This week, The Enchanted Inkpot put out the covers of a lot of 2013 YA science fiction and fantasy. Because I serve on the Cybils SFF crew, and have served on the Cybils since its first year, I tend to keep an eye on these lists, but I have to say that it’s getting harder to be a part of the illustrious company of science fiction and fantasy lovers. I still adore it, but in some ways, it’s not going anywhere. Which is ironic, since science fiction, at least, is supposed to represent the “what if” of the future.
One topic the YA community has been talking about for so long is characters of color in YA fiction. The covers of the latest batch of 2013 beauties, out of eighty two covers depicted in one post, and ninety-four in the next, show maybe THREE cover which unequivocally displays a character of color.
I know: some characters are mixed, or not even human, if you read the stories. Some covers are illustrations. Maybe I could better say that of a hundred and seventy-six covers total, one hundred twenty covers, where a face (not a hand or leg – I am trying to be generous) was visible enough to determine ethnicity, only three of those covers clearly depicted characters of color. I love the cover kitty on Cynthia L. Smith’s FERAL NIGHTS. There are fewer Decapitated Female Torsos out there this year; a few more with unique cut paper art, sketches, and other stuff. Taken as a whole, these are creative and beautiful covers. Please understand – I am not saying they’re not well done on all levels. Just …one.
Fat Is Not A Fairytale is another one of my very favorite Jane Yolen poems. It is because of this poem that I bring up my next point, that another element not visible on these covers is any female body above a size, maybe… six.(Admittedly, I’m bad at eyeballing sizes; I would have said four, but I’m trying to err on the side of generosity.) There is a resounding ZERO covers which depict characters in the multiplicity of sizes which represent reality. None. And I didn’t expect any.
(Okay, so book designers have to follow the specs of the novel, yes? And so, the onus is on the writers. YES. Writers, I am looking with squinty-eyed accusation at you.) And, as for always using the thinnest model thing, welllll, it’s science fiction, the “what if,” not the “what is.” Maybe I should shrug, and just accept that “these things take time” and, as we’ve been told, take to heart that book covers have to stay within “industry standards,” which apparently means, in the small print, Caucasian Models With Size Four and Below Bodies. I’m stirring the pile with a big stick, here, but it’s a little disheartening that the more things change, the more they stay the same. There has been ALLLL this white-washing brouhaha, and … what? Nothing much. Not a lot of change. Almost none.
You know how YA books are supposed to keep faith with their readership, and let them know that, somewhere, there’s their tribe, and they just have to hold on, and make it through high school and someday find them?
Are we keeping that promise?
Writers?
roleplay
childhood games
revealed truth: Mermaid
trumps Sea Witch
(Thought I’d try a haiku short form. You have to definitely think harder, and sometimes I think the least said works the best.)
super
caped with tights: heroes
had a certain look. white. thin.
nothing like you, dear.
(Or maybe that would work as…)
super
Caped, with tights.
Heroes have a look
Buffed. Hot. White.
stuff nobody asked
If the job came with
Trousers, would you prefer it?
I wonder, woman.To all the authors who have tried, and continue to diversify their characters – thanks. Promises kept are best.
I hadn’t bothered to look at the YA covers–girls in dresses are getting on my nerves in general…
I just went and counted the middle grade covers–there are two that show non-white kids. Of course in mg you have fewer people covers in general, but still it is pretty sad. I have maybe reviewed three books this year with non-white central characters. As far as I can tell (the stack is pretty thick) there is only one unread book, and one read but not reviewed, book waiting for me downstairs that I can add to the list. Plus two coming out from Tu to look out for.
sigh.
I just keep remembering how people reacted to finding out that they hadn’t done a close reading with The Hunger Games, and that Rue was of a darker-skinned ethnic group — and the hate speech and the hysteria over a fictional character being something other than who people wanted.
How much less with authors brave creating characters who might be vilified from both sides – from the people of color who ask them why they’re writing characters from outside of their ethnic group and their experience, and from others, who want to know why they have to put up with this character they don’t want. People like to talk brave, and few people are braver than writers, who put their lives on paper in visceral ink…but there IS a limit. It’s kind of ridiculous that they have to be on the horns of this particular dilemma…