From the amazing Athena Andreadis (whose A Plague On Both Your Houses you might have read): The Persistent Neoteny of Science Fiction
Beyond these strictures, however, SF/F suffers from a peculiar affliction: persistent neoteny, aka superannuated childishness. Most SF/F reads like stuff written by and for teenagers – even works that are ostensibly directed towards full-fledged adults.
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SF seems to hew to the long-disproved tenet that complex emotions inhibit critical thinking and are best left to non-alpha-males, along with doing the laundry.
Check out her Being Part of Everyone’s Furniture, too. It concerns cultural appropriation.
At Shattersnipe, fozmeadows discusses the defensiveness of YA and SF/F toward criticism.
And yet, as demonstrated not only by the response to Bourke’s reviews, but by the necessity of Roth’s piece – which was a timely response the string of recent YA author/reviewer incidents - large numbers of the SFF community seem to be struggling with the fairly basic premise, inherent to the very notion of criticism, that no one is under any obligation to be nice.
Can I take a moment to express my thorough dislike of the word nice? It’s such an insincere, simpering, placatory term, like an ambling jaywalker flapping their hands at traffic. Nice is how you describe an acquaintance you don’t know well enough to call kind or likable; places whose primary virtue is inoffensiveness are nice; we tell children to play nice before they’re big enough to understand words like consideration and empathy, so that asking other adults to be nice is about as condescendingly ineffectual as telling them to write their names on their shoes.
More specifically I found the subsequent discussion hugely interesting. It concerns how women are criticized more harshly than men, and how difficult navigating women’s culture as a woman can be, how fraught that navigation is, how you will be asked “Why are you criticizing women’s works all the time?” and shown up as having internalized misogyny through the act of doing so. I do wish the discussion had segued into the matter of male nerds dogpiling women too, but that’s not quite the same subject.
Tiger Beatdown: When anger is all I have and why anger is my feminist stand
So, instead of writing about choice I needed to pause and examine my anger. This anger which is cumulative, which grows inside me and overtakes my capability to articulate bigger pictures; this anger which, I am constantly told, is not “productive”. Because being angry in and by itself, it seems is not part of a political position. Well, I have news for those who obturate discussions on the basis of undesirable anger: MY ANGER IS A RADICAL POLITICAL STANCE. My anger is the basis of my actions. It is my drive and my reason to fight. Right here, right now, let me tell you this: I AM AN ANGRY FEMINIST. And I refuse to be shamed for that.
From the same:
@j.a. earlier today I was joking on Twitter: “When a manly man dude writes a rant we call it “Op-Ed”. When a feminist woman writes a rant we call it “anger”.”
WHITE LIBERAL BINGO, which seems apropos considering recent (and ongoing) events.
- Berates one minority group for bigotry toward another without acknowledging role of white racism.
- Brings up race of POC partner or children randomly, in order to prove lack of racism.
- Says “Talking about racism is so divisive” or Turns every discussion of race into a discussion of class.
You could just as well substitute the second one with “women.” I can’t be sexist, my wife is a woman; I can’t be sexist, my biological mother is a woman; I can’t be sexist, my wife/girlfriend/female goldfish tells me so. Better yet: “my wife is a woman of color, so I can never be racist or sexist!” CHECKMATE.
Ekaterina Sedia is a very linkable lady, because she’s written a lot of good things. Latest: Russian Language Harry Potter Fandom is Awesome, a translation of hypothetical essay titles.
Ridicule of Victims of Violence as a Form of Demonization: Moaning Myrtle
Cho Chang: The Relations with Racial and Ethnic Minorities as a Casual Entertainment
Good Homosexual is a Well-Educated White Men with No Sexual Liaisons: Albus Dumbledore
Indeed. No, if you’re wondering, I’m never letting the Cho Chang claptrap go. Never. Her On exoticism of language also articulates wonderfully why the trend of having non-Anglophones who are fluent in English drop into random non-English words for the exotic factor. As well, Female friends, which is about that trend of women feeling the need to declare themselves “one of the boys” and patriarchy.
Don’t miss Eric M. Edwards’ lengthy, thorough, hilarious review of Mark Lawrence’s Prince of Thorns (plus rape queues, fat people being pushed off high places, and Magical “Nubans”):
Despite saving this very black man and requiring him to run away with this very white child on a quest for vengeance like a gimlet-eyed Huckleberry Finn dragging behind him his Jim, Avatar Jorg never questions why he doesn’t think to ask the Nuban his name.
He is simply the Nuban. Why not? He’s obviously the only black person the prince is going to encounter it seems, unless Avatar Jorg bothers traveling to Nuba. And with his predilections for causing people pain, safe money is on him sailing first for Ling.
