If you've seen part of this response before, that is because I'm taking my comments from another post about how you can use a queer lens to interpret the symbolic implications of how Artemis' coming of age adheres (or doesn't adhere, rather) to typical children's lit protagonist arcs.
Specifically, I want to use this post to talk about the genre trend in YA of having the main child/teen character (i.e., the character with whom the presumed teen reading demographic is identifying) end their series having "successfully" become a "normal", heterosexual adult by getting married and having children (which also opens up the possibility of a sequel series, lol). An iconic example would be how the HP epilogue and post-canon canon material outline the minutiae of what former-protags from the original series are now grown up and heterosexually married to what other former-protags; the epilogue materials for HP also mention the children that have resulted from these (exclusively) heterosexual canonical marriages.
Also, if it seems like my wording is repetitive, that is because I want to be precise lol! The subjects I'm treating here are the legally- and socially-diffused power structures that work to render heterosexuality the "norm" at the expense of other sexualities (even heterosexuals suffer under this system, as patriarchy further complicates things here). It would be biphobic, not to mention not grounded in material analyses of power and sexuality, to imply that bi people who are in different gender romantic relationships are "reifying norms of heterosexuality".
With that established, there's a lot of interesting scholarship on how children's lit and YA can function in part to outline what characteristics define a "normal" transition into becoming an adult in the particular society a text exists within. Fiction is a safe space to explore possibility, and if you can delimit what possibilities are possible, then that is an important part of shaping what possibilities are explored socially.
Thus, when we talk about the aforementioned genre convention of having the protagonists of YA series end those series by getting heterosexually married and then having kids, we're not talking about any individual narrative about characters that just so happen to grow up to be heterosexual adults.
Rather, we're talking about the way experiences become solidified as cultural "norms" through complex trends in fiction -- and that is NOT a result of authors intentionally, nefariously going "haha, and today I will use my fictional story to convince my readers that heterosexuality is the only possible sexuality one can have". That is a facile understanding of how norms are culturally produced, not to mention a misunderstanding of the way that the "normalcy" of heterosexuality is internalized through encounters with fiction.
But to return to my point about applying a queer lens to analyze the coming-of-age story in the books, there's this moment in TLC that is so interesting to unpack.
First off, you have to look at how parts of the series function as a metaphor for the struggles of coming of age.
In the above scene that I attached from TLC, you have Butler, an important older male figure in Artemis' life and one of the central adult characters of the series, stating that Artemis being "distracted by girls" is something both "normal" and "natural" that was deferred by Artemis' adventures with the fae. Furthermore, in the first book, Artemis mentions that he was able to discover the People because he occupies a liminal space between the adult world and the child world. Here, when I emphasize a refusal by Artemis to fully enter the "normal" adult world that Butler identifies as being tied to the experience of having one's first heterosexual crush, that isn't me saying that queerness/non-straightness is "childish". Rather, by the (unjust) standards of homophobic power structures that influence our society, for one to enter the adult world — for one to be accepted as a normal adult — one must assimilate into normative heterosexuality. And that very assimilation into heterosexual adulthood is something that Artemis' adventures (adventures that are made possible by him rejecting that world of "normal" adulthood!) have "distracted" him from pursuing.
I think one can interpret there being a hidden queer reading of Artemis "being distracted" from "normal" feelings that he should have been experiencing due to focusing his attention on these adventures. Symbolically, I know that I can draw parallels during my adolescence of avoiding confronting — or rather, preventing myself from feeling — my attraction to women by throwing myself into academics, which was a way to avoid questions from people in my life about why I wasn't dating like my peers were.
I want to transition to my next point with this scene: "Control puberty? [...] If you do, you'll be the first". Technically, Artemis accomplishes that in this book!
When he goes to the pocket dimension of Hybras, Artemis experiences the passing of a few hours, yet when he returns to earth, three years have gone by. Ergo, he is only fifteen years old — making him still a child — yet legally, he is eighteen due to the missing three years, providing him access to the world of adults without having to experience the aforementioned puberty that comes with aging the normal way instead of hopping around in time.
All of this is with just one scene. Honestly, the books are conducive to a bunch of different readings, and I think that one could apply a queer lens to produce readings of the series in which Artemis is gay, bisexual, asexual/aromantic, transmasculine, nonbinary, and/or what have you, using so many other moments from the series.
