Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Characters Before Labels(And I'm Aware it Doesn't Sound Snazzy)
So there's this really cool story I've been told by various people. It's truly an amazing, fantastic, and almost fairy tale like story that I'd never thought to actually exist. Apparently all white people are privileged, and if they're white men then they're extra privileged! And to top it all off, you get the grand prize if you happen to identify as heterosexual! Yes, if you're a white heterosexual male you are officially the most privileged being on this entire planet. And as such you should be either ashamed or strive to understand that you were born with privilege and should learn to look from another group's point of view.
Congratulations, come receive your crappy prize!
Sarcasm aside, I could never understand this type of view. I live in a home where my father is a white heterosexual man, and my mother is a black heterosexual woman. So I have the unique ability to see the world from two different American racial groups. From what I could see my father was never 'privileged' at all, and was always looked down upon by everyone, even before he met my mother. The idea that a white heterosexual male is at all 'privileged' is painting an extremely broad, if not ignorant, scope. This is doubly so in the world of storytelling, a medium that relies heavily on the lives that people have experienced.
If you sit down and read writing blogs you will find white people, especially heterosexual males, talking about how they have to get into the practice of looking from a gay person's POV, or a black person's POV. It's always these...labels, as if those are first and foremost and not the character themselves. And that's an issue that needs to be stomped on by something huge and monstrous, in fact just bring in Cthulu to eat it.
A black person has feelings, thoughts, and motivations just like a white person. And, this may shock some people, but civil rights aren't constantly on their mind. A gay person also has thoughts, motivations, and goals. And, according to my bi friend, they don't always think about how their sexual status will effect them or the people around them. Things like sexuality, skin color, and even religion shouldn't be something that defines every fabric of your character. It will cause certain quirks and ideals in your character, but not to the point that it will be the only thing on your character' mind!
And now you're probably saying: "But Luka, how do you expect me to write these non-white, not so heterosexual, totally unprivileged people without a mob coming to my door? I like looking like a reasonably tolerant person, it helps sell books."
Whelp, how do you write an elvish society? How do you write from the view of a dormouse? How do you write Cthulu? Last I checked most people haven't been a massive tentacle monster that looked like it leapt right out of a gory space hentai. Yet you manage to write all these fantastic beings just fine, well you're happy with them, anyway. You write them like people, or tentacle monsters, first and then add on things like race and sexuality. And if you find yourself stuck with certain details you do tons, and tons, and tons, and tons, and tons of research.
Basically stop trying to make sure you're not offending people. It doesn't matter if you're a lesbian latina woman who was actually born male, and you write a character along the same lines of your own life experience, someone's gonna get offended and think you're a bigot. Because that's life, and people don't care about what you think.
So yeah, I'm gonna go read some Bloodborne lore...
Oh, and Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays. Or...-Insert a Winter Greeting Here-
P.S. Don't talk about race, religion, or politics around the holidays. It spawns rants like these.
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Good post, Luca. I wholeheartedly agree. We should not stick labels on people, and whatever you write, because no one will have exactly the same opinions as you, you are bound to offend someone. If you don't, then your writing is bland.
ReplyDeleteThank you. That is exactly the point of this article, and you're one of the two people out of the thirty who have read it.
Delete"It's always these...labels, as if those are first and foremost and not the character themselves."
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favorite bits from this post. While white privilege definitely exists (and as a white female, I have struggled with becoming aware of and understanding this concept), I don't think every writer approaches creating characters from a place of "label this" and "label that." Though, to be fair, I am sure there are some authors who DO go about crafting minority characters by inflating labels and applying stereotypes...
Anyway, my point is: I think the reason so many bloggers and writers focus on writing from different POVs is because they want to represent their character with a certain degree of fidelity. While a character's skin color or sexuality or religion should not completely define who that character is or how she/he thinks, those things will definitely factor into how that character sees him/herself as well as how the world (in the story) sees and treats said character. If the writer cannot apply life-long experiences and knowledge onto the character, the writer will have to seriously consider how that character should be written (this sentences sounds weird because I got tired of writing s/he).
Example: As a white female writing an Asian male character, I would have to do a bit of investigation into both the male angle and the Asian perspective to make my character have thoughts, experiences, and opinions genuine to Asian males. Will my character's Asian-ness or maleness define him? No, but I sure want to make sure I am representing Asian males everywhere with some degree of fidelity.
Side point: Do you find that ethnic/pan-ethnic characters are stereotyped based on class rather than skin color? I find this to be true (exp: a black female character is typically "sassy," "street smart," and "from the hood", all attributes that could be attributed to where she grew up versus the color of her skin).
Great post! Happy holidays :)
Like I said, if you honest to God need to do research on a character then do so, but the idea that every ethnic character needs an overwhelming amount of research due to their ethnicity is preposterous in a fantasy setting. Unless it's historical and maybe Urban Fantasy of a certain flavor. I.E. Gangsta/Hood rat.
DeleteAs for your side point, it's very complicated. A lot of the time when it comes to a black woman, she could come from a well to do family and is still written as loud and sassy. And it has nothing to do with stereotype at this point, but because the black community thinks that a loud and sassy woman is a strong and well represented character. Well, not the entire community, but that's a given. The thing is, where you grew up will influence how you are. For example the white reggae singer Snow from Canada, he grew up in the slums of Toronto with a bunch of Jamaican friends. As such he ended up what most people would consider a hood rat due to where he lived. However most writers don't think outside the box to such an extent. When I was at the library the other day, any YA urban fantasy novel about the slums involved a Hispanic or black character. That's sad considering almost every race and nationality can be found in a huge city's slum, and that just means they're not getting represented.
I guess the short answer is, no. I believe it's entirely based on the writer, and writers are still entrenched with their stereotypes and not wanting to offend people. So they never write about white characters in 'da hood' or black characters growing up extremely rich and pampered. The sad thing is, Hollywood of all entities is beginning to break these boundaries.
Ah, sorry. This almost became a rant.