Excellent post! The key, as you said, is that people who're vocal about these stereotypes are not trying to scream racism--instead, it's more about screaming REALITY CHECK.
I suspect writers who're sensitive about such criticism are simply embarrassed or just unaware because it does take an awareness. (For example, I have a bad habit of counting the number of black people when I step into a conference room, a book reading, or party with strangers. I don't do this because I want to find that there are less blacks and point my finger and say, see, we're being excluded! but I do it because the world has made me aware of my skin and of it being different (most of the time portrayed in a negative way).
This doesn't mean that I'm the only one who can observe this reality check. I also happen to be overweight and usually take note of the weight of men and women when I step into that same room. I don't let being overweight get me down because quite frankly, depending on what city I'm in, I can count more overweight people than skinny people. Again, I don't do this to say, "skinny people are outnumbered, ha!" but to accept that I WON'T ACCEPT the stereotypes created irresponsibly or unintentionally or yes, sometimes hatefully.
I just wish more people would give themselves a reality check. It really isn't that very hard. As writers, you'd think it would be easy to step into another POV but it's not so easy. :(
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Date: 2009-06-28 09:05 pm (UTC)I suspect writers who're sensitive about such criticism are simply embarrassed or just unaware because it does take an awareness. (For example, I have a bad habit of counting the number of black people when I step into a conference room, a book reading, or party with strangers. I don't do this because I want to find that there are less blacks and point my finger and say, see, we're being excluded! but I do it because the world has made me aware of my skin and of it being different (most of the time portrayed in a negative way).
This doesn't mean that I'm the only one who can observe this reality check. I also happen to be overweight and usually take note of the weight of men and women when I step into that same room. I don't let being overweight get me down because quite frankly, depending on what city I'm in, I can count more overweight people than skinny people. Again, I don't do this to say, "skinny people are outnumbered, ha!" but to accept that I WON'T ACCEPT the stereotypes created irresponsibly or unintentionally or yes, sometimes hatefully.
I just wish more people would give themselves a reality check. It really isn't that very hard. As writers, you'd think it would be easy to step into another POV but it's not so easy. :(
(Whoops! Edited to fix italics tags.)