Monday News: victim-blaming, ghostwriting, and messaging in books
Conservative blogger reveals unconfirmed identity of alleged U.Va. rape victim – I can barely report on this story without devolving into a sputtering rage. Anyway, this guy who’s clearly trying to make a name for himself (which is obvious in his tweets here, especially the one about “self-employment”) by doxxing the woman who was allegedly gang raped at a fraternity department on the campus of the University of Virginia. On the basis of “discrepancies” that were identified following a high profile story in Rolling Stone, the victim-blaming has exponentially increased, reinforcing once again that one of the biggest obstacles to stopping sexual assault by men against women is the widespread default assumption that the female accuser must be lying. I thought M.A. Melbly had some good commentary on Twitter on this point. Perhaps another reason we should not be so quick to dismiss Gamergaters as marginalized and disempowered.
In regard to sexual assault on college campuses, you may find this letter (pdf) from the Office of Civil Rights of interest, which provides guidelines within which campuses should be handling sexual assault cases.
Rolling Stone distanced itself from the story on Friday, after The Washington Post and other media outlets described problems with the reporting. In response on Friday, the magazine’s managing editor Will Dana wrote, “In the face of new information, there now appear to be discrepancies in Jackie’s account.” (Later on, Rolling Stone quietly removed a portion of its apology that referred to Jackie — “our trust in her was misplaced” — without noting the change.) –Mashable
Zoella and publishers confirm that Girl Online was ghostwritten – Zoe Sugg, aka Zoella, has a new book out, except that it’s not precisely her book. In the wake of Penguin’s admission that the book is not completely Zoe’s (aka it’s been ghostwritten) there has been much debate about whether that is an issue of consequence. Even this piece from the Telegraph seems to be making excuses for Sugg, with comments like “Zoella has a following thanks to viewers of her video blog, not because she is the new Zadie Smith.” And yet, as the excerpt below demonstrates, Sugg talks about wanting to be a writer, and refers to the book as her writing. Failing to publicly credit the ghostwriter does seem to be some anxiety about the book’s status. I personally think that Sugg’s young fans believe she wrote the book, and that the story is being sold as an authentic reflection of her voice. On that basis, I find the initial failure to disclose the ghostwriting problematic.
Inevitably, some people have asked if how much it actually matters that the book may be ghostwritten. As the Bibliodaze blog put it: “80,000 sales in one week speaks a hell of a lot louder than this kind of discussion, and many of Sugg’s fans will remain dedicated to their idol.” . . .
On the back cover of Girl Online, Sugg is quoted as saying: “My dream has been to write a book, and I can’t believe it’s come true. Girl Online is my first novel and I’m so excited for you to read it.” The biographical details on the book say that Sugg “has been writing stories ever since she was little”. –Telegraph
The Beauty and the Beast Effect in YA Literature – A provocative post about the potential effects that YA fiction may be having on young women. Although I am not particularly fond of these direct influence arguments, I definitely think our fiction can reflect socially entrenched beliefs that we need to be looking at, because by mechanically and thoughtlessly repeating them, we can reinforce their validity (like in the recent DA review and discussion of the KJ Charles Book, Think of England) I’m also glad that the author is not, at least, conflating adult women with teenagers in her argument. Not to mention the fact that stories in which female characters have full agency can be incredibly enjoyable to read.
In a single story I might be more willing to overlook this troubling trope, but reading so many instances in such a short time period really made me question how we were portraying our girls in YA fiction and what we are saying to them, at least subliminally, about relationships. So while an author might argue that it isn’t their job to teach or write in a way that transforms young minds, we must also be honest with ourselves and admit that part of the reason we embrace literature and things like We Need Diverse Books is because we do in fact believe that part of how we view ourselves and the world around us is informed in part by the literature we read. We spend a great amount of time and verbiage extolling the power of reading to open minds and create empathy, which means that we believe that literature can influence our thinking. So I would like to see less books that suggest we as women should overlook the fact that a guy is willing to completely undermine a girl’s personal agency and find them in any way desirable. In my opinion, being kidnapped by another person is such a horrific offense that it should be a deal breaker. Subverting a person’s free will and personal autonomy, controlling them, manipulating them, coercion – these are all abusive practices, not romantic in any way. We need to find better ways to tell our stories that re-enforce the idea that female agency is important. –School Library Journal
Author Of ‘Bridge To Terabithia’: Messages Are Poison To Fiction – This interview with Newberry winner Katherine Paterson comes from a different perspective. Paterson’s experience of writing Bridge to Terabithia is very interesting, and she her comments on the backlash against the novel are timely given the discussions we’ve been having lately about the hostility toward critical discourse as applied to genre fiction. I don’t think Paterson’s comments garner an easy “I agree/disagree,” in part because they’re offered within such a personal context, and also because they are not easy answers themselves. In any case, I think the story is worth a read (and/or a listen), especially in contrast with Karen Jensen’s Beauty and the Beast piece.