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it is hard to explain without sounding vain or stupid - but the more attractive others find you, the more you're allowed to do. the easier your life is.
i have been on both sides of this. i am queer and cuban. i grew up poor. for a long time i didn't know "how" to dress - and i still don't. i make my sister pick out any important outfits. i have adhd in spades: i was never "cool and quiet", i was the weird kid who didn't understand how "normal" people behave. i was bullied so hard that the "social outcasts" wouldn't even talk to me.
i got my teeth straightened. i cut my hair and learned how to style it. i got into makeup. it didn't matter, at first, if i actually liked what i was doing - it mattered how people responded to it. like a magic trick; the right dress and winged eyeliner and suddenly i was no longer too weird for all of it. i could wear the ugly pokemon shirt and it was just "ironic" or a "cute interest."
when i am seen as pretty, people listen. they laugh at my jokes. they allow me to be weird and a little spacey. i can trust that if i need something, people will generally help me. privilege suddenly rushes in: pretty does buy things. pretty people get treated more gently.
i am the same ugly little girl, is the thing. still odd. still not-quite-fitting-in. still scrambling. still angry and afraid and full of bad things. of course it became my obsession. of course i stopped eating. i had seen, in real time, the exact way it could change my life - simply always be perfect, and things can be easy. people will "overlook" all the other things. i used to have panic attacks at the idea others would see me without makeup - what would they think? even for a simple friend hangout, i'd spend a few hours getting ready. after all, it seemed so obvious to me: these people liked me because i was pretty.
i worry about how much i'm being a bad activist: i understand that "pretty" is determined by white, het, cis, able-bodied hegemonies. if i was really an ally, wouldn't i rally against all of this? recently there's been a "clean girl" trend which copies latinx aesthetics: dark slicked-back hair, hoop earrings. i almost never wear my hair like that; i can hear the middle school guidance counsellor advising me that i might fare better if i toned it down on the culture.
the problem is that i can take pretty on and off. that i have seen how different my life is on a day where i try and a day where i don't. i told my therapist i want to believe the difference is confidence, but it's not. and when you have seen it, you can't unsee it. it lives inside your brain. it rots there; taunting. i get rewarded for following the rules. i am punished for breaking them. end of story.
pretty people can get what they want. pretty people can feel confident without others asking where they got their nerve from. pretty people can be weird and different. pretty people get to have emotions; it's different when they get aggressive, it's pretty when they cry with frustration.
of course people care about this. of course it has crawled into you. of course you want to be seen as attractive. it's not vanity: it's self-preservation.
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The way Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu is a gay allegory with gay people!!!
Like,,, with Hikaru and his “otherness”, the body-horror, the strong desire to belong. It’s layered. Hikaru (and possibly Yoshiki?) are queer and yet that’s hardly on their radar, hardly something they’re trying to hide (possibly they haven’t even realized it themselves). What they’re really worried abt is people finding out about Hikaru’s.. situation. There’s naivety to it. They’re only focused on what’s in front of their faces.
Mokumoku uses Hikaru’s possession as a means to illustrate the uncomfortable situations and fears that most queer ppl experience at least once without having to directly tie the situations to the queer community. His queerness and his hauntings are separate, and yet they run parallel.
Where there is creeping dread there are two boys trying to hide an extreme monstrosity from their small town…
Some notable scenes in which i am referring to:
1. When Hikaru was overwhelmed with the fear of Asako asking him “Just what are you?”. The manga panel that follows where Hikaru’s features are covered by his obsessive thought “how does she know”. —Hikaru’s fear of being found out, called out
2. The notion of the hauntings spreading, the town “growing strange”.
3. Hikaru and Yoshiki visiting the summer festival, where Yoshiki can pass under the arch while Himaru cannot. —Having to hide yourself while surround by strangers. Trying to keep yourself safe.
4. Again at the festival when they’re sitting on the ground with shaved ice and Hikaru is pleased that Yoshiki doesn’t recognize him as Hikaru. “It’s because you know I’m not the real Hikaru”…
5. The dragonfly scene where Yoshiki is explaining the slight difference in dragonflies. “Natsuakane and Akiakane look pretty much the same, but they’re entirely different species”. —An obvious jab at Hikaru’s possession, and further, a homophobic sentiment.
6. After becoming more Familiar with Hikaru, Yoshiki transitions from calling him an ‘it’ to a ‘he’.
etcetera etcetera . . .
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God your tags on the slur reclamation post, cause like yeah, it is such a white person conversation, cause white people don’t understand that slur reclamation is a very personal thing. They only see words that others are allowed to use and thus they should be able to, or words that have been used to hurt them so absolutely no one else ever can use them, as seen by the discourse among white folks with the N word vs queer
YES that's so so true. i think for a lot of white queer people, their first experience with slurs is through their queerness... which may not be something they come to terms with (from a social perspective anyway) until they're a teenager or an adult.
but even for me, a Black child who didn't fully realize what being Black entailed socially until i was much older, i had a distinct awareness and understanding of the n-word from very young, and why it carried so much weight. i think it's a lesson every Black person learns quite young, regardless of class, sexuality, ability, etc
and while racial slurs are different from ones centering gender and sexuality, they're similar enough to where all of the discourse about who can reclaim what is just... very infantile to me. if someone wants to reclaim a slur, that's their own personal prerogative... just as i wouldn't want anyone calling me any under any circumstances
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