Still, four years of living and fighting together like brothers on the road and Avatar Jorg still hasn’t bothered to ask the Nuban his name, a man whose life he goes to the trouble of saving any number of times over the course of these four years. So it seems the fate of the Nuban is to remain a nameless black raisin in the midst of a sea of fantasy cream.
Last but not least, Ryan Oakley speaks up about the Watts/Bakker brouhaha.
Having prejudice is entirely human. So is attempting to do better
Do better, motherfuckers.
Because, as things stand, you’re embarrassing yourself, you’re embarrassing me and I’m ashamed to even share a skin colour, let alone a profession or community, with you.
The white man does have a burden. It’s you.
I’m linking this because I feel it’s important to erode the assumption straight white men hold that, when they speak, they do so from a place of absolute safety. Other straight white men will nod along, applaud and praise them with great praise for having braved the scary feminists and the scarier people of color and survived to tell the tale. But that isn’t the case, and for people like Watts and Bakker it stings double when people who share their skin color, orientation and gender speak up against them and tell them they are being total shitstains. They don’t give a shit about a woman or a POC might say, but when those they assume are their bosom friends and staunch allies–other straight white men–call them on their shit, they start hyperventilating (which is partly why Bakker kept posting, and posting, and posting about that August 2011 post from me–because people he respects and calls friends didn’t sycophantically soothe his bruised ego). This is how things won’t happen like this every time. Straight white male supporters: speak up! Engage with the unapologetic neckbeards and call them out. Make them uncomfortable. For those who already have done so, congratulations and thank you.
Lavie Tidhar also covered this wank, among other more optimistic things, over at the World SF blog. Croatian feminist author Milena Benini likewise at her blog.
saajanpatel
/ February 28, 2012One thing that has been bothering me in all this is the idea that some work can objectively be given a pass.
If I take offense to something because it attacks India or Hinduism, then people should understand that it is at that point offensive. There is no need for a committee to come in and settle it, regardless of greater intent it has hurt me precisely because it recalls other aspersions.
I think that works for everyone. If one of my gay friends tells me something is offensive to her, I shouldn’t feel the need to equivocate and mention how some 100-odd lesbians had no problems with it.
I should, and am trying to train myself, to instead listen to what she has to say.
acrackedmoon
/ February 28, 2012Yes. I’m sick of being told “but another woman told me this was OKAY” or “but another Asian told me this was FINE” or having another Asian’s or woman’s opinion used against me. Minorities aren’t joined into a hivemind. The idea that we should be in lock-step and never, ever disagree is presumptuous and insulting–and of course, the only minority’s opinion that counts to, say, Watts or Bakker is the one that agrees with theirs. Convenient.
rizzrustbolt
/ March 7, 2012I think that works for everyone. If one of my gay friends tells me something is offensive to her, I shouldn’t feel the need to equivocate and mention how some 100-odd lesbians had no problems with it.
I should, and am trying to train myself, to instead listen to what she has to say.
I don’t this instinct changing in fandom for the foreseeable future. Considering that fans are still doing this in regards to cartoon pony fandom insert characters.
chiralspiral
/ February 29, 2012I believe this is generally what’s referred to as an Epic Win. People should make it the go-to anti racist quote on the internet.
I’d like to think it wouldn’t take another white guy to make Bakkar et al see the error of their ways (if that’s even possible), but you’re probably right about that.
Athena Andreadis
/ February 29, 2012Thank you for the kind words!
Studies consistently show that women are criticized more harshly than men: a relatively easy experiment is to submit the same item — writing, music, scientific result — purporting to originate from a female versus male creator. Both genders devalue it routinely and significantly if it is said to come from the former. And even though anger does take up time that could/should have been dedicated to constructive pursuits, women’s anger is punished heavily because of its potential of destabilizing the entire structure. It’s fascinating to read Virginia Woolfe’s original olympian remarks about Charlotte Brontë’s anger in A Room of One’s Own — and then see Woolfe’s own anger in Three Guineas (a book considered “among her worst” because of this anger).
I think Edwards nails it when he points out that the violence porn beloved of the “edgy” grimdark crowd is really an adolescent boys’ game rather than any kind of depth or complexity. I have read a few books where torture is graphically depicted and actually matters. One I can never forget is an impalement in Ivo Andric’s The Bridge over the Drina (an elegiac, unsparing, prophetic book that should be required reading for authors, historians — and politicians, if they read at all).
I come from a war-torn land where torture was used until the seventies (and not just abstractly either, but on members of my family). I have seen its concrete results on people’s bodies and spirits. I recognize that the subject has a place in fiction and that nothing should be barred from inquiry and exploration. At the same time, I feel that authors shouldn’t use it for easy shock effect or to offer novelty to jaded readers. Especially authors who have most likely never been slapped even once in their lives, let alone gone through the terrors and humiliations of imprisonment, torture or occupation.
