03.18.09
Racism and sexism in fiction I
I admit, this all started with the oh so very controversial Elizabeth Bear kerfuffle.
I had about 90 tabs open, reading up on links from rydra_wong’s link spam. However, after trying to read through all the pages and comments, I’ve come to the conclusion that LJ’s way of dealing with comments is unspeakably stupid and that it’s futile at this point to try and sort everything out.
I’m not going to try. Stuck between my roles of being a woman, writer, and a person of color (POC), regardless of who else makes it work for them, I can’t.
All I can know now is what I think and that’s all I’m qualified to talk about. I’m not even going to try and address any of my points to anywhere in particular because at this point I have 200 tabs open and have no idea where I got which.
As a reader, I’m not that keen on seeing more Asians in fiction or movies or whatnot. It’s not that I don’t want authors to write something that they’re not familiar with and screwing it up. It’s really that often it doesn’t register for me, what the character’s race is. Unless it’s really horribly obvious that the authors have co-opted a culture and is clearly using mostly stereotypes to get the point across — it’s not a huge thing for me.
Part of it might be that I also grew up reading Chinese novels and they also co-opted Western characters, ideas, religions and ran amuck with it. Not to mention what the Japanese do all the time with concepts from other people’s worlds.
Then again, the Japanese just mess up my head. I’d say that they were all in love with Western things such as blonde hair, blue eyes, symbols of Christianity — but then they also have pink/purple/green hair and have also done much with Hinduism and other things.
I mainly see if I can identify with the characters with regards to personality and morals. If so, then it’s all smooth sailing from there.
As a writer, I’m uncomfortable with how much rage there seems to be about “doing it wrong”. I can accept when I’ve done something wrong, portrayed something poorly perhaps, but the amount of vitriol that was unleashed just seemed overwhelming. I perhaps have one or two non-white characters — does that make them a token? If they’re depicted a certain way, how can I keep from someone feeling that there’s a negative stereotype involved? If I borrow from other cultures and religions — am I stepping on sacred ground and blaspheming? Is there a line that cannot be crossed? And what if I just feel like doing something?
Seeking Avalon says that: “It’s a privilege to be able to have that, to be able to have something not mean anything; not be another example of how ‘everyone knows that ____ are just like ____’”
Call me privileged, but I think sometimes a cigar is really just a cigar.