Entry tags:
Fandom and Race
This is really a public service post. I simply wanted to pass on a couple of links because I know there are people on my F-list who will be interested in the topic and will want to be in the loop.
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the role race plays in fandom activities, spurred on by an incident explained in![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
witchqueen's post here. If you go to liviapenn's post here you will find a lot of links to other entries on the subject. Personally, I'm going to recommend poisontaster's entry about the power words hold.
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Everyone has prejudices. Admitting their existence is the hardest thing of all. We live in a society that comes with inbuilt, structural discrimination - racism, sexism, homophobia, you name it, it's there. How can we be anything but products of that society, carrying along stereotypes that we know are wrong, taking them with us everywhere we go?
Including Fandom.
I've only even met a handful of you in RL, my darling F-list, so for most part your age, ethnicity, sexuality, religion etc. are unknown to me. I don't know what colour your skin is or how many birthday candles are on your cake. I don't know whether you like to kiss women or men or both or neither. I don't know if you believe in God and if so in what God. I don't know if you have issues with mental health, or an illness or a condition that makes you feel like an outsider. I don't know your body shape, your cultural background, your mother's name or father's occupation. I don't know whether you like cats and mango ice-cream and the sound of rain when it hits your window late at night.
I don't know if you look so different from me that I'd never come to talk to you if I hadn't met you here in Fandom.
I like to think that I would have. I like to think I'm the kind of person that makes an effort, who acknowledges the stereotypes and tries to consciously move away from them, through words and deeds both, because both have power and both are important.
I like to think all that. But I don't know. People aren't perfect. I'm not perfect, but there is one thing I do know: I'm glad I've met you all anyway, and I'm glad to call you my friends. And maybe one day I will find out about all those things above; the birthday candles, the shade of your skin as they flicker across your face, the kissing and the prayers you say, your struggles and wins and losses, your favourite flavour of ice-cream.
But none of that won't have a chance to change anything, not any more. I'm grateful for the way online/LJ/fandom friendships have made it possible to see past the surface, because in RL we always can't. Even if we really want to.
Still, the main thing is not so much whether we always succeed, but that we keep on trying. That we speak up and stand up for what is right. Words and deeds, people. Words and deeds.
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the role race plays in fandom activities, spurred on by an incident explained in
witchqueen's post here. If you go to liviapenn's post here you will find a lot of links to other entries on the subject. Personally, I'm going to recommend poisontaster's entry about the power words hold.***
Everyone has prejudices. Admitting their existence is the hardest thing of all. We live in a society that comes with inbuilt, structural discrimination - racism, sexism, homophobia, you name it, it's there. How can we be anything but products of that society, carrying along stereotypes that we know are wrong, taking them with us everywhere we go?
Including Fandom.
I've only even met a handful of you in RL, my darling F-list, so for most part your age, ethnicity, sexuality, religion etc. are unknown to me. I don't know what colour your skin is or how many birthday candles are on your cake. I don't know whether you like to kiss women or men or both or neither. I don't know if you believe in God and if so in what God. I don't know if you have issues with mental health, or an illness or a condition that makes you feel like an outsider. I don't know your body shape, your cultural background, your mother's name or father's occupation. I don't know whether you like cats and mango ice-cream and the sound of rain when it hits your window late at night.
I don't know if you look so different from me that I'd never come to talk to you if I hadn't met you here in Fandom.
I like to think that I would have. I like to think I'm the kind of person that makes an effort, who acknowledges the stereotypes and tries to consciously move away from them, through words and deeds both, because both have power and both are important.
I like to think all that. But I don't know. People aren't perfect. I'm not perfect, but there is one thing I do know: I'm glad I've met you all anyway, and I'm glad to call you my friends. And maybe one day I will find out about all those things above; the birthday candles, the shade of your skin as they flicker across your face, the kissing and the prayers you say, your struggles and wins and losses, your favourite flavour of ice-cream.
But none of that won't have a chance to change anything, not any more. I'm grateful for the way online/LJ/fandom friendships have made it possible to see past the surface, because in RL we always can't. Even if we really want to.
Still, the main thing is not so much whether we always succeed, but that we keep on trying. That we speak up and stand up for what is right. Words and deeds, people. Words and deeds.
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Hmm. So what of that lot don't you know about me?
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And heh, you're one of the exceptions! But I didn't know all of those things before I met you... but hey, how do you feel about mango ice-cream?
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*laughs* Well, I've never tried it, so I don't know. But I love cats - as you know - and the sound of the rain on my window at night makes me start writing poetry. But when did I ever tell you my mother's name? *g*
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And yeah I saw your post today. Sorry he's being an ass *hugs* Mine's been a bit of headache this summer too.
