And it’s one that annoys me! Expect this to devolve into a rant guaranteed to offend because saying anything is guaranteed to offend someone somewhere on this planet, and that is exactly the problem.
Often I see innocent statements about something, and a someone jump in putting words in the mouth of the original commenter. Think that something extremely out of the ordinary means X? You are some sort of -ist. Don’t care for how the someone behaves in regards to Y, or do like it? You’re another -ist. You’re an -ist because of meaning other people decide to add.
I guess a bit of irony is if you combine these elements and make a statement about it, you’re praised, as has happened in my Taylor fic.
Once upon a time, we had the phrases, “Don’t put words in my mouth.” Now, if someone uses that, you can expect condemnation for them not being “enlightened to [their] own -ism.” Quite a few people I know have blatantly said they’re afraid of commenting on anything because they don’t want someone to take simple, innocent comments out of context and being used to make them look bad. In our modern culture of encouraging people to express their offense to everything, we’ve created a culture that looks for reasons to be offended, and in turn, has created a new type of censorship. Our modern culture also states that if something offends even one person, that it is wrong, and that being fed up with this means you’re a bad person.
When I was younger, we also had the phrase, “Grow a thicker skin.” This is also no longer allowed. I know two writers who’ve given up on writing out of fear that someone might be offended that their villain has dark hard (which someone may misconstrue as really meaning that dark things, like dark-skinned people, are bad, which is a criticism I really read on a fan fiction site), or think it’s racist to have the romantic leads be of the same race or to have main characters who aren’t white, but if you mix races, someone might be offended that a white character is “stealing” the non-white partner, or that a non-white partner is betraying their race by dating a Hispanic or white character. If the main characters aren’t disabled in a way that would be visible in the real world, the author risks being accused of ableism, but if you do have a disabled (differently-abled, etc., pick your preferred word since just the word choice is guaranteed to offend) character and aren’t disabled, you’re risking being accused of using disabled people. My friends’ concerns aren’t without basis. These are all complaints that have been posted against fan fictions. The unapologetic attitudes of the authors can, and has, led to drama, not to the critics being told to thicken their skin and stop looking for offense where not only is no offense meant in the slightest, but in situations where it’s literally impossible to satisfy everyone.
There is no winning. Someone will always find a reason to be offended. Writers are stifled and afraid. I have tried making my cast diverse, yet am sure that someone will accuse me of some -ism and criticize me as not caring for not fixing it, yet there is no way to “fix” these things without offending someone else. I have interracial couplings (three of the six relationships longer than one night stands), gay characters who get happy relationships, promiscuous ones and celibate characters (and neither is shown as bad), etc., which, as one friend pointed out, all open me up to criticism. More irony is homogenizing the characters would do that too.
As for myself, in the last two days I have been accused of classism for making a statement about how an old roommate of mine behaved due to her family’s wealth and how it reflected the general attitude on one particular town I lived in (this was extrapolated to mean I thought this about all wealthy people by someone looking to take offense)(the roommate had the belief that the non-wealthy existed to take care of her because she was raised with maids, and she treated me like one to the point I had to clean her bedroom so we wouldn’t get evicted when her room reached the point of unsanitary that the apartment managers had to get involved, and that one certain town literally has special transit for domestic servants and bans non-residents from using a certain formerly-public park that is funded by sales taxes, going as far as requiring ID to be admitted), and of being religion-bashing for saying I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to connect the dots between the faith of an author known to use her religion’s beliefs in her writing and her treatment of certain characters, even though I didn’t mention the name of the religion and literally said no more than that when someone else said it wouldn’t be allowed (the same person as before, who claimed to be a member of the religion, took offense and felt this was religion-bashing after many more replies, none even hinting at religion, were made), and of being misogynist for pointing out that it would be highly unusual for someone who isn’t ace to get to their post-college years without so much as kissing or holding someone’s hand without a religious or otherwise moral belief about the matter preventing them. The accusation of misogyny is because I didn’t exclude one gender when relating it to a particular character, which would be giving special treatment.
So my personal experiences make me classist against the rich, asking if it’s okay to make a statement of fact that might explain something in her writing an author is heavily criticized for had me accused of religion-bashing, and I was called misogynist for including all genders in a statement that was sparked by the discussion of a very-heavily-criticized character. Two of these were by the same person, so of course I got in trouble.
