Inclusiveness: Portrayal of marginalized identities

[Hellianne]

This discussion group is chock full of Shakesvillians, so it seems the right place to bring up questions that are relevant to social justice concerns and intersectional feminism. One place to begin is to look at what marginalized identities are included in the cast of characters and how they're portrayed.

It's been several weeks since I finished the book, so I might well have forgotten some of the marginalized identities included, but here's what I do remember:

* Several characters present as women.
* Marco is a destitute orphan.
* Celia is a survivor of a traumatic experience (her mother's suicide).
* Chandresh's name implies he is (partly?) Indian.
* Tsukiko is Japanese.
* Poppet and Widget are children.
* Bailey lives in a rural community.
* Who have I forgotten?

The context of a circus, where the performers are entertaining precisely because of how "freakish" they are, could easily play to negative stereotypes and exploitation. How well does The Night Circus navigate these waters? How inclusive is this novel?

[Hellianne]

I was feeling that there were some whiffs of stereotypes throughout, but now I'm wondering if a lot of that had more to do with characters running up against other characters' prejudices-- which is honest storytelling. It would have been both jarring and inappropriate to erase the presence of misogyny, racism, classism, etc. from the story's late-19th-century setting.

When Celia arrives at the audition, other people make noises about how women can't be magicians. She gets the job only because she's in an entirely different class than all the other magicians, which accurately reflects that women are held to different standards: Only a very exceptionally talented woman would be picked over a man of merely average competence. So I'm pretty happy with the way Morgenstern handled that.

I'm not as happy with how she handled Tsukiko. If I remember right, the circus performers view her as "exotic," that oh-so-charming label frequently attached to anything Asian (especially attractive Asian women). That reaction feels true to the setting. But that word applies well to every characteristic we know about her: her tattoos, her contortionist performances, her mysterious reticence about her past, her clothing. I remember her also as the one character who came across as blatantly sexual.

So why did she have to be Asian on top of that? It strikes me as rather on-the-nose for the stereotype of Asians as "exotic."

There's another "exotic" and sexual element to her character, I think, but I'm putting it behind a spoiler tag because it's relevant to a Major Plot Development.

(view spoiler)[Wasn't it implied and/or stated that Tsukiko and her female opponent were lovers? In which case we can add "lesbian" to the list of her "exotic" qualities. I'm not at all sure I'm remember that right, though.

(ETA: I found the relevant passage: "My opponent's name was Hinata," she says. "Her skin smelled of ginger and cream. I loved her more than anything in the world, as well.") (hide spoiler)]

The issue of consent in the novel is a really good idea for a discussion topic! I'll set up a thread for it and contemplate it further.

[TamElaine]

Hellianne - I agree....your hidden spoiler are also my thoughts....