Fantasy

I was trying to describe a book about Tiffany Aching by Terry Pratchett to a friend recently...
 ...and her response was pretty much, "Oh, it's fantasy? I don't really read that now...I prefer more realistic things," which would be fine as a statement in some contexts, but which in this context came off as more of a "...fantasy is for little kids/not real literature," statement. Which, okay, I understand, whatever, and I was pissed but I got over it, and there wouldn't be a blog about this topic except for what happened the next day.
See, the next day she looked at the new book I was reading (The Sugar Queen) and saw the fairy godmother bit on the inside cover (fyi, no actual fairy godmothers in it in the end) and she asked some question about why I'm always reading books like that - that being books about fairies and Nac Mac Feegle and presumably beneath us now that we're at the oh-so-old age of 17. So again: pissed. And also: what right do you have to judge here? Have you ever even read a (good) book like that?
So yes. I am significantly less mad at this moment in time, but when she said it, I was angry. Like, I've always heard about the stigmatism that is associated with YA novels - but I've never actually experienced it, and I definitely hadn't heard about it in association to fantasy. But it's definitely there, lurking beneath the surface -  it's like telling someone a book was in the science fiction section. Suddenly, that book is deemed "weird".
Not everyone has this response, I know, and I will be the first to acknowledge that of course, there are some books that aren't that great within the genre, but can we just clear up some things right now?
1. A fantasy book does not necessarily involve happy elves and unicorns and magic wands. Often the magic is more complicated, and as we've seen in the recent trend of book like Tithe and Valiant, elves and fairies aren't always all that kind. (This is similar to the concept that not all science fiction involves aliens.)
2. Just because a book involves magic does not mean it's less realistic. I've read fantasy books that have characters that are far more believable than certain books set in a "real-life" situation.
3. Yes, there will be things with funny names in fantasy books. The Nac Mac Feegle have a funny-sounding name. This does not mean the entire book is ridiculous.
4. No, they're not all serious books. Often, they're funny - sometimes it's a tongue-in-cheek type of humor, a little-smile-and-a-wink, but they're often quite funny.
Keep those in mind before you judge what I'm reading. Or better yet, read it yourself.