What happened to brushing off things that aren’t blatantly some -ist and giving people benefit if the doubt? I know, someone’s going to ask what a white lady can know about anything without realizing that women are oppressed and without realizing my belief system makes me a religious minority that is worse than saying I like to kick kittens in some areas of this country (even if I were a man, my chance of being elected president is absolutely zero based on the name of my religious beliefs, or non-beliefs as the case may be, alone). If I don’t take certain jokes in the spirit they’re intended, I’d be depressed and angry and offended all the time. Most humor is actually derived from stereotypes of someone else’s pain or misunderstanding. This of the stereotype that all men love beer and the laughs that would come if a character was bummed his favorite brand went out of business because beer is serious business to men, or the ol’ football-to-the-groin gag. Almost every clip in those funniest videos shows are because of these things. And every single one of them has the potential to offend someone somewhere, and a growing number of people are being vocal in their belief that this is absolutely always wrong. Is the solution to ban all humor that someone somewhere might find offensive or wrong?
What are writers supposed to do these days to avoid being accused of some -ism or of not caring if they don’t alter their writing to one person’s standard knowing they’re likely to go off and offend someone else with the changes?
I truly think it’s sad when writers quit out of fear of our modern offended culture, especially those who make a real effort to be inclusive and sensitive to these matters. It’s resulted in me deciding to become silent. Unlike a couple of my friends, I haven’t scrapped my books, though I sure have some reservations about them until I can thicken up my own skin enough to just not care anymore.
All hail a new form of censorship that, if you don’t participate, you’re a going to be seen as a bad person. There’s no winning. Our culture is making sure of that.
Alys Marchand 
Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve been struggling with the same issues as well, and I’m still trying to figure out how to get past them. The only thing that has helped me somewhat in dealing with all this has been the wonderful Chimamanda Adichie, who had a conference on the dangers of the single story, where she spoke of the problems of stereotypes and seeing only one kind of representation for marginalised people.
I’m leaving the link to the youtube version here, it was genuinely life-changing for me:
As I was saying, the only defence I’ve ever found when writing marginalised characters has been what I term “the Chimamanda Adichie Defence”, which is summed up roughly as “I am not trying to create the perfect representation of a marginalised character, I am trying to add another story.”
This, to me, is unassailable. There is no counter or criticism that can be levied at that defence that doesn’t directly assail Chimamanda’s points. If you agree with her, you cannot counter that defence. You cannot levy criticism against a writer who genuinely cares about marginalised groups and is trying to add another story to the cultural miasma, in order to counteract the danger of the single story.
As a member of a marginalised group myself (the LGBTQ+ community), I could not possibly agree more with Chimamanda there, and I would advise all writers struggling in the face of criticism/attacks from marginalised groups to take heart and use that defence. Your job as a writer is not to be perfect. You cannot be perfect. It’s not even your responsibility to do so, even if it were possible. Your portrayals will always have imperfections, because you’re human and therefore fallible. Your only “moral responsibility”, if you want to call it that, is to add another story to the cultural melting pot. So long as the story is not the same as the one we already have (all the stereotypes and prejudices, all the ignorance and hatred), then your job is done. You have done a good thing. You have added a story that is not like the one that already exists, and that in and of itself, is a good thing.
I really don’t want you to be discouraged, especially because I’ve read your comments on Jenny’s blog and I think you are exactly the kind of writer we need more of, the kind that is aware of social issues and how harmful most romance/erotica is these days (with the rape and the abuse and the lack of consent), and I genuinely think the world needs more authors like you.
I don’t think it’s right to give up something so intrinsic to your basic make up for fear of offending anyone. Someone will be offended, and someone else will not understand why. Because everyone has a different story and the best you can ask for it respect to tell your own. Like, I was working the graveyard shift last night, and we had about ten minutes downtime because our tills are stupid, and in that time 5 kids showed up wanting service. I explained what was happening, one of my staff did, and I still got called a c*nt. I hate that word, so I was like ‘I’m not serving you, please leave’ and they basically told me everyone swore and I should get over it. So I told them leave or I call the police. But maybe this isn’t a good example because in my head that’s verbal abuse and in theirs I was a jumped up cow who was playing God. But either way, that’s two different sides of one story with two different viewpoints based on different experiences.
