Case (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
case) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomsecrets2012-09-20 07:02 pm
case) wrote in fandomsecrets2012-09-20 07:02 pm
[ SECRET POST #2088 ]
⌈ Secret Post #2088 ⌋
Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.
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Notes:
Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 021 secrets from Secret Submission Post #298.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-09-21 03:47 am (UTC)(link)Does that make me a bad person?
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-09-21 04:12 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-09-21 04:57 am (UTC)(link)it's not pure "coincidence" that white-based (as long as we're keeping with this particular issue, though it applies to male-based, straight-based, etc) stories are popular, and that lots of people like them. you don't make your decisions in a vacuum. you could have just as easily fallen in love with tales about rural Mongolia, but you didn't. likely because you weren't exposed to many growing up. in all likelihood, the stories you read and the history you were exposed to were white-dominant, so yes of course you like them. if we're talking fantasy, you have any number of disney fairy tales and other media that favor white European stories.
that does not make you a bad person, nor does it make anyone else a bad person for liking that time period. what I was getting at initially, was that people need to start thinking critically about why it is that our culture continues to regurgitate itself like this. it's no coincidence that most people who feel the need to defend themselves against accusations of racism based on the fact that they've set their story in a certain era have picked majority white eras-- they've been told repeatedly by society that those are the only stories worth telling. then -they- publish their own writing about majority white medieval fantasy or whatever, and the next generation is exposed to that same idea too. it's a cycle wherein everyone convinces themselves that it's just purely coincidental that media that's successful is, in this example, white.
no, you shouldn't feel guilty about the time period you like. i, for example, like westerns. i also realize that i probably favor westerns because a white dominant society made those popular and exposed them to me as positive. i also realize this is a bad thing, that i should make an effort on my own to expose myself to many different cultures and stories that are not considered mainstream, or this cycle of endless favoritism for certain stories will never cease.
write what you want, read what you want, but please don't act so ignorant as to believe everything you do and everything you've grown to like are not a product of societal influence.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-09-21 05:09 am (UTC)(link)However, I won't, for one second, feel any kind of huge cultural guilt trip for liking the stories, and settings of Medieval (and Victorianism) England.
...and I'm not white.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-09-21 11:27 am (UTC)(link)no, you shouldn't feel guilty about the time period you like. i, for example, like westerns. i also realize that i probably favor westerns because a white dominant society made those popular and exposed them to me as positive. i also realize this is a bad thing, that i should make an effort on my own to expose myself to many different cultures and stories that are not considered mainstream, or this cycle of endless favoritism for certain stories will never cease.
You make it sound like you're interested in other cultures not because they truly interest you, but because you feel guilty. I mean, I was always interested in Egyptian stories (although the only good Egyptian-influenced novel I have ever read was Terry Pratchett's Pyramids), but I'm not interested in, I don't know, Vietnamese culture, so why would I bother to read stories which are based on their culture? Broadening one's interests is nice, but doing it out of some social guilt you feel is incredibly disrespectful to other cultures, and honestly, it makes you sound like a hipster.
And btw 1. - if you write a novel about an entirely different culture than yours and you are not an author whom I've already liked before, there is an 80% chance that even if I'm interested in the culture you are writing about, I won't read it. A few weeks ago I wanted to read some Chinese crime stories, and all the recs I've found directed me to books written by American people and that killed my interest in those books instantly, I haven't even bothered to read the summaries. I'm not saying that it is impossible for an American to write a good story about the Chinese crime world, or that a European cannot write a phenomenal Western story (hey, Sergio Leone directed my favourite Westerns, after all!), and in some cases incredible works were created by blending two different worlds, unfortunately, in most cases, the final product is incredibly disillusioning.
And btw 2. - this cultural (and social, and political, etc.) favoritism happens in every country, in every culture. I don't say it's a good thing (I would kill to have more stories which are set in Egypt, the Before-Conquests Latin America, Siberia, Medieval/18-19th century Fantasy which are set in Fantasy Spain/Eastern European countries/Russia/Nordic countries, etc.), but it is not a new or unique phenomenon, or something that will ever change in the future, or something that one should be ashamed of.