Inappropriate slang in YA?

I've seen some fairly rough language and subject matter in YA. If it's appropriate to the character and story, and isn't just gratuitous/shock cursing, I expect it would work. You might get your 50 posts and put a sample up in the SYW section to see how it reads to others.

It's MG that's much touchier on curses and racial slurs.

Alzarakh said:

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this but here it goes: What slang is allowable?

I have a character that would use inappropriate slang and racial slurs in their dialog quite often because they're the type of character that wants to offend everyone around them.

Is this allowed in YA at all?
What about cursing?

Thank you <3!

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Hi Alzarakh.

Cursing in YA won't bother most readers.

The answer I generally see on AW re: racial slurs is that if it works for the character and story, go with it. But personally I wouldn't want to read something filled with racial slurs, and I imagine a lot of agents/publishers and other readers would be turned off by it. Do what feels right to you for your character and story, but understand the risks. They might not be worth it, and you can probably find other ways to communicate that this is a character who wants to offend everyone.

CJ

Racial slurs are tricky, especially in YA. Usually, writers outside of the race the character is abusing cannot write them with nuance and sensitivity. Readers (and therefore agents and publishers) generally don't want to read about a racist character, especially one who doesn't grow and change.

Have you been inside a high school lately? You'd have to do a lot to offend a kid these days or say something they haven't heard.

I hope I'm not resurrecting a dead thread here, but I wanted to weigh in.

In my opinion, if you're going to incorporate a racial slurs into your character and therefore into your story, you need to be making a point about it. Like, for example, if this character frequently gets in trouble for his/her behavior or words, that would be making the point that it is bad to use those slurs. Unfortunately, this type of language is a part of life, and I do think it is important to incorporate into YA novels, where it is a safe space for readers to learn these lessons about it. Echoing Brightdreamer, as long as it is not gratuitous, I think a drop here and there is okay, as long as you're saying something about it.

I'm sure that you wont be able to come up with any slang or phrases they havent already heard in their highschool gym locker room. I remember reading one YA novel, Valient by Holly black- Chapter one the Val walked in on her mother fucking her boyfriend, not the mother's boyfriend, hers. Adult sleeping with a highschool boy- there were swears, sex, shooting up pixie dust, the works.

You can do anything you want so long as you dont go overboard and turn it into some rated R adults only thing, but the boundries are being pushed and YA is being intoduced to more and more edgy scenes.

easywriting said:

Racial slurs are tricky, especially in YA. Usually, writers outside of the race the character is abusing cannot write them with nuance and sensitivity. Readers (and therefore agents and publishers) generally don't want to read about a racist character, especially one who doesn't grow and change.

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I agree with this. I understand the desire to reflect real people and what you think they might be saying, but I think it's also valid to think about your readers. How is that dialogue going to affect somebody from that marginalized group as they read your book? And are you going to address those statements in the story as problematic?

I think that YA readers don't really care about cursing and stuff. Considering the fact that most YA readers are teens, they might as well like characters who curse a lot. It's that rebellious touch that pulls teens to books that have such characters, because they might not have the guts to curse much, but when they read, they can imagine that they're as tough and bad ass as the character, which draws them to the book. Will your character be a bad influence? Yeah, maybe. But on the other hand you might have a second character who'll balance everything out, so that the readers would have two character that might influence them, in that case, it's only their choice to go the good or the bad path.

I agree with the above posts. But here's my two cents anyway:

Your writing for an age group that's also beginning to understand the power of words and how they shape themselves to this power that they're suddenly given. I was raised in a household where "fart" was a cussword. So by the time I got to high school and was introduced to worse (including race related jokes) it was a shock for me.

So your character speaking roughly is very important to how he and the other characters develop from this type of language. Personally I think cussing as a teenager is very important. But that's probably because I was forced to say "bubble" instead of "fart".

Swearing isn't that big of a deal, I've read plenty of YA with that. Plus, given how much teens usually swear, it's just a realistic representation.

Just my two cents, but I feel like racial slurs are a whole other thing - I never see them in mainstream YA, and given how white the genre is, that's probably a good call because it would need to be handled with much more care. Is it important to the character to be doing that, or are they just trying to be "edgy" and swearing would be a viable substitute? I just personally don't think it's a good idea, but reading a sample of the dialogue would definitely be helpful.

Yes, agreed that racial slurs is vastly different from swearing.

I think that, even when racial slurs are used to show "how bad this character is", they're still really problematic, unless the book is shown from the PoV of a PoC and how the racial slur affects the PoC. Otherwise, when shown from the PoV of a white character who is either witnessing the racism or participating in it, I feel like the PoC character is just used as fodder to make the white reader feel good about themselves, in a "Well I would never say/do that, therefore I am a good person", while ignoring the emotional well-being of the PoC reader...if that makes sense. So...personally, I would reaaaally think hard about what I'm trying to achieve with racial slurs in books. Is it part of a PoC's character arc about fighting racism (which is a good reason to have slurs), or part of a white character's redemption or villainous arc (which is a less good reason to have slurs)?

Is your book set in a certain time or economic environment that has racial slurs as part of regular dialog? That can be a contributing factor as well.

OH, racial slurring for sure is on a whole different level than swearing. I think you can do almost anything with swearing nowadays (OK, not anything, but it's not as big of a deal as it once was). Racial slurring, to me, HAS to so perfectly fit that character or context that it fits in that spot and isn't there simply to be there for effect. As said above, is it meant to be "edgy?" If so, I wouldn't use it. It's such a damn tricky line that I wouldn't toe it unless it really added to the story.

emlm21 said:

If so, I wouldn't use it. It's such a damn tricky line that I wouldn't toe it unless it really added to the story.

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Except for books where racism is an explicit theme (THUG, Dear Martin), I can't think of a single YA book I've read that does this. Feed is still the high water mark for how much slang & profanity you can get away with.

Agree with what's been said above. But to add my opinion:

- YA readers have no issue with swearing. In fact I've seen YA books criticised for not including swear because that is "unrealistic", which amused me, as true though that might be, books aren't always a totally true reflection of reality and there are authors who prefer to write with "clean" language. And there's nothing wrong with that. My take on swearing is it doesn't offend me as a reader, but I'd like it to be used for proper effect rather than just dropped in all over the place. Otherwise, it seems to me that it loses any impact.

- Racial slurs are going to make many readers qweasy. Same goes for homophobic language. Even if using such words fit with the character/story, reviewers and bloggers can take big offence, and they can have quite a lot of power. I'd approach with caution, personally, especially if your story doesn't address or look into the implications of said slurs.

I'm glad there's a thread about this, 'cause I've been in a similar predicament. Rest assured, Alzarakh, I think cursing's become a staple of YA by now. Although, I would tailor my response on racial slurs to the story in question (as others have suggested). You, being the author, would know best, but I'd say keep it until you know you want to drop it. If it's up in the air, I already think you have a reason to incorporate racial slurs, even if it's not quite clear yet.

I would suggest saying the racial slurs in a subtle manner and not straightforward-ly. I saw this being discussed on twitter with agents & writers and it was about how a young girl had picked up a book and got upset at the racial slurs within the novel. Even though it was a character who didn't mean to say those words, the child was still upset. So (if what I said makes sense), its best to not say it outright. One way this is done is in the show - Stranger Things, season 2; from the way Billy treated Lucas.

But if its swear words - then go ahead.

Hope this helps!