And against whom is this censorship directed? By way of answer, think back to the big subcultural debates of 2011 debates about how gritty fantasy isnt really fantasy; how epic fantasy written from the female gaze isnt really fantasy; how women should stop complaining about sexism in comics because clearly, they just hate comics; how trying to incorporate non-Eurocentric settings into fantasy is just political correctness gone wrong and a betrayal of the genres origins; how anyone who finds the portrayal of women and relationships in YA novels problematic really just wants to hate on the choices of female authors and readers; how aspiring authors and bloggers shouldnt post negative reviews online, because it could hurt their careers; how theres no homophobia in publishing houses, so the lack of gay YA protagonists can only be because the manuscripts that feature them are bad; how theres nothing problematic about lots of pretty dead girls on YA covers; how theres nothing wrong with SF getting called dystopia when its marketed to teenage girls, because girls dont read SF. Most these issues relate to fear of change in the genre, and to deeper social problems like sexism and racism; but they are also about criticism, and the freedom of readers, bloggers and authors alike to critique SFF and YA novels without a backlash that declares them heretical for doing so.Its not enough any more to tiptoe around the issues that matter, refusing to name the works we think are problematic for fear of being ostracized. We need to get over this crushing obsession with niceness that all fans must act nicely, that all authors must be nice to each other, that everyone must be nice about everything even when it goes against our principles because its not helping us grow, or be taken seriously, or do anything other than throw a series of floral bedspreads over each new room-hogging elephant.We, all of us, need to get critical.Blog post: Criticism in SFF and YA