busyThe thing is ... there are people with multiple minority traits. There are gay Asians. There are autistic Pagans. There are poor black lesbians in wheelchairs. And those people sometimes feel overlooked because the stacking effect can change their experiences so much that a single-trait character doesn't feel much like them. I've read essays upholding this end of the debate but couldn't find one to use as an example here.
My stance is that I write characters as they need to be. I have a lot of characters who are female/other trait because roughly half of humanity is female. Other combinations are less common but also appear. Brelig is a normal-sized Duurludirj man (which we'd consider a dwarf) and missing one hand. Maryam Smith is African-British, genderqueer, duoclass, and of illegitimate birth. I'm more likely to focus on minority protagonists than to use them as filler, something my audience seems to enjoy if you look over what's been published. I don't tend to write a lot of straight white Christian men, though, so the core of the mainstream doesn't get a lot of traffic from me. Meh.
Also, if I haven't specified a trait in canon, yes it could fall outside the mainstream. Characters have done this to me often enough, and my cultural awareness is diverse enough, that there's no permanent default. They may pop out an uncommon religion or sexual orientation or invisible handicap or whatnot, and they may do that after two stories or six poems or twenty years. I'm more likely to mention physical features such as skin tone and gender up front, because they're noticeable points of diversity. But I've also had characters refuse to reveal their sex/gender, and not just the ones for whom "I'm not telling" is their gender.
I'm interested in other people's perspectives on the matter of single vs. stacked traits.
Re: Thoughts
June 13 2013, 02:55:02 UTC 8 years ago
I'm really glad that you are doing that. Somebody needs to tell people that it's okay to be multi, you can be multi and healthy, here are some peepskillz to go do that with.
Yeah. You'd be surprised and saddened how many just need the reassurance that yes, they have a right to exist unmolested, it's okay.
And then they killed him. Really not helping folks with mental issues believe that survival is possible. 0_o
I KNOW, RIGHT? Seriously, in media, if you're multi, you're pretty much screwed. In media, the only way people seem to be allowed to be multi AND not completely at other people's mercy is to be evil. Which is pretty messed up, if you think hard about it.
There are all these other stories about multiples that could be told, that aren't seeing the light of screen or print or anything else. Because people think multi = evil and that's just stupid. I want to have those other stories.
So true. It's a source of deep frustration for me that I seem incapable of writing multiplicity; all the tropes and frustrations have gotten so embedded in my skull, I can't seem to write fictional multiples myself. I try to make up the difference by making nonfiction comics about it, but still, SO MADDENING.
--Rogan
Re: Thoughts
June 20 2013, 07:26:12 UTC 8 years ago
So true. It's a source of deep frustration for me that I seem incapable of writing multiplicity; all the tropes and frustrations have gotten so embedded in my skull, I can't seem to write fictional multiples myself.
caught my eye. Need help? My fandom sometimes writes the main character as sort of multiple (it's complicated), with varying interpretations. What would you rather see done with that?
Re: Thoughts
June 20 2013, 20:12:41 UTC 8 years ago
--Rogan
Re: Thoughts
June 20 2013, 21:32:24 UTC 8 years ago
I don't think anyone ever wrote multiple!Jak as a multiple system. It's... you know the pattern where people write a real minority experience as if it's a fantasy experience, or a close-to-real experience as if it's completely unreal? Fandom has treated Jak like that. (To be fair, it's not as if you could interpret canon as portraying a typical multiple system at all.)
Re: Thoughts
June 20 2013, 21:56:14 UTC 8 years ago
That's really interesting though! I'd be interested in seeing multi!Jak, though my information is obviously waaaaaay outudated. I just remember Jak as another mute video game protagonist in a platformer.
Re: Thoughts
June 20 2013, 22:10:14 UTC 8 years ago
(I wish I could see your face when you read this.)
Re: Thoughts
June 21 2013, 09:23:45 UTC 8 years ago