I guess Sarah J. Maas is the new Stephanie Meyer. Everyone hated Meyer for writing smutty vampire fiction. Now everyone hates SJM for writing smutty fae fiction.Â
Both SJM’s series are being adapted to either TV or the big screen. Once this gets big, I can’t imagine how the anti-SJM people will rip her apart…Â
I don’t even think her books are perfect. What book series is??? I don’t know why a white, cis author is required to have diversity. I get that it’s 2018 and more and more authors are becoming educated on diversity, but I never expected SJM to write my experience. And the botched attempt at including diversity in ACOWAR is because people were sending effing threats to her for not being inclusive enough. Instead of “writing what she knows” she tried to appease everyone and people still aren’t happy. Trying to please an entire readership is hard and the anti-SJM crowd have an impossible standard they expect SJM to live up to. Why are we asking a white, cis, rich author to be the spokesperson for diversity??? Rather than hating her, elevate diverse stories. MOST OF YOU DON’T EVEN DO THAT. Most of you don’t even speak Tomi Adeymi’s or Dhonielle Clayton’s or name. Most of you don’t even bother with Sabaa Tahir or Renee Ahdieh. Why? Because ya’ll think it’s cool to hate white people now. It’s no surprise that SJM has a large appeal with Americans, the UK, and Australia. Why? Because it’s a Euro-centric fantasy… White Americans, the British, and Aussies feel close to home with Eurocentric fairytales. I’d rather an author not include diversity than have an awkward attempt at it because you guys screamed at her to write outside her comfort zone. Seriously.Â
Not to mention, The Mortal Instruments is arguably “problematic”, the movie bombed, and the TV show is worse yet… Cassandra Clare doesn’t get nearly the same level of hate. Why? Because Malec. Because Clare has Magnus and Alec, she can do no wrong whatsoever. I see so little difference in SJM and Cassandra Clare as far as “issues” go. The men in TMI were aggressive and verbally and emotionally abusive and there was an INCEST plot line. Clary was willing to put her life on hold for a guy…………. like Bella was with Edward. I don’t understand the double standard. Cassandra Clare can write whatever she wants but SJM can’t?Â
You don’t have to like her books but I hear more people saying they don’t like her books more than actually promoting diverse stories. It’s completely counter productive.Â
How about leave well enough alone.
Not to mention, some of ya’ll blatantly lied about the content of these books. I almost stopped reading SJM and then when I read some things IN CONTEXT, I realized people were trying to be offended on purpose and then told all their friends something was problematic that wasn’t and make all their friends hate SJM. That’s so immature.Â
And hating other women, is quite frankly, unfeminist.Â
Constructive criticism. Calling out. Speaking your mind. Fine.Â
But threats? Lying? Attacking. Yeah. Sh*t like that makes me stay away from “problematic” culture so I read whatever I want. Yes, there are teenagers reading her books but many people are in their twenties and up. You can’t tell grown ass women we can’t read what we want to read. There’s a whole “problematic” section of books called erotica that women have been reading for YEARS. How come no one is perusing the erotica section and telling grown women not to read those books??? (To be fair, ACOTAR is very New Adult…….. sure, we can talk about the content of the material another time)Â
AnywayÂ
I just can’t take the anti-SJM cause very seriously. I’m 26 and SJM is, what, 33? I’m not going to make fun of another woman 5 years my senior. I’m not a girl. I’m not a child. I’m not in middle school. Because that’s what that is. That’s what bullying is.Â
There are SO many books that make me cringe. There are authors that I side-eye. But you know what? I move on. If they aren’t willing to change, that’s on them.  Trying to “take down” female authors is pretty messed up. So few male authors who write worse female characters don’t get nearly as much sh*t. I find it strange that this side of “feminist” book movement spends all their energy attacking women rather than speaking up against the patriarchy in the publishing world and in America in general (or elsewhere).
H i p o c r i s y at it’s finest.Â
Saying someone can’t read Sarah J. Maas books and still enjoy 100% more diverse books is like saying, Liking the Lord of the Rings is automatically racist…. I, as a POC, can say, “I like LOTR.” I can even say, “I want to watch the reboot of LOTR on Amazon even though I don’t expect it to be diverse in any sense of the word” and almost no one would care. <<< FYI I have no interest in a LOTR reboot. But you know what? The same voice attacking SJM, aren’t saying crap about the Euro-centric, heteronormative, LOTR reboot taking place in more “woke” times.
I know the “times” are different so people expect literature to be more advanced and diverse, but… honestly? There are so few types of fantasy to be inspired by that I don’t expect a white author to break ground on writing diversity. Secondly, A Game of Thrones may have been written in the nineties but the TV SHOW IS STILL EURO-CENTRIC AND ALL THE BROWN PEOPLE ARE SLAVES OR SERVANTS. GOT was written by a male and he still isn’t getting as much crap as SJM.
All I’m saying is that nothing comes without criticism, but damn ya’ll hate white women the most, which to me is misogynistic AF because there are many current male fantasy and sci-writers who write worse things and write less diversely and who don’t get any sh*t for it. And sure, some of those things were written way back when. But they are getting REBOOTED by MALE directors and producers AS WE SPEAK and no one seems to care as much. smh.
