Morality and Glorifying

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a Gleek.  Meaning that I watch the show GLEE every Tuesday and then sit and discuss it with my friends afterwards and giggle like a teenage girl...usually.

If you didn't watch last night's episode, it was all about the school's Alcohol Awareness week and to become "aware" the Glee kids spent a Saturday night partying it up at Rachel Berry's (and for some reason had a two day hangover) and then continued to spend their time drinking until one of them puked in public.  (Was that a spoiler?  If so I just gave the whole episode away in two sentences).

So what's wrong with this picture?  If you said underage drinking, you are partially correct.  The problem is, how can you condemn something when you did it yourself? Well one way is to NOT glorify it.

This is the age old discussion that we have all been having with YA literature and YA television.  YES teens are having sex and YES they are drinking, but do you really need to glorify it?  I'm not saying that teens need to see a moral in everything, but to not show the dark and the light side of it is kind of  like leaving out the sugar when you make a pumpkin pie...something just doesn't feel right.  (Note:  I use this analogy because I actually did do that...)

Does this mean that every teen in a YA book who drinks or has sex should suffer some kind of a consequence?  No, but in all the books I've read I don't really see it being exactly glorified.  In half of the YA books I read there usually is some sort of a sexual undertone and there is definitely drinking, but the author never actually makes their life better because of all of the sex and drinking.

Take for example Sarah Dessen's JUST LISTEN (I'm going to TRY not to give away spoilers).  Annabel does go to parties, she does drink at these parties, but it's NOT what the whole story is about.  There may be a chapter in which she talks about being at a party (something bad does actually happen at a party), but she doesn't sit there and talk about how awesome it was to be wasted or have her continuously doing it.  It's mentioned, but it's not the focal point of the story.  Does that make sense?

This is a topic that I could actually go on AND ON AND ON about, but really I want YOUR opinion.  What do you think about morality and the glorification of teenage drinking on television, movies and literature?  I will try and respond to EVERY comment on here instead of by email.  I want to know if I'm just being old and out of touch, or if this is something that bothered other people.

The post that could make me EXTREMELY unpopular

So let’s talk about something you usually don’t hear from a straight pregnant woman’s mouth- the LGBT community.

How did this come about and what does this have to do with a  Writerly Wednesday?  I’ll get to that…

Last week I was with some people that I had known for forever (whose names will stay anonymous so I have given them new names, but here is how the conversation went.)

Dan:  You know what I saw in People magazine?  You remember Dougie Howser?  Well he’s gay and he’s having twins with his gay lover!

Lisa:  That’s just gross, they don’t need to broadcast it to the world.

Me:  Other people do it and like you didn’t know he was gay from the Dougie days.

Dan:  No he plays that womanizer on that HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER SHOW, why would they even let him play that role?

Here is where I wanted to spiral out on a big rant to them…but I didn’t for reasons that are kind of hard to explain, but I didn’t.  So instead I’m going to blog about my thoughts on the topic.

Playing Straight:

How many homosexual actors have you seen getting flack for playing straight characters?  Recently Sean Hayes got some bad press because people said that he is unbelievable as a straight man on Broadway.

Then how is it that it’s any more believable for a straight man to play a gay man?  So it’s okay for Heath Ledger (RIP) to play a gay cowboy or Eric Mccormack to pay Will on Will & Grace, but if a gay man plays a straight guy OH NO.

It’s been done OH and it’s been done well.  Remember Rock Hudson?  Mr. Brady?  Both homosexual men who played straight men and had housewives everywhere crooning.

But Magan there are totally gay characters on TV now and they are accepted?

Okay have you seen the gay characters on TV?  I think Will from Will &Grace was the manliest one and that’s not saying much…

Most gay characters in television and movies are overly flamboyant.  They are usually dressed to the nines with high voices and always seem to be more like the main character’s accessory than an actual person.

Even shows like Glee are guilty of this.  Sure Kurt’s character is amazing, I mean the “F” word show took my breath away, but how is Kurt usually portrayed?  He’s not a strong gay character, he’s the whiny choir boy with the high voice who is always “scheming” or looking for someone to “make over.”  Why isn’t he interested in something like his dad’s repair shop?  Yes I know they want to show his individuality, but at the same time aren’t they just playing over and over in to the gay stereotype?

What about well rounded characters like Lafayette in True Blood?

Let’s talk controversial homosexual characters, shall we?  As Lisa said, “Ew I don’t want to see that.”  Well do you really want to see it when straight people or straight characters are all over each other?

Okay maybe it’s just me, but gay/straight/bi-sexual/ or animal I don’t want to see anyone getting it on in public.  Remember the whole Billy Bob Angelina making out on the red carpet?  Ewwwwww…

So what is the point of all that?  The point of all this is to be open.  Whether gay or straight there is no reason not to be accepting.  I remember when  Ellen came out of the closet.  It was the first time I knew of a gay person, so I asked my mom.  “What’s gay?”  She told me it’s when a woman loves another woman or a man loves another man.

I guess I thought about it for awhile then I looked at my mom and said, “Why is it a big deal?  Can’t people just love who they want?”

So take that away with you…whether you’re writing or just reading someone else’s writing.  What’s the big deal?  Can’t we all just love who we want?

Funky Friday

So originally I had planned to do my first "Fangirl Friday" post, but then I felt like this Friday was feeling a bit "funky."  (Oh yeah think Glee).  Well I got another rejection, which let me tell you I'm getting sick of these things collecting dust in my inbox!  But you know what?  I can't let myself stay in this funk of "Oh man my work stinks" because there are people that actually do really like my manuscript.  Every beta reader (so far) has said they couldn't put it down.  (one in particular didn't get out of her jammies and sat in bed almost all day reading.)  So what does that tell me?  The work is good and it's been critiqued and edited and even professionally edited.  It's just where do I go from here?  Well instead of staying in my funk it's time to get funky.

So what did they do on Glee when they were in a funk?  Focused on what their competition didn't have (Funk!  Like the music.)

So what do I have that my competition doesn't?  Well, how many college aged manuscripts do you see out there? Not alot.  How many of them have a professional editor that's been working with them to make it the best darn manuscript possible?  And most of all..how many love their manuscript as much as I love mine?

Okay that one may be another story.  The  more I read it, the more I love it and dont' want to change it.

So as I thought about my funk and fangirlness I realized that to get out of my "funk" I have to fangirl my own story.  Sell it.  I've got the query letter that rocks their socks off and if someone will just pick up my partial then we are golden!

I've been told to maybe revise my first 30 pages, but every time I look at them or try it a different way I just can't see another way to do it without taking out huge chunks.  So I'm going to keep on keeping on.  Sending out more queries, maybe listen to some funk and keep on keeping on!