Why this will be the only post I make about SJM and the controversy surrounding her art.
A. No, I am not. I have read her books starting with ACOTAR, moving on to TOG and finishing off with CC. The first ACOTAR book took me 8 tries and I barely made it through. The second book was okay but left a bad taste in my mouth at a key point that I will get into. I had a lot of people who told me I had to keep going and I had to finish everything and I did. Because I have read her books, I can confidently discuss why I disagree with much of the content.
Now moving on to my issues:
Obviously, the Breonna Taylor ACOSF post. No matter how you decide to frame the post in order to offer some forgiveness to this action, it has never been addressed and still remains up. There are large parts of many communities who find this offensive and hurtful, if you do not find this hurtful, you do not get to decide that other's shouldn't. MAYBE SJM was sitting heavy with Breonna Taylor's death and already had post her publisher asked her to make regarding ACOSF so she decided to add it in. But also, MAYBE she thought if she didn't say anything she would get eaten alive. Regardless of how you decide to interpret this action, the addition of Breonna Taylor's death to this post was in bad taste and reads as an afterthought.
Something I haven't seen a single person talk about and it was my biggest ick when I first read ACOMAF: When Feyre first meets the Inner Circle and is told about the Illyrians, she is told in the light of them being barbaric. They're already considered a "lesser" race because they aren't High Fae and now within the first introduction to the main character and the reader, they're called barbaric. However you believe their practices to be, they did not have to be a POC race. The did not have to be the first all POC race introduced in the entire series and then regarded as such. Not only that, but none of the character's address their racism when interacting with the Illyrians. SJM has managed to pull 3 men from the race, one mixed, and have them all deny the rituals and put them above everyone else. She made them more palatable to you as token POC by having them sympathize with those they are not in league with. As a white woman writing this, it may not have been intentional, but lack of intention is also hurtful. These are are personal biases that are presenting themselves front and center. This is what it means when you support an author and their views bleed into a story they are writing. She is STILL writing this series and utilizing these previously made biases to jump forward with her story. Barring all of the other issues regarding her clearer issues with writing POC, this is an example how even miniscule details can create molehills.
LGBTQ+ representation is next on the chopping block! Does her representation of the community encapsulate some experiences? Absolutely. Is she expected to encapsulate them all? No, not by any means. And yet, she still managed to oversexualize the community and represent a singular and tiny facet. She, like with the POC, displayed her biases and beliefs. This may be unintentional or not, we don't know, but what we do know is that her characters in the queer community are oversexualized and hypersexual.
Palestine: I often see many say that because she has not said anything about which side she supports, that means we cannot assume just based off of one article years ago. Yes, actually, we can. Why? Because despite controversy, she has not negated it! Additionally, the birthright trips to Israel are inherently Zionist. If she was able to proudly discuss that with her whole chest and then stay quiet when it's not longer in her favor, we can heavily infer that she either maintains her previous stance or does not care enough to negate it. Neither is a positive outlook on how she interacts with the community. Again, intentional or not, the hurt doesn't cease to exist just because it's not how you think people should react.
There are many other reasons and pieces of text that I can pick out over and over again but if you think reading shouldn't be political, pull out some highlighters and join my book club on Fable. Literacy rates in the Unites States are dropping drastically and it's a goal of mine and my fellow readers and writers to interact and dissect text. Reading is inherently political, the act of being able to pick up a book from the shelf and take in the words on the page is not a carefree activity. We, not just the U.S., have been fighting for education for centuries and whether you're reading smut or classics, both are equally political. If you're reading fantasy, you are reading about a world in which politics are involved, politics that reflect our world. Complacency is a killer of education.