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Tell me something about you I don't know?
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I have green-grey eyes, the colour of dirty swamp water. I'm a good cook and a bad singer. When I sit down I have a habit of jiggling my foot almost constantly; it's not a nervous tick because I do it all the time and without realising. It drives most people absolutely crazy and funnily enough is clearly something inherited as most women from my mum's side do the same thing.
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I'm worried about all the posts I've seen about this issue.
Having, as you know, worked in the equal ops field for a long time, one issue that concerns me is that the racists, homophobes etc. use exactly the same arguments to justify their own view of the world/language and to some extent their use by those 'on the side of the side of the angels' can give the arguments a kind of legitimacy.
Secondly, our language ( well,mine, and yours by adoption!)has very different meanings depending on where it is spoken/written. 'Miscegenation' in Europe has connotations to do with Hitler and Jews, and no connection with Afro-Americans whatsoever. It might well still be offensive, but to an entirely different set of people.
Thirdly, I am amazed by the suggestions as to what we call the inter-... affairs of fantasy worlds such as Harry Potter. Interracial is not adequate and interspecies isn't quite what we mean, either. Besides, the entire 'mudblood' thread of the series raises important questions about 'race' in a non-threatening way, and can be used to get children to talk about their feelings and beliefs. Therefore, there is a microcosm of 'history' within the novels themselves.
I think the whole affair of 'miscegenation' was badly handled but my concerns still stand!
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As far as the word "miscegenation" goes, I freely admit having not known what it meant. I actually had to go and check it out online, so I have an idea now, though still haven't found a working Finnish translation that would convey all of the meanings. So to me that word is very value-free, and I would not have blinked at it twice without the knowledge of its history.
This raises some interesting questions about language, which both reflects and shapes the society. It is undeniably, though often perhaps uncosnciously, used to create reality, a view of the world. I'm more familiar with these issues in relation to gender rather than race/ethnicity, but I rather think the same rules apply. I only need to look at examples from my own reading/research to see how the authorities' use of language creates moral panic or how the police subculture is maintained through so-called canteen language, that changes very little no matter how much equal opportunities training is provided.
There is also the argument about "language as a weapon" which refers to the deliberate attempts manipulate people's views on certain groups and nations. There was a lot about that in relation to the language used by Bush administration during the Iraq war and the whole "war against terror" thing.
I too thought the whole mud-blood thread in HP books was a rather clever dig at the society's stereotypes. How would you define then what the mods in this community were trying to do? Is the word interracial value free? In RL I would understand that as "between people of different race/ethnicity", emphasis on people. However, in a fantasy world the definitons of race and species get very muddled though. Are fairies a different race or an entirely different species? How about werewolves? Technically they are human most of the month...
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I suspect most writers about werewolves, vampires, etc. just fudge the issues and refrain from diving into controversy. I can't find a suitable alternative word!! Having said that, words are often acceptable or unacceptable according to context, which is a kind of motivation, so if I saw the word 'miscegenation' in a fantasy novel, I would reach for the red pen on definition grounds but wouldn't worry about the connotations!
As for the media, Bush, etc., my terrorist is your freedom fighter and so on. But it would help if people were willing to talk these things through properly!! I don't suppose the comm mods will read your post!
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When it comes to pairings that include wizards and fairies and werewolves etc. I don't often even think about in terms of interracial or interspecies, just sort of take it as character x/character y. If say a werewolf/wizard (say Remus/Sirius) fic came with a warning for bestiality I would assume there was some sexing happening whilst Remus was actually in his werewolf form. And then I would probably skip the whole fic because very rarely that would be anything but deeply squicky. Saying that, in the Anita Blake books there are scenes between e.g. Anita and a male werewolf that flirt very closely to something that would qualify as bestiality and for the most part they work. Of course there are then things like the whole tentacle-porn genre. I also recently read a SPN Sam/Dean fic where Sam grew a tail, which was then used for some, um, interesting purposes... Definitions are hard!
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My first encounter with interspecies sex/love was a sci-fi novel called Sirius - I think I can find it for you. Written way back in the sixties... loads of angst. Fledge talks about tentacle porn in crack!fic terms but pointed out a Japanese subgenre that is anything but crack. She also writes tails, but in SGA, not SPN. I can see conversation on the journey to Tynemouth will be interesting.
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I can see conversation on the journey to Tynemouth will be interesting. - haha, yeah. Let's hope we won't get stopped and searched by the police. "Would the madams care to explain why you have a trunk full of tentacle porn?"
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We'd be taking it to the Aquarium opposite the con hotel, to brighten the lonely hours of the rays in the big pool.
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