BREAKING: The range of published science fiction caters overwhelmingly to a white male audience.

[nanila]

My friend foxfinial has been getting a lot of undeserved flak for pointing out that some aspects of the dialogue at Eastercon were overtly misinformed and racist. Eastercon, for the uninitiated (which I certainly was before last weekend), is the annual British National Science Fiction convention.

I participated in Eastercon this year as a panelist and a speaker on the Friday. Now, I was fortunate enough to have been invited by a friend and colleague, purplecthulhu, who did a wonderful job making me feel both welcome and comfortable. He helped keep me included in the dialogue during the panel on the space race. I did some of this myself, mind, but I can't deny that it was a boon to have him checking to be sure that each time a topic was introduced, I got to have my say if I wanted, and to prevent me from being put on the spot by the more experienced members of the panel and the audience. This is not an action to be dismissed lightly when there are four people on the panel and you are the only person who is female and not white. purplecthulhu, I salute you.

Despite seeing positive responses to my talk on Twitter under the #eastercon hashtag, I can't ignore that the majority of the audience was male and white. And while I hope that being a "hardcore science bug" who loves her job, as one person labelled me, left the impression that women can indeed be dedicated, enthusiastic engineers and scientists, I have trouble believing that it's an impression that will have a lasting impact.

Why? Because I don't find that most science fiction speaks to me. I received two free books at Eastercon. I got about halfway through both of them, but have little motivation to finish because they didn't engage me. The main characters are male, angst-ridden and on journeys that involve a lot of interaction with other male authority figures. The women, if they are present, are either brawny sidekicks or romantic interests. Even if they're described as clever or technically adept, they never display it through dialogue or the mechanisms of the plot. And did I mention that everybody's white? At the very least, that's what the front covers would have you believe, and when you read the character descriptions - pale skin and white-blonde hair predominating - the image becomes indelible.

So I'm afraid that despite my willing participation in Eastercon and my enthusiasm for the future of space exploration and science, I am not willing to state categorically that science fiction and its fandoms are free of problematic racist and sexist associations that are being propagated by publisher's choices. Attacking people like foxfinial is not going to fix the problem. Pointing out that something is racist is not, in fact, worse than being racist. If you write science fiction, change your choices of main characters, the cultures in which you place them and the journeys you send them on. If you read science fiction, select, review and praise those books. Only then will the perception of science fiction become diverse and inclusive. Because it actually will be.

Comments

[soliano]

growing up when I did, all of what I read fit that mold. I would hope with e-publishing that a new market will develop for other flavors of fiction. When it is all there is you buy it. I have not read The Hunger Games, does that not herald a different future?

[nanila]

I don't know. I haven't read The Hunger Games. The film, however, doesn't help the genre much, as they chose to cast the main character as white.

[soliano]

Poor choice of an analogy. I was thinking gender issue and was unaware that they specifically casted an individual of different heritage than called for in the book. Have not read the book, so was unaware.

[foxfinial]

Oh I completely forgot to mention the free books! I read a few choice excerpts from one of the them that made me want to throw bricks (or the book), while the other's back cover copy repelled me so hard I couldn't bring myself to open it.

Even if they're described as clever or technically adept, they never display it through dialogue or the mechanisms of the plot.

Yesssss. I hate it so hard when this happens. Show the women being competent! It's not difficult! There are a lot of diverse, varied real-life role models to choose from!

[lark_ascends]

Just wanted to say that I'm very sorry that you've been attacked over stating something that is so clearly true (and very sad that is true).

[foxfinial]

Thanks. :>

[nanila]

Show the women being competent! It's not difficult! There are a lot of diverse, varied real-life role models to choose from!

Sadly, I think we don't see them quite as often as we see the eejits bimbling about. The level of exposure of intelligent, competent women in the media is a lot lower.

[surpassingly]

So many thoughts about this, cannot articulate, but just wanted to say: Yes. THIS. -- to your entire post, and especially the last paragraph.

[nanila]

It's just. Well. Someone stuck her neck out for PoCs at the con. Immediately afterward, she was ganged up on for essentially "failing to be positive". And a lot of people are probably still wondering why POCs aren't comfortable at cons. *bogglement*

[surpassingly]

/nodnod I was reading some of the responses to what foxfinial was saying, and just... ugh, the level of defensiveness and privilege-- it's like, we've seen it all before, and it keeps happening over and over, but so many are still discounting even the possibility of racism at cons! Gasp!

