rainwaterspark (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rainwaterspark) wrote2017-01-07 12:06 pm
rainwaterspark) wrote2017-01-07 12:06 pm
Entry tags:
Ramblings about #ownvoices
I stumbled across the concept of the #ownvoices hashtag recently, which has led to a lot of puzzlement for me regarding whether Project E is an #ownvoices book.
The protagonist is a person of color...but of a different race than I am. We share (some) mental health issues and (part of our) sexual orientations, though Project E isn't a book *about* asexuality, per se. (We're also both autistic, but I left my protagonist's neuro-state vague in the book, so.)
Then there's the fact that the deuteragonist is Asian American, like me (though not exactly), but even though he's a protagonist, he's not the narrating protagonist.
So does any of this count for #ownvoices purposes?
I think the difficulty for me is that Project E is intensely personal, yet I've always had a habit of shying away from making my characters too exactly like me. I personally find it tacky when a protagonist seems to be an author stand-in, so I try to avoid doing that by giving my protagonists characteristics that make them significantly different from me (at least in superficial ways). The other thing is that I feel unqualified, and often unwilling, to write "issue stories" about [insert part of my identity here]. So I can write an Asian American protagonist, but I won't write about the experience of being Asian American.* I can write an asexual protagonist, but I don't want to write a story all about how confused and broken the asexual protagonist feels until they finally learn what "asexuality" means. Those kinds of stories are, of course, valuable; they're just not what I want to write about.
I think the part I'm still wrestling with is that #ownvoices seems to be a handy shorthand for indicating marginalized authors—of which, of course, I am one, being a disabled neurodivergent non-straight person of color. But it also seems to indicate the idea of "issue books," or books about x identity, which...I don't really write.
So I'm just really confused.
(*Why don't I write books about the experience of being Asian American? Because I strongly dislike the idea that there is *a* definitive Asian American experience. We are all very different with very different experiences. My own personal Asian American experience is not about the struggle of not being "American" enough, and because of that, I don't feel qualified to write such a story. I also don't want to because it's difficult for me to put myself in the headspace of an Asian American who struggles with racial identity issues.)
The protagonist is a person of color...but of a different race than I am. We share (some) mental health issues and (part of our) sexual orientations, though Project E isn't a book *about* asexuality, per se. (We're also both autistic, but I left my protagonist's neuro-state vague in the book, so.)
Then there's the fact that the deuteragonist is Asian American, like me (though not exactly), but even though he's a protagonist, he's not the narrating protagonist.
So does any of this count for #ownvoices purposes?
I think the difficulty for me is that Project E is intensely personal, yet I've always had a habit of shying away from making my characters too exactly like me. I personally find it tacky when a protagonist seems to be an author stand-in, so I try to avoid doing that by giving my protagonists characteristics that make them significantly different from me (at least in superficial ways). The other thing is that I feel unqualified, and often unwilling, to write "issue stories" about [insert part of my identity here]. So I can write an Asian American protagonist, but I won't write about the experience of being Asian American.* I can write an asexual protagonist, but I don't want to write a story all about how confused and broken the asexual protagonist feels until they finally learn what "asexuality" means. Those kinds of stories are, of course, valuable; they're just not what I want to write about.
I think the part I'm still wrestling with is that #ownvoices seems to be a handy shorthand for indicating marginalized authors—of which, of course, I am one, being a disabled neurodivergent non-straight person of color. But it also seems to indicate the idea of "issue books," or books about x identity, which...I don't really write.
So I'm just really confused.
(*Why don't I write books about the experience of being Asian American? Because I strongly dislike the idea that there is *a* definitive Asian American experience. We are all very different with very different experiences. My own personal Asian American experience is not about the struggle of not being "American" enough, and because of that, I don't feel qualified to write such a story. I also don't want to because it's difficult for me to put myself in the headspace of an Asian American who struggles with racial identity issues.)