Brendan Moody (@BrendanNMoody)
/ February 29, 2012Not much of a calling-out (I’m terrible at being confrontational, even when it’s warranted), but I’ve written a little about the fallacies of Bakker/Watts style blindness on my blog: http://noondaystars.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-be-better.html.
acrackedmoon
/ February 29, 2012Excellent and well-put, thank you.
Sean Wills (@seanwillsalt)
/ February 29, 2012Every time I go to that Starship Reckless blog (which I believe you directed me to in the first place), I end up with a ton of tabs open and an easy half-hour’s worth of reading lined up. (Uh, even if that means reading a post I read the week before. I am completely unapologetic about this.) I still somehow managed to miss that post on neoteny in SF/F, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!
Athena Andreadis
/ February 29, 2012That’s a true compliment, Sean. It makes me happy to have my articles be a springboard for further reading — and perhaps for thinking in different grooves than the default.
K. Rainova
/ March 1, 2012Can you recommend a good review of Rothfuss’ books other than the one by Dan Hemmens? (Not that it isn’t good, it’s just I read it and want more Rothfuss bashing.)
Oh and Athena Andreadis is awesome, except she likes Eowyn a bit too much.
acrackedmoon
/ March 1, 2012Sadly, no.
I’ll inquire the twitterati and see if anyone knows of (or has written) one.Ask, and twitter provides! Here you go. And another one with the bonus of Rothfuss fanboys throwing testerical fits.
Gourmet Neurovore
/ March 1, 2012So, in light of that last post, what’s your opinion on the concept of white-knighting? What would you say counts as it, and how bad is it?
I mean, I can sort of see both sides. On the one hand, I get how charging in and going all ‘FEAR NOT, LADIES, A MAN IS HERE TO HELP!’ is… less than ideal. At the other extreme, saying nothing = tacit support, which is where the whole rape culture thing (and institutionalised sexism in general) comes from. As you mention in your post, having people of equal privilege call their peers out can be very useful.
So where would you say the balance lies? What’s the best way for a white cis male to call out privilege without coming across as a condescending, paternalistic prick?
acrackedmoon
/ March 1, 2012Mm, I can only speak for myself. For me the key thing is that you’re willing to speak up in a place where the privileged/obnoxious voices are the overwhelming majority; in short you’re willing to bear their obnoxiousness (even if they can’t really sling gendered/homophobic/racist insults at you, they’ll still be on the attack) the same way I would have to if I were to show up in the same place (Watts’ blog comments for ex). Other women (or POC, or queer people) will feel differently. But I’ve seen more than a few voice appreciation for good allies, so I don’t think I’m the only one.
“White-knighting” for me is associated with defending the indefensible or defending those that don’t require defending, like Watts’ fanboys defending him over pretty much everything even though Watts–or for that matter Bakker–is under no real risk, no real danger, either to their career or their ability to be heard: they aren’t vulnerable to being silenced. Yeah, I know the original definition of it has to do with the “nice guy defending LAYDEES” thing, but I’ve seen its use morph to the spectrum of “defending the indefensible against all reason.”
kalbear
/ March 2, 2012I consider white knighting to be whenever a white male starts taking the side of the non-privileged. That’s where this comes from.
For me, I tend to do it when for whatever reason PoCs and women are just not talking. I’ve tried to excuse myself when they do.
It’s a hard thing to get right and I’m sure I’ve failed many times at it, but I still try.
Emil Söderman
/ March 2, 2012^ I think it’s an interesting change in meaning. I usually see “white knighting” used in the sense of “privilegied person arguing for a mariginalized group”, but almost as often as “someone defending something/someone else” and thirdly as “someone defending something indefensible” although in the latter sense it’s usually in a kind of “Yeah, the person is making bad arguments but you’re being MEEAAAAAN!”
But it’s an interesting shift in meaning if it’s happening.
saajanpatel
/ March 2, 2012Someone posted this over at Three Pound Brain -> Mieville on ‘censorship’:
http://chinamieville.net/post/18314521552/stand-down-literature-has-defeated-the-thought
“It is depressing to have to point out, yet again, that there is a distinction between having the legal right to say something & having the moral right not to be held accountable for what you say.”
acrackedmoon
/ March 3, 2012Mieville is a very clueful man on a lot of things! Not everything alas, but on surprising number of things.
trevoresque
/ March 3, 2012I’ve never heard the word “clueful” before but I love it. You use so many awesome words that I think you need to add Gallery Funwords up there at the top beside Gallery Buttmad.
acrackedmoon
/ March 4, 2012“Funword Lexicana”?
trevoresque
/ March 5, 2012Yes! “Funword Lexicana” is perfect. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint.
rizzrustbolt
/ March 7, 2012I was always a fan of “Vulgar Argot” for the grouping of interesting new words and phrasing.