Battling and Changing Stigmas
With literature that includes elements of diversity in a main or close secondary character, there are often certain adversities that must be overcome. These adversities usually materialize in the form of negative social stigmas that exist in our own world as well. Just like other young adult fiction, there are works of fantasy in which main or secondary characters must overcome or hide from negative stigmas.
In many cases, it is believed that readers can connect better with works that show a minority group coming into conflict with a negative stigma and overcoming it because negative stigmas exist in the real world. In order to narrow the scope of this article so that it does not become convoluted by trying to cover every group, this article will focus on negative social stigma centered around the GLBTQI (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender[ed], Queer/Questioning, and Intersex) community.
One such recent work is the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare. In the first book, City of Bones, a heteronormative context is established early in the book when Clary is in a café watching a poetry reading. In this scene, a girl seated near Clary asks if her friend Simon happens to be her boyfriend. When Clary denies it, the girl inquires if he has a girlfriend, to which Clary once again responds in the negative. The girl immediately asks “is he gay?” (Clare 37).
Over the course of the next couple of pages, Clary asks Simon the same question, with a tag of “are you?” to indicate that this would be an undesirable situation. When she asks, “Simon’s greenish color deepen[s],” and he retorts, “if I were, I would dress better,” like fashion and being gay go hand-in-hand (Clare 39).
For some readers, this conversation may not seem out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, such conversations happen every day, complete with generalizations about what it means to be gay and how gay males may act. In Clare’s case, she does not simply include this heteronormativity to include elements of young adult dialogues that may occur in the real world; she includes this scene to establish that such negative social stigmas exist within the context of her novel.
Much later in the novel, Clare uses this context to show the plight of one of the central characters in a conversation between Clary and Isabelle. After making some observations about Isabelle’s brother Alec, Clary asks Isabelle if he is gay. Isabelle responds with fright. When Clary tells her that it is ok, indicating that she may not think within the negative social stigma against GLBTQI individuals, Isabelle tells her that she can’t tell anyone, not even their friend Jace, because their parents “would disown him and throw him out of the clave” if they ever found out (Clare 211).
Interestingly enough, fashion is brought back up in this same scene, but not in reference to Alec’s being gay. Clary and Isabelle exit the scene to retrieve some fashion items from Isabelle’s room. Clary leaves while saying “demon hunting and fashion, I never would have thought they went well together,” directed at Isabelle who happens to be the perceived fashion guru at the time (Clare 212).
Whether Clare meant to take the stereotype established earlier by Simon and show it paralleled to the revelation that Alec is gay to remind readers of the earlier assumption and see it not applying in this second scenario, it is difficult to say. However, it is at the very least an interesting coincidence that these two topics happen so close together twice in one novel.
In later novels, Clare introduces other characters that challenge and come up against these negative stigmas associated with the GLBTQI community. One such character is Magnus Bane, a bisexual character introduced in later books.
In an interview posted in a forum for diverse young adult fiction, Clare discloses that one of her closest friends, who she grew up with, is bisexual. She says that even though she did not directly receive the discrimination that her friend experienced, she witnessed it and saw the results time and time again. This discrimination came from both the heteronormative community, and the GLBTQI community, which is an unfortunate reality for many bisexual individuals. After discussing what she observed her friend going through, Clare states that she thought “why not a bisexual character who is proud of it and secure in it?” and thus created Magnus (Lo 2011).
In Magnus’s case, the struggle was not necessarily to overcome adversity within the novel’s context, but rather to overcome social norms and negative stigma in the real world outside of the novel. For some readers, it is important to include novels where a character’s struggle is not the highlight of the story (or of their contributions to the story). Some argue that it may be more important to represent diversity groups in a manner that allows them to exist in a context where they do not but up against negative stigmas. Malinda Lo presents one such world in her novel Huntress.
Huntress is a coming of age story of Kaede and Taisin, two girls who attend a school for the magically gifted. Kaede has no magic to speak of, while Taisin’s abundant magic is strong enough to give her visions which send the two of them and a small party of royalty and guards on a quest to save the world from a wicked fairy-human empress. As with many young adult coming of age works, this novel includes some elements of romance. There is the romance between the prince and one of the guards, and then there is the developing love between Kaede and Taisin.
In many works dealing with GLBTQI romance, the relationship
takes a long time to come out intothe open where it can bud because one or
more characters are afraid of the repercussions of their orientation becoming
public knowledge. This context is removed from Lo’s novel in the first few
chapters through conversations and narrated thoughts that allude to the fact
that homosexuality is not an issue in this book’s world context.
When the issue of Kaede’s arranged marriage comes up, dialogue and narration work together to show that in this world, love is love, regardless of gender. Kaede says that when she spoke with her mother about the issue, her mother responded by telling her “that [she] should be open to the possibility of loving a man. […] And beyond that, she said that plenty of married women have lovers,” which suggests that Kaede’s mother knows Kaede’s preferences and is suggesting going through with the political marriage and taking female lovers later on (Lo 27).
Another discussion near the beginning of the book that shows readers the world’s lack of negative stigma happens between Taisin and an elder at the school as they discuss Taisin’s vision and what it means for her future. Taisin tells the elder that in her vision, she sees Kaede die, and that there was a very deep sense of loss in her vision. The elder responds by saying “love is not what you fear, is it? You fear the loss of it,” indicating that Taisin falling in love with Kaede would be no problem at all from a social viewpoint (Lo 35).
The removal of negative stigmas in this novel opens the romantic aspect of the story up to develop like romance in any other young adult fantasy work. In this way, Lo suggests that the romance is what truly matters in the relationship developing between Kaede and Taisin. They are free to encounter the kinds of obstacles that any other romantic couple might encounter in a romance. Being free of these social stigmas may even show that GLBTQI romance is more than just overcoming societal views, it is about love.
Although both Clare and Lo take different modes of representing GLBTQI individuals in their works, they are both important works to consider when searching for young adult fantasy literature that represents diversity. Whether representing a minority group in a manner that may apply to the real world, or one in which the characters are free to be themselves without preexisting social norms from the real world, both bring GLBTQI characters into literary works written for young adults. In this way, both authors make a stance in favor of representing groups that may not often be represented in mainstream media.
