>> I haven't written nearly as many gender identities as I know exist, in part because I haven't written fiction in around ten years. The mainstream culture in fiction has changed an awful lot (but with an equally long, or longer, road ahead). <<
That's okay. I'd love to see what you could do with fiction, though. You're writing meta like a boss. Are you into F/F meta at all? Plunge is always looking for that.
>> But frankly, most of the time, I just didn't CARE. <<
Not everyone likes the same kind of stuff, and that's fine.
>> I ran into enough of that with teachers trying to be "helpful" by giving me books with "disabled main characters"-- some of which were okay, and some of which were horrible pap, and two or three of which should've been labeled "radioactive poison" on both covers, the spine, and every page in between. <<
Well, they were trying. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe this is another piece of meta you could write:
Disabled Fiction * Awesome * Okay * Toxic Waste
Because it's something that people may want to read, but finding it can be really difficult -- and as you discovered, recommendations sometimes suck.
Two of my favorites are Miles Vorkosigan and Dag Redwing Hickory, both written by Lois McMaster Bujold. Their disabilities define them, but don't stop them.
>> Tell me an interesting story. If the person's gender identity matters for a /reason/, it'll work. <<
Genderfic is writing "about" gender. Sometimes that is important, you get stuff that would never show up any other way. But diversity is important in stories that aren't about gender too.
>> Just having spear-carriers who are transgender, non-gendered, multi-gendered, alien-gendered or whatever for the sake of "diversity" -- or worse, "controversy", is actively doing a disservice both to the readers who may identify with that gender, and to the entertainment industries. <<
Background parity is a great thing, because it means you're just people, not so exotic that any mention necessarily steals the show. It's a later development. You're actually touching on several steps in the process here together.
>> "Blank readers will take any crap we churn out," can be /proven/ by looking at the initial phases of other groups pushing into the mainstream. <<
>> No matter how one fills in the blank, the story should be good enough to pull readers toward MORE of its type. <<
Ideally, yes, but it takes years for most people to learn that with a new motif. Me, I know the whole pattern. You tell me there's no X or it all sucks, fine, I can write you X heroes right off the bat. Most recently I've been doing this with asexual characters. I'd always written some, but over the last several years the ace movement online has jelled, so I'm chipping in what I can.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_serpent
Re: Gender and social development
Date: 2014-04-24 01:59 am (UTC)That's okay. I'd love to see what you could do with fiction, though. You're writing meta like a boss. Are you into F/F meta at all? Plunge is always looking for that.
>> But frankly, most of the time, I just didn't CARE. <<
Not everyone likes the same kind of stuff, and that's fine.
>> I ran into enough of that with teachers trying to be "helpful" by giving me books with "disabled main characters"-- some of which were okay, and some of which were horrible pap, and two or three of which should've been labeled "radioactive poison" on both covers, the spine, and every page in between. <<
Well, they were trying. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn't. Maybe this is another piece of meta you could write:
Disabled Fiction
* Awesome
* Okay
* Toxic Waste
Because it's something that people may want to read, but finding it can be really difficult -- and as you discovered, recommendations sometimes suck.
Two of my favorites are Miles Vorkosigan and Dag Redwing Hickory, both written by Lois McMaster Bujold. Their disabilities define them, but don't stop them.
>> Tell me an interesting story. If the person's gender identity matters for a /reason/, it'll work. <<
Genderfic is writing "about" gender. Sometimes that is important, you get stuff that would never show up any other way. But diversity is important in stories that aren't about gender too.
>> Just having spear-carriers who are transgender, non-gendered, multi-gendered, alien-gendered or whatever for the sake of "diversity" -- or worse, "controversy", is actively doing a disservice both to the readers who may identify with that gender, and to the entertainment industries. <<
Background parity is a great thing, because it means you're just people, not so exotic that any mention necessarily steals the show. It's a later development. You're actually touching on several steps in the process here together.
>> "Blank readers will take any crap we churn out," can be /proven/ by looking at the initial phases of other groups pushing into the mainstream. <<
This is another phase of identity literature.
>> No matter how one fills in the blank, the story should be good enough to pull readers toward MORE of its type. <<
Ideally, yes, but it takes years for most people to learn that with a new motif. Me, I know the whole pattern. You tell me there's no X or it all sucks, fine, I can write you X heroes right off the bat. Most recently I've been doing this with asexual characters. I'd always written some, but over the last several years the ace movement online has jelled, so I'm chipping in what I can.