Tag: Body image

Introduction

“My eyes traced over his pale white features: the hard square of his jaw, the softer curve of his full lips—twisted up into a smile now, the straight line of his nose. The sharp angle of his cheekbones, the smooth marbles expanse of his forehead . . .” –Bella, New Moon.

Sorry for torturing you like that, but my point is the characters in YA novels, especially the love interests, are often not just attractive, but modelesque.

Raise your hand if you’ve read YA novels where the teenage characters never have to deal with acne, bad breath, being under or overweight and it not being played for laughs.

Moreover, raise your hand if you ever felt like you were reading a personal ad the way some of these characters are described in such excruciating details. Sure, everyone enjoys some eye candy, but by making all or most of the cast attractive it teaches young readers the wrong lessons, which I’ll discuss in turn.  

The Plain Jane

This first body type is the most common in YA and are usually the main female character and their basic descriptor is being average looking; some famous examples include Bella Swan form Twilight, Hermione Granger fromThe Harry Potter series, Clary Frayfrom The Mortal Instruments series, and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger games. The problem with this body type is that it teaches girls not to be okay with their looks. Often in these stories the message is, “OMG! that super cute guy likes me despite my plain looks.”

 Instead, we should teach girls to find a partner who values them because of who there are, not despite it.

The Plain Jane also trains girls to view girls more attractive than them as enemies, and that paradoxically looks do matter.

Mr. Perfect

Likewise, the male love interests are almost always some Adonis who knows exact what to do or say to sweep the female protagonist off her feet.

This teaches girls to objectives male bodies and and gives them unrealistic expectations when it comes to relationships, especially when said male love interests are physically, emotionally, or psychologically abusive.

     YA novels need to have a more diverse spectrum of beauty standards for everyone and stop romanticizing abusive and toxic behavior like stalking.

Sadly, this is not the case, as I will show next.

Model Land

In these stories everyone is attractive, they can eat whatever they want, never work out, and still be in perfect shape. They never have to face the issues we mere mortals do. These characters’ defining trait is their attractiveness and they often fall victim to the designated love interest, and in the worst offenders, such as Tyra Banks’ (yes, that Tyra Banks) Modelland, they are literal models.

The problem with this is many-fold.

First, it teaches young readers to be superficial and that if they don’t meet society’s and the media’s expectations of beauty, then they don’t matter. That they have to strive for perfection in their appearance or no one will like them.

Second, it contributes to negative body image issues and issues with disordered eating. Young readers, girls in particular, are constantly being bombard with the message they have to be hot or they won’t find love and happiness.

Third, it’s unrealistic. People come in all shapes, yet rarely do you see protagonists who aren’t attractive, in shape, and sexually appealing and this needs to change.  

We need to see more diversity across the board, not only in appearance but in race too.

But not too Black: Colorism, Featurism, and Eurocentrism

Anyone who’s followed this blog for a while now knows the lack of diversity in the media is a pet peeve of mind.

As I wrote here, YA and publishing in general has a race problem. Namely, they value whiteness above everything, and the result is European features are prized above those of people of color.

This Eurocentrism result is colorism, which is where Black and brown people with lighter skin are seen as more attractive. This manifests in YA by having the love interest of color be either mixed raced or very light-skinned, sometimes to the point of getting mistaken for being white.

The problem with this should be self-evident: proximity to whiteness has no bearing on attractiveness and arguing otherwise is just racist.

  This in turn results in featurism, wherein certain features such as straight hair, fair skin, and light-colored eyes are considered more appealing than those of Black and brown people.

The message readers of color get when they don’t find people like them in these stories is that 1) they don’t matter, and 2) they can’t have their happily ever after if they’re too dark or don’t have “good” hair.

The solution to this issue is simple: have more Black and brown people of every shade in your stories and call out writers when they engage in any of the above isms.

I wish race and appearances weren’t the only issues, but there’s more.

You Must be This Tall to Ride

Height discrimination is also rampant in these stories. Short people are often played for laughs and deemed unattractive—if they’re there at all. The issue here is that young readers are often themselves short, so having stories that exclude them, or worse make fun of them for something they can’t control, is bad form.  

The solution is to not have a character’s height matter to the story. Why must every story be about the stereotypical tall, dark, and handsome guy?

Short guys are hot too.

Similarly, stop with the stories that make fun of girls for being taller than guys, when girls mature faster than boys. Tall girls rock!

As I previously mentioned, another body type that often gets mocked is bigger people.

No Fats (Sizeism and Fatphobia)

In book after book, the fat best friend is relegated to the sidelines while their thin, attractive friend goes after their equally thin and attractive love interest. Moreover, fat characters wanting to pursue anyone smaller in weight than them is seen as comedic, again this is if they’re included at all. This is problematic for several reasons.

First, many teens and young adults struggle with weight issues, so to trivialize and reduce the problem to their not eating right and getting enough exercise is complete bs.

 Growing up stories were one of the only safe places I had. But I was quick to notice that people like me, Black and fat, were either absent or made fun of.

The truth is no one likes to be picked on, so stop with the fat jokes, fat-shaming, and fat phobia.

Conclusion

As cliché as it is to say, it’s true: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No one should feel excluded or less than because they aren’t a ten or even a five. Everyone is worthy of love regardless of their looks, height, or weight, and it is incumbent upon us to make sure everyone knows this.   

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