I don't know how it will actually come across to readers, but I think in context what it's most revelatory of is the culture of the town.
Yes, those are the two poles of the thing, aren't they - how it will be read without and within the fiction? An SFF setting (as opposed to the contemporary realism typical of YA "issues" books) does allow the second at least to be controlled; the first is more imponderable, and also (to switch metaphors) a moving target: attitudes have changed noticeably even within the last two or three years, I think.
(Thinking about it, historical and fantasy books have a separate tradition of girls dressing as boys for practical purposes - e.g. to travel safely - and being "discovered" in a revelatory way at some point. That's yet another twist for the list!)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2015-08-14 07:42 pm (UTC)Yes, those are the two poles of the thing, aren't they - how it will be read without and within the fiction? An SFF setting (as opposed to the contemporary realism typical of YA "issues" books) does allow the second at least to be controlled; the first is more imponderable, and also (to switch metaphors) a moving target: attitudes have changed noticeably even within the last two or three years, I think.
(Thinking about it, historical and fantasy books have a separate tradition of girls dressing as boys for practical purposes - e.g. to travel safely - and being "discovered" in a revelatory way at some point. That's yet another twist for the list!)