You ought to have followed your friends' advice, Ms. Stein. This reply was unprofessional and unbecoming in the extreme. I don't know you personally, but I do know that you have neither changed my opinion of your book nor induced me to seek out more of your writings. If anything, I am now going to be more determined to avoid you. Others who watch this journal may also feel the same after reading this.
When you want to respond to someone, you reply directly to them. You do not pass messages to me for queenoftheskies. It is disrespectful. You may believe you were enthusiastic. You may believe that she was mistaken. That is your opinion. She expressed hers. You're free to disagree. I would suggest, however, that you're doing yourself no favors in arguing with her. Fine, you weren't her cup of tea. Did you really think this was going to change her mind?
I said what I meant in that review. Nothing has changed and you have certainly not persuaded me that anything I said was wrong.
Yes, you can write whatever you please. But I am telling you in this review that there a LOT of people out there who may be hurt by your choices (and indeed, the choices of many writers like you) in their fiction. I am telling you that you are one among many authors who have used "exotic" to describe certain East Asian ethnic appearances and that it is part and parcel of the deep, imbedded racism against Asian-Americans in this country.
I am telling you that there are people who have to put up with teen pop stars mocking their eyelids (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/usa/article2200132.ece) because it's "exotic". How do you think that Asian-American teenagers, some of whom might have been Cyrus' fans, felt about that?
I am telling you that there are people who have to put up with white people who think of them as ornamental objects (http://aaprincess.com/?p=131). I am telling you that you are feeding into a long history in this country of treating Asian-Americans with disrespect, exoticising them as Other, and hurting them.
Try looking at aang_aint_white. Right now, as we're speaking, a movie based on a cartoon that featured all Asian characters is being cast with white people. And the only non-white cast member is slated to play the bad guy.
This is not the first, last, or only incident of such disrespect. It is endemic in American society and culture. So how do you think a reader might feel after the only such character that appears on screen is described as "exotic" and the enfeebled sex toy of a power white man because that is how she is seen through the eyes of a white author writing a white character after having all those other incidents, having that history weighing on them?
Whatever your answer is, the bigger point is that you, as a white author, didn't have to think about it. Because right now the genre you are writing in and the publishing industry you are working in is still a haven for this kind of racism.
Whether you accept any of this or not, whether it makes an impact on the books you write or not doesn't change the fact that you were extremely unprofessional in doing this.
I did not realize that your books came with a clause that says that any reader who dares review your work must do so in a way you approve of or risk your wrath.
I'm sure this review did get to you. I haven't met a fellow writer yet who didn't have at least one review that got under their skin. What I have met are plenty of writers who know better than to argue with them in public. There are certain things you do in private. This was inappropriate.
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Date: 2009-08-24 01:07 am (UTC)When you want to respond to someone, you reply directly to them. You do not pass messages to me for
I said what I meant in that review. Nothing has changed and you have certainly not persuaded me that anything I said was wrong.
Yes, you can write whatever you please. But I am telling you in this review that there a LOT of people out there who may be hurt by your choices (and indeed, the choices of many writers like you) in their fiction. I am telling you that you are one among many authors who have used "exotic" to describe certain East Asian ethnic appearances and that it is part and parcel of the deep, imbedded racism against Asian-Americans in this country.
I am telling you that there are people who have to put up with teen pop stars mocking their eyelids (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/usa/article2200132.ece) because it's "exotic". How do you think that Asian-American teenagers, some of whom might have been Cyrus' fans, felt about that?
I am telling you that there are people who have to put up with white people who think of them as ornamental objects (http://aaprincess.com/?p=131). I am telling you that you are feeding into a long history in this country of treating Asian-Americans with disrespect, exoticising them as Other, and hurting them.
Try looking at
This is not the first, last, or only incident of such disrespect. It is endemic in American society and culture. So how do you think a reader might feel after the only such character that appears on screen is described as "exotic" and the enfeebled sex toy of a power white man because that is how she is seen through the eyes of a white author writing a white character after having all those other incidents, having that history weighing on them?
Whatever your answer is, the bigger point is that you, as a white author, didn't have to think about it. Because right now the genre you are writing in and the publishing industry you are working in is still a haven for this kind of racism.
Whether you accept any of this or not, whether it makes an impact on the books you write or not doesn't change the fact that you were extremely unprofessional in doing this.
I did not realize that your books came with a clause that says that any reader who dares review your work must do so in a way you approve of or risk your wrath.
I'm sure this review did get to you. I haven't met a fellow writer yet who didn't have at least one review that got under their skin. What I have met are plenty of writers who know better than to argue with them in public. There are certain things you do in private. This was inappropriate.