empressbean:
c-a-bergamot:
fake-tumlbr:
khaleesibeyonce:
LOL...
LOL YES.
this pro-representation mentality is so totalitarian, i swear to god.
in case somebody doesn’t understand: writers can write about whoever they like.
writers are not obliged to support your causes in their works.
they are not obliged to support ANY causes at all other than writing books cause they feel like doing it.
you are free not to like their books written this way and you are free not to buy them. you are also free to write your own books that will stand for whatever you believe in but stop shaming people for not turning their art into a manifesto of your ideology.
Except that dragons and elves, much like wizards, trolls and ogres are part of the mythology of certain European countries like say, Britain.
So yeah, it is still part of their cultural perspective because they’re creatures from stories they grew up with. You can even see a dragon in Wales’ flag. Not that it matters since they don’t owe you shit representation at all. Piss off.
Also, when people do write about dragons and elves, they often rely on archetypes/stereotypes about those creatures, or completely make the information up without referencing other tales. This wouldn’t translate well into writing about a character of a different race/culture. If you relied on archetypes/stereotypes, as you do to write your fantasy creatures, you’d be accused of creating a one-dimensional character and stereotyping his/her race. If you made up the information completely, you would be accused of not accurately representing your character’s culture/experiences. It’s very difficult to create a protagonist whose life experiences you don’t understand. I’m currently attempting to write an Icelandic protagonist, and it’s quite difficult. Lastly, authors can write whatever they want. They don’t owe anyone anything. This is their story. It takes a lot of passion to write a story; you really have to get behind the plot and characters. Therefore, you can’t expect authors to write stories that cater to your interests, because the story has to suit their interests first. If you want to see a book with a certain plot or group of characters, write it yourself.
While I think it’s totally expect there to be a broad variety of races in fiction and in media, I also see the other view point of this that is represented by much of the comments. I think writing is something you firstly must do for yourself. If you do it to meet an end or for someone else’s cause, it won’t be genuine, and it probably won’t be good. That’s not saying at all that white writers can’t write about other races in a genuine way, they certainly can, and should. But not all writers can do this, and most can’t all the time. There’s also a lot of pressure being put on this topic, and what’s worse, pissing off the minority community because you don’t have a *fill in skin color* person in your book, or because you do have a *fill in skin color* person in your book, and you did an awful job characterizing them? It’s kind of scary for writers who aren’t super comfortable with the topic of race.
One thing that I find unmentioned related to this debate (which really saddens me) is the fact that many people who are upset about not being represented in media act as if there is none of themselves in anything they see around them. It’s as if, in a movie, if there are no black characters, a black person cannot relate with any of the characters on a personal level. White people probably do it as well when watching prominently black or other minority media. This is not something only one race does. They all do. I think this is the real social problem here. It’s kind of heart breaking. You know what my favorite show was when I was a kid? Like all time favorite, main character was my hero?
That’s So Raven.
And I am a whity whit girl. I think I loved her so much because of her attitude, and her goofyness, and I won’t lie, her body type made me feel better about my own because (and this is a bit embarrassing to admit on a serious post like this) I have a big butt.
But the main point is: I had no idea that wasn’t normal. I never thought of it as Disney’s one black show. It was my favorite show. And yes, most of the characters were black, and I literally had no idea that meant it wasn’t about me, or for me, or related to me. It related to me more than Lizzie McGuire, even though I look more like her than I do Raven.
I’m not trying to shame minorities here. I get wanting to see some of your skin color on the big screen, or in fiction, or wherever else. But by saying you aren’t being represented personally, and that you can’t enjoy something because the skin color of the characters is different then yours makes this problem worse. It’s why we have ‘black movies’ and ‘black tv shows’ and things that I often hear referred to as being ‘for black people’. Because when you say that you can’t enjoy anything without a black person in it, you’re saying ‘that’s all I am. A black person.’ The same goes for every race.
I think if this was the message being sent out to creators the problem could start to get better. People need to realize that they aren’t writing a big scary black character OMG THEY’RE SO DIFFERENT FROM ME.They’re writing a character. Who has darker skin than you. If we stopped making such a big deal about it, it wouldn’t be so scary.