(And this, along with some really hurt/defensive reactions to posts about why "exotic" is an awful descriptor for people of color-- I don't even know sometimes.)

[surpassingly]

^ Should clarify, the last paragraph refers to something entirely unrelated, but, well. It has been A Week wherein I've been very acutely reminded of why I distrust white SFF so much, heh.

[nanila]

No worries. I knew what you were talking about - I saw the "exotic" post as well, along with the fascinatingly mixed reaction. There was some good stuff in the comments, along with the usual thundering obliviousness that makes me feel tired.

[lark_ascends]

Is very white, but I can definitely see that everything you say is correct - it's all still a huge issue in sci fi (and so many other aspects of life). And I so wish it wasn't.

I don't read much sci fi, only seem to watch it on TV/movies.

[nanila]

Yes, that's the way I absorb sci fi as well. Ever since Star Trek: TNG. Perhaps it says something that my favourite characters were Deanna Troi and Geordi La Forge. :)

[sunflowerinrain]

I have read and enjoyed science fiction since the age of 10 (introduced to it by my mother), but I can see what you mean. It's not only male white dominated, it's USian/Anglosaxon-dominated too. There were some early French writers, but not a lot since; other languages don't get much of a look-in.

There are good female writers, though rather more in fantasy than SF. I'd recommend Ursula K. Leguin, and especially "Winter's King" for a wonderfully different take on sex, gender, and race.

[nanila]

I'm just re-reading Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Quartet as an antidote to all this hoopla. :)

[caulkhead]

Serious question. At what point does If you write science fiction, change your choices of main characters, the cultures in which you place them and the journeys you send them on become cultural appropriation, if you're writing about a culture that's not yours in the first place? I'm not trying to stir, I honestly don't know.

[foxfinial]

When you write those cultures and people badly.

[pbristow]

I would say it's when you write those cultures *lazily*. Things can be written badly for any number of reasons, but when the reason is that you just didn't think that that foreign culture you're invoking was worth doing just as much research on as, say, the business of how to get the nuclear material off the reactor site and into the hands of the bad guys... that's when you're likely to churn out a bunch of half-remembered "facts" from what your mate in the pub told you about his 2-week holiday over there, mixed in with whatever cliches and stereotypes you've grown up with. And our jury says: "Nul points".

[foxfinial]

I should probably clarify what I meant by "badly", which is "any way which is harmful to the cultures and people in question, either by perpetuating stereotypes, actively getting things wrong, or any of the other ways in which cultures and people can be harmed by incorrect representations". Because, yes, I 100% agree with you.

[holyschist]

I think that writing about cultures that aren't yours may always be cultural appropriation, but the effects of appropriation range widely. I mean, no matter how respectfully and carefully and well one writes about something that isn't ours, it doesn't become ours. That's not necessarily a reason not to do it, however.

[nanila]

I am so uncomfortable with the term "cultural appropriation". Mostly because my childhood feels like one giant amalgamation of "cultural appropriation". I may be genetically Filipino/white, but I had a Japanese nanny, a Chinese best friend (female) and a Samoan best friend (male)in addition to a horde of Filipino aunties. I grew up eating all manner of different foods and knowing bits of different languages and cultures before I even knew how to distinguish them correctly. And now I live in a place where, in order to integrate and because I've fallen in love with it, I've learned to adopt the manners of a culture that I wasn't born into. So I'm not the best person to ask about cultures that aren't "yours".

[miss_s_b]

You might find some SF you'd like better than the freebies here: http://www.feministsf.org/

[nanila]

I'll give it a go, thanks!

[cosmolinguist]

Along a similar vein, if you (or interested readers) are not already aware, I can recommend the blogs Ars Marginal (which is about comics and TV shows and stuff as well as movies and books) and Beyond Victoriana (which focuses on steampunk, which I don't even usually like as a genre at all, but I still think this blog is full of fascinating and thoughtful stuff, not to mention dealing with most of the things that make me dislike steampunk, because they're down to laziness, appropriation, exotification, and other things that are bad on a level that most of its fans are blind to).