And that’s one of the beautiful things about the ability to write, or draw, or create in any way. You get to use your voice to tell your story in your style and know that every element that makes you you is involved. If someone’s offended, what exactly is that going to do? Make them vocal about being offended? Make other people explain how they didn’t find it offensive because of their life stories? If they’re not comfortable with the way a story goes, rewrite it, or write your own. Like you have with your Taylor fanfic.
I get what you mean about being diverse etc in writing, but even when you work hard to be diverse, even the best of us can get it wrong http://www.poejazzi.com/rachel-rostad-to-jk-rowling-from-cho-chang/ (and even this is wrong) I think so long as you apply your life and your experience, you can’t go too far wrong. Yes be diverse, but don’t represent a group of people you know nothing about, or you’ll end up in a bigger mess. Like, there are a lot of books out there about where I’m from, and I’ve read a couple and they’re just so wrong, based on a TV show that identifies with such a small subset of our culture (it’s called The Only Way Is Essex, and is like if the Hills came to England and had orange fake tans. I know few people in this area like that, and they completely miss the Gruffalo forest five minutes away from the show’s setting. Which is the best bit about that town) but that subset is also the way most people idealise where I live.
Part of this is why I’m writing what I am, I want to take stereotypes and tear them apart. I want to give you this ideal for a type of person and say ‘hey, maybe this is their story or their way of thinking, how was your initial judgement?’ because that’s something I’ve had to live with every day, just because of where I was born and raised. And that’s another beautiful thing about the ability to write.
Sorry for the rant back, it’s something that I feel passionate about too. Just, never apologise for your experience forming your judgements, and if it’s really an issue, write about it so people get that there’s another perspective 😉
Oh, also, I’m reading LOTR right now and they talk obsessively about ‘Black Riders’, I’m surprised there’s not more articles about J R R Tolkein’s latent racism, because I’m sure someone will read that wrong.
Um, there are a ton of articles on Tolkien’s racism*, but not because of the black riders. Mainly because of the “dark-skinned peoples of the East and the South” that joined Sauron’s armies (though most of their defenders cite that this is ameliorated by Sam’s wondering of whether they had joined Sauron willingly or whether they were forced to).
It’s one of the most contentious points among Tolkien’s fans/readers, so if you look hard enough, it’s there.
*Note: I am neither condemning nor defending the literary analysis of Tolkien’s works in terms of racism (or misogyny, that’s a hot topic for Tolkien readers too), so please don’t yell at me, I mean no offense, I’m just clarifying that the analysis you refer to does exist and is more or less widespread (somewhat).
I haven’t gotten to that point in the books where he does that yet, I’m halfway through book one. I’m not saying at all that there’s no existence of that kind of analysis, just that if his name comes up it’s on the viewpoint of his descriptions rather than those connotations, he’s not synonymous with racism. I would be surprised if there wasn’t any kind of critical writing on that point.
I have however noticed that the Hobbits and the Big people are all described as caucasian with brown hair, and the Elves looks are barely described at all in relation. I got way more about Tom Bombadil than the Elves that the Hobbits ate with in the Shire.
If you read the Silmarillion or some of his other writings, you see that the elves are pretty much universally white people, distinguished only by their hair colour, language and general demeanour. Every hobbit is also white, the people of Gondor and Rohan are also white, the dwarves seem to be white-ish (I’m going by memory) and pretty much everyone (whether good or bad) seems to be white (save for the “Easterners” and “Southerners”, which are dark-skinned… and universally part of Sauron’s army).
I never meant to imply that Tolkien’s intentions were racist, he just suffers from a common problem in white straight cis male authors, which is the erasure of marginalised groups from his narrative. Now this isn’t a value judgement, I have nothing against the man and I do not harbour any ill will for him or his works, and I am reasonably certain that the man wasn’t particularly racist/sexist/homophobic/etc (any more so than an average person of his time period), but it’s true that he tended to write what he knew, and for an audience that was presumably like him, and so his narratives were mostly about white straight men (and the occasional white straight woman).
