That seems really wrong to me. It's not always safe to come out, and even apart from that, people should be able to come out if and when THEY want to, not because they're being pressured.
Yeah. It's also that assumption that everybody is straight (white, untroubled by gender dysphoria etc) unless they explicitly say otherwise, which feels as if it reinforces stereotypes while claiming to challenge them.
And also, what about books that have multiple characters, like most books do? An author is only one person - they can't have ALL the identities. So does everyone in a book have to be the same identity as the author?
Exactly! To some degree I think more representation will help over time, so any given character has much less weight put upon them (the four book queer romance series has an author's note identifying themself as ace on the ace f/f book, but didn't feel the need to comment on the bisexual f/f or m/m books). And I do think sensitivity readers are a good idea. But critique on the basis of representation, especially in YA, and how and who it's helping, is something I'm thinking about.
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carisma_sensei
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Date: 2019-05-15 11:46 pm (UTC)Yeah. It's also that assumption that everybody is straight (white, untroubled by gender dysphoria etc) unless they explicitly say otherwise, which feels as if it reinforces stereotypes while claiming to challenge them.
And also, what about books that have multiple characters, like most books do? An author is only one person - they can't have ALL the identities. So does everyone in a book have to be the same identity as the author?
Exactly! To some degree I think more representation will help over time, so any given character has much less weight put upon them (the four book queer romance series has an author's note identifying themself as ace on the ace f/f book, but didn't feel the need to comment on the bisexual f/f or m/m books). And I do think sensitivity readers are a good idea. But critique on the basis of representation, especially in YA, and how and who it's helping, is something I'm thinking about.