Young Writers Society

For my journalism class, we had to write an opinion article about something that effects teens nationally. I also wrote a blog about this a couple months ago. If you're going to make a nasty comment about the topic, spare your time. Enjoy & thanks for reading.

I am a teenager, influenced by media. More often then not the music, movies and television shows contain vast amounts of sex, scandal and drama. It’s what people want to see, and they usually get it in heaping portions. We have gotten used to this, it no longer being anything unusual. But what if we found this same vulgarity in something that is a source of escape from our scandalous world?

Young adult fiction has taken a disturbing turn. I bought a cheap book one day, its cover friendly and inviting, its title, Cures for Heartbreak, intriguing. I soon found myself reading a disgusting, detailed-filled sex scene that didn’t even fit into the plot in the slightest. It made me a little disappointed in the human brain, as someone must have published this piece of trash and sent it out the public. At first I thought it just might be this particular book, so I took some other friendly-looking ones out in the library in the young adult section. All three had the same result.

This isn’t young adult. This is authors trying to make a profit by marketing sex to teenagers, and compromising morals. This goes undetected, as no one would think this kind of disgusting indecency would be tucked neatly into the pages of a disguised romance novel geared towards teens. If you’re a parent, I’m sure you would be shocked to find what’s in your child’s romance books. If you’re the reader of these books, I’m sure you’ve seen it before. If you intend to tolerate it or not is your own decision. I know I am not, and never will tolerate it.

What about Harry Potter? The multimillion dollar history making series. No sex, excellently written. This is one example of a good book that can sell and appeal to young adults without having a sex scene in the middle. What author is that insecure to put a scene like that in their story just make the plot better? It’s a little pathetic. There are plenty of series that have had success without indecency.

There is the counter argument that controversial topics teach teenagers about adult issues, and prepare them for real-life situations. Adult issues are for adult books, and not for a fourteen year old to cringe over in a novel supposedly written for them. Real-life issues? A lot of teenagers aren’t interested in sex in their reading material, and may become more interested when the characters that they look up to setting the wrong example. As a future creative writer, I’m not proud of these authors taking the easy way out.

There is something wrong with our world if sex is ruling over our literature. I guess I’ll be reading non-fiction for a while.

I am entitled to say that I dissagree entirely on this whole subject matter. Enough said. (:

I agree with you 100%. ^^ There is no need for sexual conduct in young adult books. I have not been really reading a lot latley and I've never come across one of these detailed sex sceens but I believe you. It just makes me sick how adults are the ones responsible for showing this kind of thing to young adults. All they want to do is make a profit and they don't care how they do it. What ever happened to good old fashioned romance? No wonder why young people are having sex left and right. Something needs to be done in my view.

If you're talking about just graphic sex scenes, I totally agree... for young fiction books anyway. If the sex is, um, not so graphic, I'd be a hypocrite if I complained I don't have a problem with more adult books having sex scenes and teenagers choosing to read those... again, trying to avoid hypocrisy.

I agree with you. As emoinpunk said though, it's the graphic sex scenes that are bad (like perhaps in Sugar Rush; one scene was sort of graphic). The ones were they start kissing and then skip to what happens afterwards are fine (like Annie On My Mind, or even Twilight--though there are some almost graphic thoughts in that one). However, the biggest problem is frequent sex in films and TV shows (it seems all that American kids do is each other ), but then that's another topic. Decency and innocence are words you can't speak anymore without being thought old-fashioned.

Yeah, I meant the graphic ones. But how is it written?

The essay is strong and passionate, and the fact that you are a teenager saying this gives it a valid presence. If anything, maybe you can add another more popular example of a young adult novel which has degenerated into a lust-filled book.

This is a very valid point, but you need to make sure you're not generalising. A lot of young adult fiction is still fairly clean. It's when you begin to cross over into things such as thrillers where sex plays a very dominant part. Take authors like James Patterson for example. He's written a couple of young adult fiction thriller novels and the sex is very absent, in fact, so is romance. Whereas if you took one of his adult thrillers, they are very seductive - maybe even pornographic - and very violent. This isn't because Patterson is trying to be clean in Young Adult fiction and then releasing his love for sex in his adult fiction, it is merely because he's writing to a suited audience. Believe it or not, a hell of a lot of adults have a strong desire for sex or (surprisingly) violence. It is something that comes with us as humans. That's why when we are "developed" and can understand these more, we can read about them comfortably. I think, although you make a very valid point here, you're basing it on reading that isn't very broad. I'd still confidently say that the majority of Young adult fiction is clean and the majority of adult fiction (or atleast thrillers anyway) isn't.

Hope this helps you construct a further or future argument,
Ben

I almost completely disagree. Sex has been demonized for hundreds (or thousands) of years without good justification. It's sad that people would call it disgusting when in reality it is an incredibly loving act. Also, it makes sense to put sex in teen romance novels because a huge number of teen romances include sex. About 80% of the teens I know have had sex. It's not pathetic to include those scenes, it's realistic. Think about it, if Harry Potter had been realistic, Ron and Hermione would have had countless sex scenes. That said, the point that I do agree with you on is that there should be sex-less books for those who want them. If someone wants a story without sex included, there definitely should be options for them.

Now I'll actually talk about your article
You did a very good job with this. You have a very smooth, persuasive writing style that reminded me of the professional opinion articles in the newspaper. Citing Harry Potter as proof that books can sell without sex was a great choice, as nearly everyone understands a Harry Potter reference. It's just a strong piece as a whole. My only criticism is that the opening sentence seemed weak. Try rewriting it to be more catchy and interesting.
Nice job.

I think it depends. If it's... let's say... some book about teenage pregnancy then I find nothing wrong with it in those. I have a sex scene in my own novel. But I only show how the two characters ended up having sex. I end where you just know they will and continue with the story afterwards. Personally, I think you've pointed out some good parts. But my characters are married. So... Anyway! That's my opinion.

Thanks everyone! I will take what you all said and try and use the points in my revision of the piece!

Personally, I agree with you.
Critically, I think it's too much opinion without enough support. Opinion is meaningless unless you can support it with relative issues or concerns that people can agree to. What I mean by this is that you're calling it "disgusting" and "trash" but these seem to be your personal view with little said as to why we should agree that it is disgusting. You touched on it slightly, but went no further, when you cited morals. Go further into why sex in teen fiction is immoral.