Again, this isn’t an angry tirade against Tolkien, nor am I trying to tell anyone what to write, I’m just saying that it would be nice to see more representation in the media (of which literature is such an important part), and that we should be gently encouraging writers of all races, sexualities and gender/sexual identities to write more diverse narratives (not force them, or censure them, or get angry at them, but gently speaking to them about the benefits of inclusion, and trying to “sell” them the idea and encourage them to do better, instead of berating them for “doing it wrong”).
Oh, I totally agree, and I wasn’t accusing you personally of thinking of Tolkein in that way, I was just aware when reading that you know more than I do about something I’ve only just started really getting into. But watching the films or cartoons, they’re going to go by source material and at no point that I can remember were there any non-caucasian heroes.
As for minority writing, I think Dorothy Koomson does an incredible job. I’ve read a few of her books and every single one I’ve loved. She’s a black woman writing about black women having relationships with others in a caucasian world, but things aren’t always pleasant. My best friend’s girl is about how the lead’s best friend stole the lead’s boyfriend, had a kid with him, then died and left the lead with their child. The woman he loved before has a woman who realises her father-in-law raped her husband’s previous wife, the Ice Cream girls is about a teacher grooming his students, and two of them are present when he was stabbed, possibly to death. The black woman walked free while the white woman was imprisoned (they’re currently showing this one on British TV, I’ve recorded and am yet to watch). In none of these books does she come across as preachy, or oppressed, but rather she gives you a clear idea of what it is to be in the minority, and to feel the ‘glass wall’ that is put in place by others, and you find yourself identifying clearly with each woman’s plight.
Thanks for those recs, I like what you’re telling me and I will be sure to look them up.
I think that there is value, however, particularly in fantasy/sci-fi stories, in depicting marginalised groups (and especially minorities) as commonplace or even taking on the status of majority. If only because, to me, as a minority, it’s not that useful to read about something I experience every day. Yes, every story has value and teaches us something, but I would personally would rather read more about stories where I don’t feel so isolated and, well, marginalised, and instead I get to read about a world where I’m commonplace, normal and perfectly acceptable.
Though I do understand that this is somewhat difficult for YA/romance/erotica/historical/modern fiction writers, since they have to adjust to current or historical standards (which is why I’m such a fan of the fantasy genre in the first place).
I gather from your post that you’re familiar with Tumblr– where the bogie(wo)men we most fear are the Social Justice Bloggers.
I used to be pretty much crippled by the same fear, but my husband pointed something out to me:
No matter what I write, I will offend someone. Not because I’ve done anything wrong, but because there are people out there who will be offended at anything that crosses their radar. They see what they want to see– and that happens to be racists/sexists/homophobes/etc/etc. And he gave me a way to respond that really felt liberating:
“I find it interesting that you chose to interpret it that way.”
And then move on. Often, the -ism they see is purely their own, burned into their retinas so it’s imposed on everything around them. Sometimes that’s not the case, of course– but from the sound of it, you genuinely are making an effort. And that’s all anybody can ask of anybody else.
A thick skin is necessary. Not just in writing, but in everyday life. How could I praise my daughter for defending herself? (she broke his nose and kicked him in the groin) What would I know about being multicultural? Yada yada yada. It isn’t just modern times, I grew up with this stuff from the 70’s onward. The internet just makes it more widely available.
I wave it off. Ignore it. Sometimes it hurts, yeah. I can’t tell you how many times my IQ has been pulled into question simply because I have an unmistakable Arkansan accent. Or that because I’m not a petite size 2, I’m fat and unhealthy. Because I’m atheist I’m against all religions. Because I’m a scientist at heart, I have no clue about the “truth.” (Look! two -ists!! LOL)
I’m gathering notes and research for a multicultural MS. One that doesn’t involve any culture I’ve ever been to or been part of. But I did find a few who were more than willing to tell me if I’m stereotyping (they are from those cultures) and you can believe it is going to stir quite a few pots.
So be it.
That being said, I realize not everyone can walk away, or shrug it off. I understand many people take the words to their very sensitive hearts. Each must learn how to say, “Hasta!” in their own way.
Don’t let their anger at their own powerlessness stir yours. Period. Look at them like the toddlers they are. Throwing fits because the world doesn’t revolve the way they think it should.
And NEVER EVER let someone else tell you how to live your dream. Unless it is going serial killer of course. If so, we need to have a little talk 🙂