Guardian interview with Juno Dawson

Excellent post RumbaswithPumbaas

Are under 18s even allowed to be on hookup apps? They shouldn't be, imo.

The love for Lana Del Rey suggests that Juno has romanticized a very specific idea of the attractive young woman as a damaged and both sexy and interesting because damaged victim, which would make this book sort of a self-insert fanfic. A lot of the stuff Paris Lees writes reads that way too.

I think there’s some hypocrisy here. This is someone who says they feel that young people (children) need to know that sex is enjoyable etc as if they are the only adult who is honest with kids when it comes to sex/relationship teaching. Then uses a YA (pre-age of consent) writing platform to promote a heroine/protagonist who engages in extremely risky and potentially harmful sexual behaviour... thus potentially normalising it.

When I was a young teen I had a quite sexually precocious friend who always had an older boyfriend. Everything was about that, she would be explicit about her activities and would be cheeky/often use inuendo in class. She did get herself into some sticky situations and always went for ‘bad boys’. She was actually a very insecure person and battled with anxiety but only those close to her would know that - and I can only see it with hindsight. It also led me into attitudes and situations with boys/men that I wouldn’t have had if it weren’t for the influence and peer pressure from that direction. Happily we both grew up and have happy marriages and families now.

My point is that minds at that age are so vulnerable and impressionable... on one hand desperate to grow up and do adult things (and hormones starting to flow) but also so uncertain and worried about embarrassment and peer pressure, simultaneously worried about being called a virgin or a slut, not yet understanding their bodies or really grasping that sex should be about the deepest comfort and intimacy with someone you can fully trust, not a badge of honour or a painful, awkward right of passage.

Can Dawson understand what teenage girlhood is actually like, presumably at that same age being a homosexual male would have its own (different) challenges?
For all the talk in literature about cultural appropriation, this sounds similar, but of course, if women and girls are only what people say they are, who cares if a portrayal is truthful or a characature?

If Dawson wants to educate children about sexual relationships, maybe start with dispelling the myths and the awkwardness, give them confidence to advocate for their own value and sexual integrity. Furthermore, with a trans character, this is an even more delicate conversation. For a trans young person, as for anyone else, YA writing could be such an opportunity to show that validation/confidence/sense of self doesn’t and shouldn’t come from other people wanting to have sex with you. It does otherwise sound a bit porny/coercive and it begs the question is this book really appropriate for anyone under 16?

I used to work in a school, if I had known a 17 year old was having sex with random married men I would have been obliged to report it as a safeguarding risk.

And I sure hope that Alice was practicing safe sex as well in this male fantasy. I am sure that this an aspirational book. Encouraging any teenager to view having an app-based sex life meeting up with ransoms as normal has many positives. Obviously, to the non-teenaged readers.

So no Alice aces her A levels then I'm guessing?

Alice dyes her hair blue

Well, of course.

There’s something very much not right with JD.

Alice dyes her hair blue and has an “active, app-based sex life with married men from outlying commuter towns”.

I'm going to have another attempt at commenting on this in a way that (I hope) won't get this post deleted.

This sentence implies that 17-year-old Alice is having a great time having sex with all these random men. Sex with large numbers of older men is not something that most 17-year-old girls aspire to. This sentence seems to imply that they should.

In the absence of any other information, I would think it likely that any girl who was doing this was being exploited and abused (like the girls in Rotherham). It doesn't seem appropriate to present this as an aspirational lifestyle for the much younger teenage girls who the book is written for.

I mean, I suppose there's a fetish for everything and all, but if there is one for married suburban blokes I'm fairly sure it's not particularly common among 17 year old girls. Actors, yes. Rock stars, yes. At this point reality TV stars possibly. Athletes I suppose. Dave the chartered account from Surbiton though?

Not me and my friends. I also joined the Army at 18 and never ever hankered after any suburban married man. Nor did the thousands of young women I served with.

Strangely when my friends and I were all 17, sex with random married suburban blokes was not something we hoped for .

I think we should be able, ON A SITE PRIMARILY FOR MOTHERS ,to talk about the huge push towards sexualising children and young girls .
I feel really angry now.

Honestly, if I knew a 17yo girl was meeting up for sex with random married men via an app, I'd be hugely concerned.

Yet we don't seem to be allowed to discuss what might be going on there.

Basingstoke? Slough? Guildford? The thrill!

Alice dyes her hair blue and has an “active, app-based sex life with married men from outlying commuter towns”.

Crikey, Paris is really bovvered by a woman writing an article about sex.

Ah yes, Paris Lees article about the 'sexiest things about sex' where Paris ripped apart a female journalist's take on sex and came in to replace it with their own heavily pornified and male flavoured view instead - still a womans viewpoint though apparently...

www.vice.com/en_uk/article/nnq44q/paris-lees-the-21-sexiest-things-about-sex-696

If libraries were still open, I'd get one of them out to see what I thought of the portrayal of teenage girls having sex. But they're shut so we'll just have to imagine. The description of the rapist twins doesn't fill me with much hope though.

Having said that, perhaps Dawson's aim in this book is to demonstrate how utterly unlike teenage girls transgender teens who were raised as boys are?

From a look at goodreads, Dawson's other books all seem to have the common themes of a damaged teenage girl protagonist having sex (or being abused), drugs, and a 'desirable' lifestyle ('it' girl, model).

So edgy. Much drang.

It would be a very unusual sort of 17 year old girl who'd feel that her sexual options consisted mostly of random married geezers from places less interesting than the one she lives in. This is only one of many indications that perhaps Dawson, having had such a very different life experience, isn't best qualified to advise teenage girls on how to navigate sex and dating.

Reminds me of Paris Lee's delight in having a one night stand with five strange men simultaneously, including the cab driver if I recall correctly, and 'every hole being filled', or something like that

And then there was the other one we know who said something about being as slutty as you can.

Sensing a theme here...

When I was 17 "married men from outlying commuter towns" would have seemed about as sexually appealing as an old shoe.

Reminds me of Paris Lee's delight in having a one night stand with five strange men simultaneously, including the cab driver if I recall correctly, and 'every hole being filled', or something like that.

It all sounds very much to me like a gay male's sexual fantasy. Random married men from outlying towns?

Teenage girls don't tend to be aroused by the thought of having sex with a stream of strangers.

Honestly, if I knew a 17yo girl was meeting up for sex with random married men via an app, I'd be hugely concerned.

Is that what the girls in Dawson's other books were doing as well? If so, if you're reading this Dawson, it's not OK in those books either. HTH.