I recently participated in a Goodreads discussion where the topic was whether or not sexual content was appropriate in YA novels. Everyone seems to have a different opinion. Those who support it and find it perfectly acceptable state “it’s a real topic for young adults, so it has a place in YA” and the others like me can’t quite put our finger on it, but we’d rather not see sex scenes in our YA novels. So here’s the breakdown. Let’s pretend our novels are movies.

Movie Ratings
G (Early readers)– Think Finding Nemo. There are no swear words or sexual content. “Hey look, Dori and Marlin are getting busy in the sea anemone…said no one…ever. This would be early reader books. See Spot Run.

PG –(Middle Grade) Parent Trap. Still perfectly okay for kids, but maybe gets a higher rating due to the subject of divorce. Preschoolers are not watching this, but maybe the middle schoolers are; hence category for Middle Grade novels.

PG-13 (Young Adult) – Titanic – Now we are moving into some more mature subjects. It’s mostly a love story and we even have that steamy love scene in the car on the boat. But we don’t actually see the deed going on. This would lead us to believe we can know that it is going on and that it DID happen, but don’t show it, otherwise we are moving on to rated R.

R – (NA) Pretty Woman – So this one is going to get an R rating no matter what because it’s the story of a prostitute. So even though Julie Roberts does some pretty questionable things…while getting paid for it, we never actually see it. We just know they are doing it. Jog down memory lane with me. Piano scene, bed scene, even their first night together with her watching TV and him watching her. When he gives her the eyes, we never actually see what’ happens after that, even though we all know. There is also use of the F bomb. A lot of times, I think of NA as having permission to actually describe the sex scenes as opposed to just saying it happened.

X – (Adult/Erotica) – I don’t know, Debbie Does Dallas? Actually the one I’m thinking of is Savages (not rated X, but it should be), in which not only are there a couple of really racy scenes, the boys also share the same girlfriend. There are many adult books that if they were actually filmed in the way it was described in the book, would hit this rating. In my opinion, X rating (erotica) would be not just describing the sex scenes, there would also be a lot of them and some scenes that would make the modest squirm.

So after my breakdown (even though it’s my own) I believe that the YA category should be left to just kissing and stuff and leave the heavier business to the adult books.