Just some further, rather flippant thoughts on the whole YA Mafia thing. Basically, it boils down to some genuine concerns being lost in miscommunication. Let me break it down for you.

YA bloggers who are also aspiring writers: Hey! We love YA literature! We love talking about YA literature. We find some popular trends in YA literature slightly disturbing, and so we will discuss them!

Some YA authors (whose works were being discussed as containing said disturbing trends): Somebody is being mean to me on the Internet! We don't like being called misogynistic! Being misogynistic is A Bad Thing, and we are nice people! We will warn these bloggers that actions may have consequences, especially if you want to work in the YA field!

YA bloggers who are also aspiring writers: Hey! Some important YA authors told us to be nice! We weren't aware that we were being mean (although perhaps some of our commenters were being kind of vitriolic, but we'll ignore that)! All we were doing was pointing out that some popular YA literature seems to us to be misogynistic!* Also, all those YA authors seem to be leaping to one another's defence! They're all friends! They're so cliquey! There is a YA Mafia! We're scared!

Some YA authors: HAHAHAHA YA Mafia! *proceed to make light-hearted posts about fedoras and sleeping with the fishes* *ignore bloggers' point about misogyny*

YA bloggers: *get more annoyed and defensive*

Sarah Rees Brennan: *continues being awesome* *actually addresses the bloggers' concerns about feminism or lack thereof in YA literature*

dolorosa_12: *disagrees somewhat that writing posts about readers' responses to confident, awesome female characters vs readers' responses to confident, awesome male characters is the same thing as writing posts about problematic misogyny in YA books* *is happy, nonetheless, that Rees Brennan at least noted that bloggers' concern was more about fears of silencing than fears of the non-existence YA Mafia*

In other words, your standard internet drama. Lots of high emotions, lots of people being Wrong On The Internet due to people avoiding listening to one another's most important points.
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* I'm sorry, but when your book has the designated love interested sexually harassing the protagonist in class to the point that the protagonist asks to change lab partners, and the teacher says that the harassment is 'probably because said love interest has a crush on you', when the designated love interest HOLDS THE PROTAGONIST DOWN ON A BED AND THREATENS TO KILL HER AND IT'S TREATED AS ROMANTIC, something isn't right. I'm not saying that the author is a misogynist, but there is no way you can argue that that is not a disturbing and misogynistic book. And there's no way that I - and others like me - are going to avoid discussing it.

I tend not to rant very much about things that make me angry on the internet, especially fandom-related. What's the point, really? But you'd think, with all the fandom fail around (fandom's attitude to what is and isn't rape makes me so angry I start hyperventilating; the endemic racism; the fact that Glee is lauded for its 'diversity' by allowing characters of colour, differently-abled and non-heterosexual characters to dance around in the background and sing back-up songs) that I'd find something that would provoke my wordy ire.

But no, it was Star Wars slash that inspired this post.

karenmiller is an Australian fantasy writer who also writes tie-in novels for Star Wars. She had this to say about people reading gay subtext into her novels.

My response, which I also wrote in comments to her blog, is here.

( Slash is srs bsns )

So, in conclusion, it is with great glee and fervour that I ask all Star Wars ficcers on my flist to write multiple fics where Anakin and Obi-Wan are, to quote Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, 'gayer than a treeful of monkeys on nitrous oxide'.

EDITED TO ADD: And, she's deleted and disabled all comments on that post. So it's all right to criticise fans from on high, but criticism of her is not allowed. Sick to death of oversensitive authors. You said something homophobic, and you were called on it. Deal with it like an adult.

GAY SON OF EDIT: I unfortunately didn't manage to copy-paste/get screencaps of her responses to most of the comments, but I did copy a few of the most cringe-worthy into my Twitter if anyone wants to see her put her foot in her mouth some more.

GAY SON OF EDIT'S BOYFRIEND:
And now, she's responded by adding a note to her welcome post:
'But here's an important note: on occasion I will express a personal opinion. It may very well be an opinion with which you don't agree. I'm fine with that. I don't expect anyone to agree with me, nor do I expect anyone to alter a viewpoint to rub along comfortably with mine. But here's what I won't accept -- name-calling, vilification, aggression, hostility or any kind of trollish behaviour simply because you don't agree with me.'

Not really sure anything I said was name-calling or vilification (I said her views were heteronormative and offensive, and I said several times that I disagreed with her). Hostile, no. Stridently disagreeing, yes.

I really need to let this go.

ADOPTED CHILD OF GAY SON OF EDIT
I should add that she appears to have unscreened comments on the original post. I suspect I'm the one she views as not carrying on the discussion in a respectful manner, and I'm sorry she feels that way. But I'm grateful that the comments have been restored, as people have been telling me all day how upset they were that their discussion was hidden.

I should also add that since late last night, she's been discussing her post with many commenters and defending her position. When I went to bed, there were about 100 comments scattered across two posts, and Miller was replying to every single one. While I'm still not entirely happy with every single thing she's said, and I don't think she's adequately explained any of the more cringe-worthy comments she made (including the idea that she views people as default heterosexual - saying 'I don't really think about the sexuality of characters') but I do think that since she unfroze comments on the original post, she's been much better at realising that yes, there may have been some things she could've expressed better.

Thanks to all of you for continuing the discussion here until we were able to go back to her blog. I'm going to be doing one follow-up post some time later today, and then I think it will be time to retire my ranting on this particular matter.