white gaze, “authenticity” and why minority warriors need to STFU

During the whitewashing cover brouhaha that erupted around Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix a lot of white people fell over themselves to signal-boost and shout how very outraged they were over the whole thing (including pearl-clutching over their race being insulted. What race is that? Why, Caucasian!). One of them (cache) had this to say:

This story, which anyone who’s read it can tell you, is authentically Chinese. It is set in the Xian province of historical China and is deeply, deeply ingrained in Chinese history, Chinese culture, and Chinese folklore and mythology.

This is not a Chinese-inspired alternate universe. It is not a matter of disguising willful racism as poetic license. It’s a story set in *actual* pre-China, with *actual* Chinese characters. It is a story with mythical elements and fantastic adventures, but it is never inauthentic in any way.

It’s from nothing to “holy shit, shut the fuck up, white person” in one paragraph flat. It also reminds me that while Racefail ’09 has done something to affect the genre, a lot of it was really about white people scrambling to save face and look more enlightened than the next white person, and a long, long train of SJ warriors clawing each other out of the way to be the first to yell “GOTCHA!” for years afterward.

See, I understand that this person is trying to be very progressive, very supportive, and very Minority Warrior about it all. And sure, whitewashing is a real issue which more people should be made aware of…

But I’ve had it up to fucking here with white people making grand proclamations concerning authenticity. 

 

Silver Phoenix and the Fauxminism

Note: this was originally posted at Ars Marginal, but I’m keeping a copy here for archival purposes. 

Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix is a fantasy novel about a stock heroine going through a stock quest while developing an unhealthy emotional codependency on the first stock love interest she comes across. She hates nearly every woman she meets and is motivated entirely by men. The author makes no pretensions of caring about the Bechdel Test. The book is praised for its strong feminist values.

This will be long, but bear with me. I have issues with internalized misogyny being interpreted as feminism. Warning: references to rape.

 

FURY OF THE PHOENIX: fauxminism part eleventy and perpetuating rape culture

pippin’s fury of the reviewers: chapters 1-3 / chapters 4-6 / chapters 7-9 / chapters 10-12

Hooray, we’re back on familiar ground. I would say it’s like a pair of nice, comfortable shoes you’ve been wearing forever but it’s more like taking a dump while constipated. Familiar certainly–it happens–but far, far, far from pleasant. And much like Cindy Pon’s debut, Fury of the Phoenix is about as relevant to feminism and female empowerment as bowel movements.

Fury’s narrative is divided into two stories: Zhong Ye’s and Chen Yong’s respective personal quests. You may notice that I don’t mention Ai Ling. There’s a good reason for that. She is there, literally, as a vehicle for men’s stories. I hope you are just as stunned as I am, which is to say not at all. It’s not a Cindy Pon book if women weren’t relegated to existing for, working for, and devoting all their lives to men.

 

FURY OF THE PHOENIX: othering the majority, cultural inaccuracies, west is best

Fury of the Phoenix posits one country, fake!China, as the land of oppression and misogyny. Women are treated like cattle, objectified, made to marry at young ages and unwilling. They cannot become officials, have no place in the palace except as concubines and servants, and so on. Fair enough: this is a fairly accurate criticism of ancient China’s sexism even if it’s undermined by Silver Phoenix (and Fury for that matter) being chock-full of internalized misogyny.

Next, let’s acknowledge that even today in the twenty-first century women do not have total sexual freedom, are not free from slut-shaming, and are still not equal to men. Fury introduces a second country to Cindy Pon’s world. Due to its generic vagueness, I shall hereafter refer to as generic!Whitelandia. It’s the place where women are more sexually liberated than women in the twenty-first century.

 

WHITE FEVER & INTERNALIZED RACISM: cindy pon take 2, day 3

pippin’s liveblogging of chapters 4-6

Chapter eleven. They have finally reached a country that’s… a generic Western Europelandian thing, apparently. I’m not saying that just to be mean; Cindy Pon admits that she doesn’t base Jiang Dao on anywhere or time period in particular, which makes certain of her decisions particularly telling–but we’ll get to that later in the final analyses.

For now, though, we’re back on familiar ground!

A young woman glided down the winding staircase. She was wearing a dress Ai Ling could never have imagined. It was tight-fitting and a luminous green on top, with a full skirt in a deeper forest green that must have been created from many layers. The sleeves hugged her arms to the elbow, but ended in cascades of cream lace. Her eyes held Ai Ling’s for a brief moment.

[...]

Ah Na turned to Chen Yong and extended her arm, a smile playing at the corners of her rouged lips. He bowed awkwardly and took her hand. Jealousy so strong that her stomach cramped swept through Ai Ling.

Ah Na is a thoroughly, plainly, incredibly white girl. Ai Ling sees her, the first white woman she’s encountered in her life, and her immediate reaction is to break into jealousy hives. What is wrong with this picture, class? What do we call it when women of color are portrayed as automatically jealous of white girls? Exactly.

