"I Love My Gay Couplings!" An Analysis of Online Female Readership of Queer Boys in Young Adult Literature

Abstract

Diversity in young adult literature is important because YA literature is meant to reflect the experiences of teens from all backgrounds. In the last several years, the presence of queer characters has been improving; however, generally far more books about queer boys are published than about queer girls. This is an interesting phenomenon considering the primary audience for young adult literature is women. I sought to answer the question of what about male queerness appeals to women over female queerness in young adult literature. To answer this question, I turned to the online bookish community called BookTube, which is highly female-dominated and influential in the publishing industry. Ultimately, while unable to answer my initial research question, I found that the language which BookTubers use to discuss queerness is troublesome and needs to be more carefully scrutinized so as not to harm the publishing or reception of queer young adult novels.