One more thing…
Because of having a great deal of craziness in my life, and just being damn tired of drama as a whole (I mean like physically tired, could be messed up thyroid meds not helping as well) I’ve not made the post that’d been spinning around in my head regarding this whole cultural appropriation discussion and the topic of writing the "Other".
I chose ( Read more... )
I chose ( Read more... )
I've been following the discussion with interest, enough to know that I am clueless, which will no doubt shine forth in this post. I am not a person of color, so I can't speak to their experience with any experience of my own. I can only speculate and try to address the issues while employing my powers of empathy.
On one hand, it appears that there is a problem with our society today in that the "Other" is often neglected entirely or not presented in a positive fashion in literature and entertainment. I agree with this completely, and I'd like to think I'm more sensitive to the problem than many of my peers, simply because I am conscious of and abhor prejudice in all forms, even when I am guilty of it myself.
And yet, on the other hand, it appears that anyone who is NOT the "Other" (with first hand experience of being an "Other") is not qualified to try to write the "Other" without fear of insulting someone for getting it wrong. At least, that is the very strong message that I'm getting.
Research is good, but even you admit you're going to get it wrong some of the time. So, it's a catch-22, isn't it? I write fanfiction for fun, and I'm not willing to devote hours of research into a science fiction fanfiction story that may deal with another, obviously fictional, society on another planet, etc. etc. etc.
But now I'm frankly terrified to write any character that is not a modern, white, American female for fear of insulting someone because I have a character (or world, or culture) that is not based in my own personal experience.
Seriously.
If the only people who are allowed to write about the experience of POCs without fear of causing insult are POCs, how will society ever change? At what point does the harsh criticism for "getting it wrong" start to deter people who have good intentions of "trying to get it right," but fear they might fail? How will positive portrayals of characters without white skin ever become mainstream?
Particularly in the context of science fiction and fantasy (which is what I write), I would think it better to have heroes (presented in a positive context) of all colors, shapes, sizes, genders, and cultures splashed across the canvas of our books and stories than limit their appearance because of fear of causing insult...
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I thought that moondancerdrake's post that you're responding to is actually a pretty good answer to what you're asking. Elsewhere, nojojojo has a very good, recent post: We worry about it too. My own recent musing on the matter is here - I'm not pointing this out to set myself up as an expert (because I'm not, and everything I'm saying here, and there, is a distillation of other posts I've read over the last couple of years, mostly written by PoC, and all of them far more eloquent than me), but my other post explains more thoroughly what I'm going to try to say - which is basically that we're all drowning in a sea of racist stereotypes that come out in our work unless we're consciously on guard against them (and often even then). Consciously choosing not to write PoC characters out of a fear of getting them wrong is just another form of this. As a writer, you can't not deal with it; not writing PoC characters on purpose doesn't avoid the issue, it just makes a particularly unpleasant political statement. So all you can do, like moondancerdrake said, is just do the best you can, research what you don't know and - this part is important! - prepare to be as open-minded and graceful as possible when someone points out that you got something wrong.
And, since you're a fan writer, specifically, zvi-likes-tv has a really fantastic post here for fanfic writers on writing characters of color in your fandoms; among other things:
When the CoC in question is black and the white fan in question is American, I am very often tempted to read, "I do not understand the African American experience," as really saying, "I don't know anything about poor urban dwellers (i.e. hoodrats.)" Luckily for you, most CoCs, even if they come from the hood, have left the hood far behind by the time they get to your television screen. Foreman may have grown up in the ghetto, but by now he's done four years of college, four years of medical school, and six years of neurology residency. That's ten to fourteen years of working in environments that are predominantly white.
and
Ninety-nine percent of shows that catch fannish attention are written by white guys who don't know any more people of color (of any social class or profession) than you do. ... You only have to get the characters as ethnically authentic as the writer/producers do, which means you mostly don't have to get them ethnically 'authentic' at all.
(But seriously, read the whole post! Much good stuff.)
I write both fanfic and original fiction. My main fandom is Stargate, where the three main CoC's on the two Stargate shows are all from planets other than Earth, and basically it is (nearly) impossible to do a worse job of writing them in fanfic than the show itself does (not that people can't manage to do it anyway; I never cease to boggle at it). Anyway, in that particular fandom, you don't have to know a single thing about any specific real-world culture; you just have to be able to write someone with a different skin color as a person.
In original fiction or when you're dealing with actual real-world cultures, it's of course much more important to do your research and take people seriously if they tell you that you've messed something up. But, really, wouldn't you do the same if you were writing about a doctor or a mechanic or a waiter; don't you try to be accurate with, say, the technical details of a gun, or the climate in Scotland? Isn't it even more important to be accurate when you're dealing with human beings and their identities, especially when they've been poorly represented in the past, and when they're having to deal with so much marginalization and ignorance in real life?
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Gunhilda, I think making the choice to write character unlike yourself is a choice that takes a lot of forethought, no matter your cultural background. Being a writer of color doesn’t mean I have a magic wand of rightness even when writing about my own culture, much less someone else’s. I write these stories because I believe they need to be told, and knowing that even if I make a mistake I’m doing the work I must do.
And when I make a mistake, I can only hope I handle the criticism well. Sure, the fear of making a big screw up even with all my research is there, but living in fear is hardly conducive to creativity. Thanks again to Sholio for such a wonderful response, and for the great kinks, some I hadn’t seem myself. I’m off to read!
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Anyway - thank you - though I'm really just collecting links to smart things that other people have said! And thank you, too, for the excellent post.
I still can’t figure out how to do the lj user link in my comments posts like you did.
Here is where I found out! It's a little tiny bit of code that you put around the user name. :)
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I don't want to offend and insult people, but I would like to do what's right. I just need a little guidance, sometimes. Or a swift kick in the rear.
I think everyone's instinctual reaction to criticism is to be defensive, but I'd like to believe that if someone told me I was being a racist ass about something, that I'd take it with grace and correct (and apologize for) the mistake. Or at least not repeat it. And ultimately learn from it.
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Many of my poc friends now feel they no longer have a place in the fannish community as it stands. These are people I consider part of my fannish family, people I don’t get to see at any other time but once a year at Wiscon. I don’t care less what a big name whosist someone thinks they are, they have no right to make any of these artists and fans feel any less welcome there or any place else in fandom.
This isn't the only place I've seen this, and it's -- just so heartbreaking, and infuriating. Speaking as a white fan, I really, really hope that it'll be possible to reclaim fandom as a safe space for PoC eventually, or at least to create safe spaces within it.
And best wishes for success with your novel, also.
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