On whether her books have a message
I try very hard to stay away from the word “message,” because I think it’s poison in fiction. I think you tell your story and then the reader gets to decide what he or she will learn from your story. And if they don’t want to learn anything from it, that’s their choice. –NPR
Isn’t it perfectly normal for celebrity books to be ghostwritten? I fully admit I don’t pay attention to the level of disclosure on them because I have zero interest, but I know several people who’ve ghostwritten for celebs and none of them have their names on the books ANYWHERE. For example, I know the ghostwriter of a certain Melrose Place actress’s novels (I’d mention names flat out, but I know my friend’s contract says she isn’t allowed to claim authorship), and there is no indication on the cover or copyright info of the one I just looked at that it wasn’t the actress. Even the book blurb plays up how it’s a roman à clef by a Hollywood insider that is filled with real events from her life.
Rolling Stone did such a god awful job reporting that story, and this is a big deal for me. I’ve thought often of some of their better muck-raking pieces- who else was willing to call out the sainted Warren Buffett for his energy investments?- and now I’m not going to be as inclined to quote even their good work.
I think she has a point about the predominance of narratives containing what amounts to toxic or abusive relationships. It may well be the ripple effects of Twilight and FSoG, but I’ve had a hard time finding YA not of that kind. Which is a pity, people are different, readers are different. A genre should reflect that.
I am really angry with Rolling Stone. As far as I can tell, their sloppiness will result in yet more difficulty in young women reporting assault and being believed.
(Tangent off the Rolling Stone article) There needs to be more understanding that victims of trauma like rape will have narratives that don’t always hang together. That’s because the brain is wired to try to forget trauma. Events can often become distorted or even forgotten.
I work with DV survivors who often can’t remember even the month or year of major events like going to the emergency room. It can make acquiring medical records difficult (most medical providers won’t give you the person’s entire record they want exact dates.) And then of course, any uncertainty on the survivor’s part gets trotted out as proof that they’re lying.
@JewelCourt: Memory in general isn’t as accurate and reliable as people tend to believe, not just for traumatic events. I imagine we all have memories of events that we know aren’t 100% accurate, and research bears this out as well. I had to do a class presentation once on an article that dealt with recall of sports events, and there were lots of mistakes with those, too. In addition, people tend to be a lot more confident in their memory than warranted, so when details feel fuzzy, it’s an uncomfortable feeling to say the least.
It’s definitely a problem that inconsistencies are so often taken as proof that someone is lying, rather than a reflection of how memory actually tends to work. I doubt very much that Jackie lied to the Rolling Stone reporter, but it’s very likely that her memory of the events became distorted over time and is a mix of actual details with things that are not accurate. Rolling Stone should have been more cautious in reporting her story, perhaps by focusing more on how universities respond to reports of sexual assault then in the details of her ordeal.
The Beauty and the Beast discussion reminds me of the eye-opener a few years back when somebody noticed that telling little girls that when a little boy hits them or teases them or is mean to them, “It’s because he likes you!” is setting girls up for some really troubling patterns in life.
I think the two messages–Beauty and the Beast, and Katherine Patersons’–actually work together. Not everyone is going to pick up a negative message. Most probably won’t. The question is, would those who are vulnerable to that bad message going to pick it up somewhere, anyway? if something inside is triggered by a certain kind of story and a yearning for a certain kind of relationship, will they find it somewhere, whether in YA fiction or elsewhere?
I tend to lean in that direction, but think parents should be aware of the messages to talk about them, to help their kids analyze, and understand how their kids are interpreting them.
@Rose: I don’t do criminal work, but I recall sitting in my crim pro class in law school and the professor talking about how police/courts/juries/etc. put the most faith in eyewitness testimony when in reality it’s extremely flawed.
@Rose: That. Which is why RS should have done it’s job, which includes not going to press with something it can’t stand behind.
In my evidence class, the professor staged a mock “burglary” and then asked the class questions to demonstrate how flawed eyewitness testimony is. There’s now a plethora of research that shows the same thing, especially with regard to cross-racial IDs.
I think both are important. While I assume that adults know the difference between fantasy and reality, it still disappoints me how hard romance as a genre leans toward both fantasy (as in unrealistic situations and depictions) and social conservatism and the reinforcement of gender norms. I know they’re more popular, but I wish there was more of a market, and more tolerance of, a wider variety of voices. Why can’t the genre be the change I, at least, want to see rather than reinforcing the way things are? And I read Paterson more as saying she doesn’t want to prescribe what readers should learn from her novels than that they don’t contain any lessons or messages. Otherwise she’d be like Conner Habib, who responded to my questioning his tweet saying art can’t be political and still be good by saying the dystopias I cited as examples (1984, Fahrenheit 451) weren’t good books. I vehemently disagree; some of the best art is political. (Picasso’s Guernica, anyone?)
As someone who had to write essays on the symbolism and messages in Tess of the d’Ubervilles in high school, I want to print this off and send it back in time to my teacher. “It’s all secret Egyptian symbology messages!” he said, and we had to write essays about HIS interpretation of it.
I’m really pissed at the Rolling Stone, because the fundamental message of their piece, that universities should not be in the business of investigating and adjudicating sexual assault is getting lost.
Imagine if the university has told Jackie to go to the police. The incident would have been investigated by professionals, evidence collected and a jury would decide the case.