few teens that immediately change their language when they see my kids, but... why are they using so much profanity if they CAN turn it off?

Lately, I've found myself using more mild profanity just because it seems to fit. Taking it out makes my writing unrealistic, but using it makes me feel like I'm about to contribute to the delinquency of a minor. (I have a teenage beta reader, so I will be.) I feel like I need to find a non-profanity type of profanity to fill in the blanks. (AKA "holy crow" ala Stephanie Meyer) Crap and darn sound puny now. Shoot is laughable. When I do a rewrite on my NaNoWriMo project, I'll probably yank out some of the profanity, but hopefully... not add any in.

Anyone else writing YA thinking about this stuff?

Oh, and while most don't consider this a "sin" of any kind, it's also become commonplace for teens to drink coffee apparently with their breakfast? Is this not stunting their growth? Is this really the norm outside of my little world?

Love me, Worship me... it's all I ask. Curse you if you don't!

Today, I got my ermine cloak from Ms. Di. (She assures me it's faux and no ermines were killed to make it which is good because ermines are so cute. Plus, draping the skins of dead animals around me sounds a bit freaky--unless it's leather because I'm a hypocrite.) I won on guesses for Nathan's paragraph contest. I didn't win in the contest, but I did really like three or four of the winners. (I thought some of them WERE NOT paragraphs, though, and while I don't mean that to be sour grapes... I need some white space. I totally can't read long paragraphs... or faux paragraphs.)

I also got a scepter from Diana which I've been swinging around and hitting the husband with it. I think he is making me breakfast so the beatings may be over.

My brain is uber sluggish this morning due to a sleeping pill induced night of sleep. Friday nights are becoming the catch-up night for sleep since I can actually conk out without the kids missing school or all of us missing church.

I went running thursday night in my new shoes and discovered that running in new shoes without bandaging up my heel is a mega-stupid idea. I ripped the skin right off my right heel. It's so nasty that I'm tempted to post a picture. It's THAT nasty. It's crossed over to gruesome. I'll have to really bandage it up for today's run. (Yes. It's a sickness. It's the endorphins. I love me some endorphins.)

I finished up "You Suck" by Christopher Moore yesterday while cleaning. It was mega, mega awesome with an awesome on top. It was sophomoric and stupid in all the right ways. I listened to it on audiobook and the reader deserves kudos. On the other hand, none of my family may read it due to the number of highly offensive words. I find myself offended with myself because I wasn't as offended as I should have been. It seems like novels are shifting more and more to treating the f-word as if it was a mild profanity or an adjective. In their defense, they're attempting to mimic real life... which is just so, so sad. I spoke with some people this week who said that my books were the only "adult" books they were reading anymore due to the profanity and sex in mainstream books.

This brings up a point: Why are young adult books becoming so popular among adults? Is this why? They have less profanity and sex and there is something nice and more fantastic about that? Is it because their topics aren't as realistic and we have enough reality in our own lives? Is it because many adults are trying to recapture their youth? Perhaps, it's just a lot of adults previewing books for their kids....

In the course of reading Nathan's paragraphs before they were siphoned, I read a paragraph that started out stating it was for a Young Adult audience and then proceeded to make my eyes bleed with profanity. It was so bad that I wondered if it was a joke... or if this person was a parent.

So, unfortunately, while I loved "You Suck," I can't recommend it because those with a more spiritual bent might wonder if I'd decided to take the straight route to hell. I also will need to spend the rest of my day in quiet contemplation and trying to purge my mind of profanity.