Diana Peterfreund Blog | Feminist Reads, Rape, and the Bitch Media list

People have been asking for my take on the whole Bitch Magazine debacle. There’s some incorrect information out there, so I thought I’d try to clarify my position.

Last week, I learned that my novel RAMPANT had been placed on the Bitch Magazine’s 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader. I was initially very pleased — it was a great list, I’d read a bunch of the books on it, and I was glad that the list compilers recognized the feminist themes in my book.

I was looking at the list and saw that a discussion had sprung up around one of the titles on the list, specifically, Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce. One comment stated “surprise” that the book was included, because there had been a blog review of the book that took issue with one passage and said it “promoted rape culture.” The response from the list compiler, Ashley McAllister, was basically “thanks for letting me know, I’ll replace it.” I was shocked by that, since I thought that the list was made up of books that the compiler/s were familiar with and, you know, recommended.

Having read both the book and the blog post in question, I disagreed with that interpretation, so when the compiler came back on and said that the editors had decided to re-read (or read for the first time) three of the books on the list that “dealt with the subject of rape” I contacted them and said that there were LOTS of books on the list (I counted at least a half a dozen, very quickly) that dealt with the subject rape, including my own, and if they questioned the appropriateness of Sisters Red because one reader who has a blog disliked/misinterpreted a single pagssage, they could certainly find something similar on every other book on the list. I urged them to keep the list as originally published, as a diverse and varied selection of literature that would be of interest to a feminist reader.

In the ensuing day and a half or so, I was not online — I was in Florida, visiting with my parents and watching my three month old’s bottom gum erupt with four teeth. Yes — FOUR.

Anyway, I came back to see that they had chosen to remove Sisters Red from the list, as well as Tender Morsels and Living Dead Girl. At that point, a bunch of YA authors were asking to be removed from the list because they took issue with this behavior and the arguable cowardice of the editor. As I was reading their comments, I saw that McAllister had responded to my comment from a day earlier, saying how happy she was that I was happy to be part of such a diverse list. There was no comment about whether or not they reconsidered Rampant.

At that point, I asked them to remove Rampant from the list. There is a lot of talk going on right now about how the authors who asked to be removed from the list did so “in solidarity” with the removed authors. While I definitely support that motivation, it was not my motivation. Frankly, my motivation can be summed up in the graphic accompanying this post. (Credit for the graphic goes to Sarah W. of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.)

Sisters Red was removed following: 1) there are characters in the novel who express anti-feminist, “victim blaming” views which may be traumatic to the reader, 2) there was a reader of the book who chose to interpret that character’s viewpoint as being the one sanctioned and championed by the author.

Yes, and George Lucas really hates kids, since he let Anakin go on that child-killing spree in Revenge of the Sith.

If this is the justification by which Sisters Red was removed from the list — that someone on the internet read a passage of it and didn’t like it or didn’t understand it — then Rampant does not belong on the list, either. There have been people who didn’t like or understand passages of it. There have been people who interpreted the fact that immediately after being raped, one character experiences confused, guilty feelings about what happened to her (and is also blamed by another character), as being anti-feminist and triggering and the other buzzwords that Bitch Magazine is so concerned about.

Here’s an example (whited out for spoilers):

“Is it?” Lilith folded her arms over her chest. “Guess I’m just not like perfect, easygoing Neil, who is far too polite to say the things that need to be said. Well, maybe it’s not proper, but if you’d stayed inside, where you belonged, this never would have happened.”

“Enough!” I shouted so loudly that the words reverberated off the mosaic walls. Phil’s chin was high but trembling. “How can you possible talk that way to her, knowing what she’s been through?”

“Because Philippa knows full well she’d get a hell of a lot worse from her father. Why do you think she’s staying here rather than going home?”

Phil wouldn’t meet my eyes.

My novel includes passages such as these because the characters live in OUR world — a world where one in six women is sexually assaulted, a world where women can and do feel confused or guilty after being raped, a world where women are sometimes — even often — blamed for being raped. We write to explore these topics. I wrote because I, personally, find this subject matter to be very close to my heart. I would never attempt to speak for every woman who has been sexually assaulted, but I was very concerned with crafting a story that reflects with integrity and honesty the experiences of those around me who have been through similar situations.

That the supportive role is played by the heroine of the novel and the victim blaming comes from the mouth of a character who is wrongheaded and insane at best and villainous at worst should probably make it pretty clear how I feel about the issue, but whether or not I was successful in portraying what I set out to is not the issue here. The passage (and others like it) exists, and some people have had problems with it. If this is the metric by which the Bitch List is judged, then Rampant is only on the list because they didn’t happen to get a complaint about it yet.

I was initially honored to be on the list because I thought it meant that Bitch had read my work, appreciated its feminist outlook, and was recommending it to others. Now I think they just didn’t happen upon one of these negative reactions.

I’ve recently learned that the editors of Bitch have chosen not to honor the request of writers that asked their books to be removed from the list. It seems to be a misunderstanding as to the nature of the list — we were considering the list to be an honor (one we could deny), and they were considering it as a review. We were considering it to be a published list that could be printed out and passed along to librarians or teachers interested in tracking down recommended reads. There are many such lists in the YA world — ALA’s lists for reluctant readers, NYPL’s “Stuff for the Teen Age,” Locus’ list of recommended SFF reads — but apparently, that’s not what this was, since the most recent comment from the editors is that the list will be in a state of constant flux (rather like the IMDB top films, or the Amazon bestseller list, perhaps?)

Anyway, that’s my take. I think it’s inappropriate for them to have removed those books from their list, but I also think it’s inappropriate for my book to remain on it, given the way the editors seem to give a lot of weight to the misguided complaint of a reader or two. And, as a former journalist, I think that’s not how good journalism works — stand by your opinions, correct your facts.

Feminist Reads, Rape, and the Bitch Media list

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