Before I delve into the actual litany of mandates (pardon me, suggestions) designed to keep fiction writers from offending anyone (and anyone is no hyperbole), a few things should be stated for clarity.
To start with, a character’s main unchangeable trait is their humanity, which leaves them prone to any traits members of our species may possess, in terms of personality.
Secondly, as long as a creation is not specifically designed to portray a group of people in an unfairly stereotypical or judgemental manner, labelling it as such is simply obnoxious.
And lastly, choosing one trait for a character, such as ethnicity or nationality, does not by any means make the whole point of a fictional creation to represent said culture in any way – it might just be chosen for practical reasons.
Here’s a typical feminist guide for writing characters from a different culture than your own – although you will notice the stop signs are not limited to culture at all, but must include any immutable trait, including sex and age, should it be different than the author’s.
That about leaves you with the comfortable, yet less imaginative option of writing journals, since anything else would be a liability.
- Understand that fiction isn’t really fiction
The cushion that is fiction can lead writers to support their stories with the argument that it’s a made-up reality, that is, that it’s just a movie, just a TV show, just a book. But it’s never “just.” And as mainstream media moves towards more inclusive narratives, the danger of cultural appropriation and misrepresentation increases. (…)
Fiction plays a large role in society and how individuals view themselves and others. (…)
Although writing fiction from outside of one’s own immediate community can be a fine line to walk, it doesn’t mean fiction writers should give up. It will, however, require a lot of research, cultural consultation, and self-awareness.
I honestly wouldn’t say that it plays a large role (aside from those few fictional works believed to be holy scriptures). It might’ve done two or three hundred years ago, when one could only access places they couldn’t travel to through books.
The main factors nowadays, besides personal interaction or learning by proxy (from people who have had such interactions), are news reports and documentaries – and yes, the spin they put on things does matter. And then, of course, there is the internet. In terms of books, there is plenty non-fiction out there to get facts from.
I’m fairly confident that when someone seeks actual information about a different culture, fiction is the last place they’d look (perhaps because that’s not what it’s for, but apparently, that’s a minor detail now).
2. Stay in your lane
Understand your own place in the world and the space you may be taking away from other authors.
The article linked to above elaborates on the fact that travelling is a privilege since not everyone can travel, mainly due to financial circumstances (and bears shit in woods).
The only connection to the main topic would be this notion of privilege, taking space etc.
The gist I get is that “people of privilege”, or whatever large swathes of any population can be called, should refrain from referring to other cultures in any way, because it’s not their place to do so.
It’s fair to say that in the view of many intersectional feminists (to include a margin of error), ideally, people would restrict their writings to their own culture and experiences, as any characters with different traits risk being “inaccurate” and thus offensive. Hell only knows who might perceive them that way, since any culture encompasses, both in reality and fiction, the whole gamut of individuals, from pacifists to serial killers.
Considering that in real life, in the same society, on the same block or under the same roof people with radically different personalities coexist, seeking to homogenise how a certain group thinks, behaves or feels is patently absurd.
3. Get a stamp of approval from a sensitivity reader
Once you’ve actually created a piece of fiction, get a sensitivity reader to look over your work to make sure there aren’t things that you missed in your research that can only be played out from someone of the identity you’re trying to portray. A sensitivity reader will critique your work to check if you’re being sensitive about the community you’re writing about and will evaluate your piece for insensitive language and representation, cultural inaccuracies, and bias.
Here is an online database with sensitivity readers. Pay them for their work! This is by no means an easy job and it can be painful for some to read through misrepresentations and stereotypes.
I take it that’s a job description now.
Here’s my issue – well, my bundle of issues.
First, the author is referring to an identity, therefore an individual, which your character presumably would be, and not a culture you are trying to portray in any manner ( I feel like a broken record by now).
Do these sensitivity readers speak for that entire group (which might include millions of people) when finding issues offensive? Should they be able to define the exact parameters of the preferences, views and personalities of everyone in that category?
In case you’ve recently landed from Mars and haven’t been around many humans before, you need to check that you’re not making use of stereotypes, however innocuous and frequently encountered on Planet Earth they may be.
In my experience of reading feminist viewpoints, I’ve come to the conclusion that to them, a stereotype is not as defined in the dictionary, but any currently accepted idea which contradicts their narrative.
Since their aim is to deconstruct most of what has been established through observation since times immemorial (starting with the differences between men and women), attributing, say, typically male preferences to a male character in connection with his culture would constitute a stereotype, even though said traits are shared by many in that culture in real time. Or, for instance, casually referring to the culinary preferences of an ethnic group, even if they are popular in real time, would be classed as stereotyping and superficiality.
4. Get a stamp of approval from more sensitivity readers just to be safe
Try to get more than one opinion because no one person from an identity is a modelist and not everyone is going to think the same exact way.
Send a call out and go through your networks and your extended networks. It may never have occurred to someone who is an expert to do a sensitivity read, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have insight into the experiences that are being written about.
Since one censor might not stand for thousands or millions of people, and might not identify every offensive issue you’ve included, being vetted by them is simply not enough. Find a handful. And pay them, too, because although capitalism is evil, a lucrative opportunity to monetise other people’s anxiety was not to be missed.
5. Read 100 books by authors sharing a trait with each one of your characters
In this article, Smith says that if you want to write about any culture, then you need to read 100 books by people from that culture.
If you read 100 books from a certain group, you’re going to have a deeper understanding of that group and a changed perspective. They can be fiction, nonfiction, picture books, etc. — they don’t all have to be novels.
If you can’t find 100 books written by people from that culture, then maybe you should reconsider whether or not you need to be the one to bring people from that culture into your work.
Apparently, and I can only draw that conclusion, they think the individual simply does not exist. The individual is a collection of deterministic labels and each one should be researched in depth, regardless of its importance.
The broken record that is my explanation is now screeching insufferably, as this is only common sense.
May I add that cultures evolve and so do mentalities? How will an 18th Century book help someone understand a character born in 2000 better, because “it’s from the same culture”?
From the article liked to above:
Before trying to write any character outside one’s lived experience, I recommend reading at least 100 books* by authors from that community. One hundred books—to start.
As you can see, this isn’t about different cultures, necessarily, but any character outside your lived experience.
Where to begin? Again, 100 books. To start. They should include picture books, early readers, chapter books, poetry, nonfiction, prose novels, and graphic novels.
But 100 books. For every single character, no matter how small. Then we keep reading.
What she is saying here is not that we should celebrate diversity because we’re – after all – in the same human boat, but that we’re so different we couldn’t possibly empathise with or relate to someone from another background on common human issues, and even mentioning such a person requires diving into an obscure, mysterious world. You’d think she was referring to a different animal species altogether, which needs to be studied in order to be understood.
Apparently, our minds are fatalistically constricted into tiny boxes and connecting is a humongous effort.
The Artistry Of Glorified Bullshit 