Read on Twitter
There's a discussion about letting young people read romance. The person who started it has me blocked, but I want to address something they tweeted:
"But what if the romance and sex that you could have been exposed to as a young person was only cis/het representations?"
"But what if the romance and sex that you could have been exposed to as a young person was only cis/het representations?"
This is NOT just a concern-trolling "what if" for many of us. The romance and sex we were exposed to in books WAS cis, het, and overwhelmingly white. Just like ALL OTHER MEDIA. But guess what...? Consuming it was still helpful. Especially if we were from conservative cultures.
Reading romance at 10, 11, 12, gave me space to understand sex and sexuality when there was no other venue to learn about those things. Now, if you're a 21st century parent who talks to your kid about sex...yay, you! That is not common. And books don't judge you like parents do.
And far from warping young people with bad ideas about relationships and sex, I think romance sets us up for *better expectations*. Like, "Oh, we deserve someone who's absolutely gone for us." Or, "Oh, I deserve to have this orgasm thing that they don't talk about in sex ed."
Also, I should probably point out that young people WILL find the books. There's no "letting" here. I hid romances in the gap between my bed and the wall. You can't really stop tweens and teens. Much like you can't stop a moose from licking your car.
