This reminds me a little of some parts of the Mary Sue debate, when intersectionality was brought up (because, as you say, not all writers or fen are white), and how it seemed like criticism or asking people, even fragile newbie writers, to be more aware of certain issues = 'bullying' or a license to bash Mary Sues or people who write them, when no one was advocating that at all.
A lot of marginalized writers who want to talk about their OWN cultures are shut down, waved off, told to go away. They're not published, they're dogpiled under a lot of defensive cluelessness. I think Tan's argument neglects that and neglects that Racefail is part of a larger conversation that is moving us towards examining that and how it can and does need to be changed.
The ironic thing is that Tan is one of those marginalized writers/editors (I think he's talked about the lack of Filipino SFF or publishing opportunities before? during racefail09, no less, iirc) and yet seems to think defending privilege is going to lead to him gaining some.
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Date: 2010-04-22 08:19 pm (UTC)A lot of marginalized writers who want to talk about their OWN cultures are shut down, waved off, told to go away. They're not published, they're dogpiled under a lot of defensive cluelessness. I think Tan's argument neglects that and neglects that Racefail is part of a larger conversation that is moving us towards examining that and how it can and does need to be changed.
The ironic thing is that Tan is one of those marginalized writers/editors (I think he's talked about the lack of Filipino SFF or publishing opportunities before? during racefail09, no less, iirc) and yet seems to think defending privilege is going to lead to him gaining some.