A Utopian Setting with Non-Utopian Characters: A Study of Parent-Child Relation in Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Abstract

Boy Meets Boy is a young adult romance with same sex couple at its center, set in a utopian small town having not so utopian characters. It functions mostly as a romance but displays a plethora of issues faced by students and people of gay, lesbian, transgender and other gender-variant community. This paper deals with the parent-child relation represents in the novel, support and encouragement of friends and family of non-traditional gender performers. This paper studies and contrasts the two most studied parenting constructs, which are parental acceptance and parental psychological control. The impact of support and nurture through positive parenting can affect the self-esteem and self-regulation of adolescents and youth who have variant sexual identities or preferences.