Sunday Night Catchall: December 20, 2015

Abby Wambach retired. :'( Flashback to the wonderful week when I got to see her play in person. She was also stiffed by U.S. soccer, which is annoying but not surprising.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the conversation this week about queer stereotypes in YA literature. Feel free to keep Tweeting/messaging/commenting if you have something to add!

I think I found the world's most beautiful hospital room (pictured on the left).

For this week's YA book rec, let me refer you to the cool rundown Barnes & Noble just did of great YA books to look forward to in 2016. Also, be sure to check out #GayYABookClub on Twitter for great YA book suggestions with LGBTQ characters!

Most importantly on the personal front, finals are over! There's nothing like studying by watching the Warriors play while listening to the Hamilton soundtrack in the background. "My Shot" seemed particularly relevant and has just been stuck in my head all week, so linking it below.

Uploaded by AngelsBwayTunes on 2015-09-28.

9 Queer Stereotypes I'm Sick of Reading in YA Lit

I'm abundantly happy that YA literature is becoming more diverse. Back when my organization started, it seemed like there were only a handful of LGBTQ-related YA books to choose from, and now there are many published every year. But still, there are some stereotypes/tropes I see a bunch in LGBTQ-related YA lit that irritate me. Here are 9 queer stereotypes I would like to see less of in YA literature.

I get annoyed when:

1. Lesbian relationships always have one masculine woman and one feminine woman.
2. Gender identity always conforms to a binary. There are plenty of people who identify as gender non-conforming or genderqueer, people who don't identify as any gender, people who identify as multiple genders, etc.
3. I can't find gender-neutral pronouns anywhere. Like seriously, where are they?
4. Bisexual people are just confused. Bisexual characters can really be bisexual.
5. Pansexual people don't exist. Or pansexuality and bisexuality are conflated. Here are two definitions taken from Trans Student Educational Resources:
   1. Bisexual: "An umbrella term for people who experience sexual and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender (pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, queer, etc)."
   2. Pansexual: "Capable of being attracted to many/any gender(s). Sometimes the term omnisexual is used in the same manner. 'Pansexual' is being used more and more frequently as more people acknowledge that gender is not binary. Sometimes, the identity fails to recognize that one cannot know individuals with every existing gender identity."
6. Asexual people don't exist. Did you know some studies have found ~1% of people are asexual? And no, having a character not in a relationship isn't the same thing as having an asexual character. And asexual people can be romantically attracted to others!
7. Every queer kid is bullied. Yes, 85% of LGBTQ teens experience anti-LGBTQ name-calling, but not everyone fits into that narrative, and when every book makes queer kids seem miserable, many queer kids can't enjoy the book.
8. Every queer character is white. (Does this need an explanation?)
9. The goal of every transgender character is to transition. Many trans people have no interest in transitioning or altering their gender expressions. Gender expression doesn't equal gender identity! Here are two definitions taken from Trans Student Educational Resources:
   1. Gender identity: "One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s). Everyone has a gender identity, including you. For transgender people, their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity are not necessarily the same."
   2. Gender expression: "The physical manifestation of one’s gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. (typically referred to as masculine or feminine). Many transgender people seek to make their gender expression (how they look) match their gender identity (who they are), rather than their sex assigned at birth. Someone with a gender nonconforming gender expression may or may not be transgender."

Additional annoying stereotypes (submitted by readers) include when:

1. The Queer character's story centers around their coming out and having to deal with familial drama/centers around their Queerness as opposed to a real story line like heterosexual characters have.
2. Queer people can't be religious/ that spirituality and queerness are mutually exclusive.

Have any additional queer stereotypes in YA you can't stand? Comment below or Tweet it to @ARoskinFrazee and I'll add it to the list!

Sunday Night/Monday Morning Cathcall: December 13, 2015

More activist-y megaphone pictures! I'm the blue puffy jacket person.

Janet Mock, author of Redefining Realness, is donating 120 books to schools through my organization, The Make It Safe Project. Want a copy for a school you know? Check it out!

The Onion has released its review of 2015. Uh oh.

As we near the end of the year, remember self-care! In the words of my friend Miles: "Eat lunch if you haven't yet. Take your meds. Please stay hydrated for me. Rest your eyes if you've been staring at a computer screen all day. Text a friend and check in on them. Take care of yourself."

My creative writing professor gave some ... different ... advice: "Creative narcolepsy can be your friend."

Weekly YA book rec: The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Sunday Night Catchall: November 29, 2015

Thanksgiving existed this week. That's probably what everyone writing about their weeks is leading off with. *sigh* But, since I mentioned it, my six-year-old sister beat me at Mexican Train! (I was third; she was second.) She's also far superior to me at ice skating. (See the picture!)

Lots of great book recs with the #MorallyComplicatedYA hashtag on Twitter, and also in this Bustle article. To be clear, I have nothing against the author or book that caused the hashtag — I just find the contention that no existing YA books involve complexity or depth completely unfounded. 

I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the attack at Planned Parenthood this week. My heart goes out to everyone hurt. No matter what your beliefs, I think the goal of peace should be universal. 

For all of you in the home stretch of NaNoWriMo, good luck! Congrats to those of you who've already reached 50,000 words and I'm sending lots of virtual support to those of you still fighting to get there. I didn't do NaNoWriMo myself this year, though I've so far stayed true to my "edit or write for an hour a day" goal. Wrote 10,000 words last week; hoping more will follow. I'm terrified of what will happen when I turn on spellcheck again to edit. (I turn it off when I'm binge-writing.)

Sunday Night Catchall: November 22, 2015

Not going to lie: one of the most satisfying moments of my week was beating my dad and brother at Catan. (Okay, fine — the most satisfying moment of my week ...) Anyone else play board games with your family that get really awkwardly competitive?

Speaking of competitive board games, I'm dying to know the answer to this: my friend Rebecca and I have been playing very intense games of Bananagrams (which, for those of you who don't know, is like Scrabble but about speed more than anything). I use nothing but super short words; she mainly uses longer words to free up board space. For those of you who play, which strategy do you use? Now I'm curious.

Obligatory cat photo! Sorry to be clogging up the internet with more cat pics than it already has. If I had a pet wombat, I'd post those pictures instead, but I'm stuck with this guy (who does not seem happy that my mom's taking a picture of him).

If you haven't already perused the hashtag on Twitter, check out some highlights from yesterday's #TransYAChat! It's interesting regardless of whether or not you're a writer.

Oh, and if you've followed my Twitter account this weekend, you know I spent my entire weekend working on a novel instead of writing an essay. Welp, want to guess what I'm supposed to be doing instead of writing this blog post? Oops.