 

FURY OF FUCK THIS SHIT: cindy pon take 2, day 2

BREAKING NEWS: Follow my COMRADE IN HATE, pippin @ dreamwidth, as she also liveblogs the THRILLING TRAUMA that is Cindy Pon’s writing in great detail and fine humor, with more quotes!

Remember what I said about Ai Ling being a creepy, creepy person? Who obsesses very creepily over her abusive romantic interest Chen Yong?

The hesitancy in his voice caught her attention. He was nervous. She tilted her face toward his. His golden eyes slid away from hers before he spoke. “I’m betrothed.”
She was certain her heart stopped for a moment, and she dug her nails into her palms, tried to keep her features a smooth mask. “What?”
“My mother arranged it right before I left. I—”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered, her entire being numb.
“I didn’t know how to.” He met her eyes then, and she was the one who looked away this time. “It’s not what I want. I should have said something sooner.”
Her lips trembled. She pressed them together hard before replying. “She’s right. It’s time for you to wed. Our first duty is—”
“To our parents,” he interrupted. “You’re repeating my own words to you. Don’t.” His tone was harsh, matching hers.
She wanted to run, to jump into the sea and swim into oblivion. Put an eternity of distance between them. She had no hold over Chen Yong. She’d never had. She pivoted away from the railing.

I’m not entirely sure this is the reaction of a well-adjusted individual.

 

FURY OF FUCK THIS SHIT: cindy pon take 2, day 1

Come one, come all! The story so far:

• the rapist guy was MISUNDERSTOOD all along (This! Is! Important!)
• all chapters begin with either Ai Ling waking up, going to sleep, or at a meal
• all women are PETITE or DAINTY; tall, muscled, or large women do not exist in Cindy Pon’s world
• WEST IS BEST, WEST IS BEST for an exciting bout of INTERNALIZED RACISM
• despite having “Phoenix” in the title, referring to Silver Phoenix, a woman 300 years dead reincarnated as Ai Ling, Fury of Fuck This Shit is entirely about Chen Yong and Mr. Misunderstood Rapist. Ai Ling, as all women should, merely tag along as an admirer and vehicle for their experiences
• Ai Ling’s and Chen Yong’s romance continues to be dysfunctional, creepily obsessed on Ai Ling’s part, and with FUCKED-UP power balance
• many, many, many flashbacks from Misunderstood Rapist’s point of view (one would think that, logically, since Ai Ling is Yin Fenghuang Silver Phoenix reincarnated the flashbacks would be from SP’s point of view but after all, these books are really about men and making sure the rapist is absolved and given a sympathetic viewpoint)
• quality of writing continues to be DEATHLY DULL
• emphasis: Ai Ling has gotten completely creepy and stalkery about Chen Yong
• despite everything MISUNDERSTOOD RAPIST is characterized and written with more nuance, attention to detail, and complexity than Ai Ling, Chen Yong, or any other character who’s appeared heretofore
• Yin Fenghuang Silver Phoenix is a much better and stronger character than Ai Ling, to absolutely nobody’s surprise; however, she is also the only other female character not portrayed negatively… and she is effectively Ai Ling

Stay tuned for the RAGEQUOTES and thirlling HATEBLOGGING! Witness as I write my first series of posts that are simultaneously tagged “poc writers” and categorized under “Racefail”!

 

revisiting Silver Phoenix

Let’s warm up to the upcoming posts on Fury of the Phoenix.

First I hated her writing; now I just hate her. You see, Robin McKinley is a culturally ignorant twit who has no taste. I’ll let the taste pass, but the other thing I’m not ever willing to excuse. I mentioned Silver Phoenixwas written as China-themed Disneyland for gullible tourists, right? McKinley is one of those tourists.

The first paragraph of the prologue of SILVER PHOENIX may make the average modern first-world female reader rock back on her heels slightly.

What the fuck does this even mean? Does she think a ~third-world~ woman would think concubinage is par for the course in life? That being concubines is just normal for us unlike it is for enlightened ~first-world modern women~ like herself?

Go climb a wall of live UK plugs, you useless, sheltered nitwit.

 

MAYDAY, MAYDAY

A copy of Fury of the Phoenix has been acquired! In PDF, LIT, MOBI, EPUB, and RTF!

Internalized misogyny still in, internalized racism exceeds estimates, creepy romance continues! New and improved: fleshed out rapist! Most chapters still begin with Ai Ling waking up or going to sleep! Sexual threat very much in! Dubious gender politics, present!

MAYDAY, MAYDAY. BIOCHEMICAL WEAPON TO CINDY PON’S COORDINATES AND MAKE THAT DOUBLE TIME. REQUESTING REINFORCEMENT OF BRETHEN IN HATE. LIVEBLOGGING TO COMMENCE ETA ???.

 

SILVER PHOENIX quotespam: like herpes it keeps giving

Quotespam! Special edition; includes things I didn’t quote in my article at Ars Marginal. Yes, this is how much this book offends me and I want to share my misery. If I had to suffer through so much of it, then by god SO WILL EVERYONE ELSE.