Goodness me Supernatural fandom, what have you been up to?
Ok, so I don't know the exact context here, but I have something tangentially related – the other day I was on fandom secrets and someone was using their macro to bitch about how they hate slash because it's 'exploitative and appropriative'.
First of all, 'exploitative'? How exactly does one exploit fictional characters?
'No,' begged Harry, his green eyes filling with unshed tears, 'please don't make me do THAT with Drco Malfoy.'
'Silence!' snapped the writer, 'you'll do it and you'll like it, because I'M writing this dialogue MOHAHAHA!'
Also, the word 'appropriative' is being bandied about more and more, it seems to me. I have news for you, my little oh-so PC darlinks, everything about the act of writing is 'appropriative'. You observe life and then you recycle it for fiction, that's how it works. And as you say, if we're all only 'allowed' to write about our own races, sexualities, genders... that means I have to write only about white pudgy bisexual academics. Not enough there to make a novel... except a very surreal and self-indulgent one.
Also, this 'appropriation' business assumes if you identify as something (in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality) then you own it in some way and are entitled to speak for other people in those brackets. That's clearly bollocks. Gay authors don't always write good or convincing gay characters, for instance (*koff koff* Sarah Waters!) – it's a question of talent, empathy and observation, not what group the writer comes from.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-06-17 07:36 pm (UTC)Ok, so I don't know the exact context here, but I have something tangentially related – the other day I was on fandom secrets and someone was using their macro to bitch about how they hate slash because it's 'exploitative and appropriative'.
First of all, 'exploitative'? How exactly does one exploit fictional characters?
'No,' begged Harry, his green eyes filling with unshed tears, 'please don't make me do THAT with Drco Malfoy.'
'Silence!' snapped the writer, 'you'll do it and you'll like it, because I'M writing this dialogue MOHAHAHA!'
Also, the word 'appropriative' is being bandied about more and more, it seems to me. I have news for you, my little oh-so PC darlinks, everything about the act of writing is 'appropriative'. You observe life and then you recycle it for fiction, that's how it works. And as you say, if we're all only 'allowed' to write about our own races, sexualities, genders... that means I have to write only about white pudgy bisexual academics. Not enough there to make a novel... except a very surreal and self-indulgent one.
Also, this 'appropriation' business assumes if you identify as something (in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality) then you own it in some way and are entitled to speak for other people in those brackets. That's clearly bollocks. Gay authors don't always write good or convincing gay characters, for instance (*koff koff* Sarah Waters!) – it's a question of talent, empathy and observation, not what group the writer comes from.