[miss_s_b]

LOL you said Ars *snerk*

[pbristow]

A-bloody-men!!
(And lots more bloomin' womans! =;o} )

See also: http://seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com/436858.html

Seanan writes wonderful non-sappy Urban Fantasy, BTW, with a grumpy half-fae heroine by the name of Toby Daye. She's also got a zombie armaggedon series out under her pseudonym of Mira Grant, and is this year a quadruple nominee for the Hugo awards - So there's hope for the genre yet... But we need to keep the pressure up.

For SF/Urban Fantasy with some actual non-white people in it, try Ben Aaronovitch. His "Rivers of London" series scores well on that side (as well as being a more realistic and up-to-date than usual portrayal of London's general population, their attitudes, patterns of speech etc. - Kind of ironic for a fantasy series!), although not *so* great so far on the gender politics. The narrator and his team are both male, as are most of their colleagues, although it looks like at least one of the female regulars will becoming more actively involved in forthcoming books... [CROSSES FINGERS]

I wish I could recommend some SF/F that does an outstanding job on both the gender *and* race fronts, but so far I haven't really found any... =:o\ It's a lot easier to find decently written female characters in SF, though, than it is decently written non white or non-Western characters, especially if you look out for the female authors. Lois McMaster Bujold is a long-term favourite; J.D. Robb's near-future police series is more formulaic (and very white, and somewhat right-wing, and the writing is less subtle (why do I love this series again?!? =8oO Oh yeah...)), but it has some great characters of both genders.

[nanila]

*writes down names furiously* Excellent, thank you. I shall give some of these a try. :)

[nanila]

Lois McMaster Bujold is a long-term favourite

...And having sampled Proto Zoa, a collection of her early short stories, I can see why. I will definitely be pursuing the Vorkosigan series. Thank you.

[pbristow]

YAY!!! Another convert. =:o}

[ceb]

I don't find that most science fiction speaks to me. I received two free books at Eastercon.

Goodness me, *please* don't judge SF by the free books that get given out at conventions. Much of the time they are rubbish and there's a reason why they're being given away free. The hidden gems in the con pack are few and far between (having said that, I did get a Lauren Beukes a few years back, you should totally read Lauren Beukes).

[ceb]

And if you're after recommendations, Octavia Butler too, e.g. Parable of the Sower but really anything you can get your hands on...

[miss_s_b]

I secong Octavia Butler, actshully.

[nanila]

I'm nearly done with my initial testing of female sci-fi authors (Lois McMaster Bujold, Maureen F. McHugh and Lauren Beukes), so I'll be trying out Octavia Butler after I move and can purchase dead tree editions again. Thanks!

[pbristow]

...and I second your icon! =:o}

[bagfish]

Seconding Parable of the Sower/Parable of the talents. Strong female characters as well as mainly non-white characters.

I would also suggest Elizabeth Moon's Serrano series, great, gripping space opera with fantastic female characters from a variety of races. Despite the covers almost always showing a white woman, Heris Serrano is very definitely written as a PoC.

Hope you don't mind me joining in the conversation, I was pointed in this direction by miss_s_b's links post here http://miss-s-b.dreamwidth.org/1240598.html where she links to both your post and Alex Dally MacFarlane's about Eastercon. Thanks for raising these issues, it's so blindingly obvious that there is a problem, but it's only blindingly obvious if you're not the one sitting in the (white/straight/male) position of privilege and power.

[nanila]

I don't mind at all. Thank you for the recommendations. I've almost completed my initial sampling of recs from this post (Lois McMaster Bujold, Maureen F. McHugh and Lauren Beukes), so I'll be moving to the second half of the list shortly.

Elizabeth Moon rings some bells, although possible not for positive reasons - was there some fuss about a blog post she made a while back? Or am I confusing her with someone else?

[bagfish]

Ugh, I hadn't heard anything about Elizabeth Moon's failblog post - just done some googling and I'm really disappointed by what I found. My bad :(

Anyway, I'm going to be reading some of the reccs people have made above, thanks for making the space for people to talk about good books! I've not managed and McMaster Bujold despite having people rave about her writing all the time, so she is a must.

[nanila]

It's always a pain trying to be a fan of works by authors who behave in erratic/batshit/-ist ways. :/

McMaster Bujold was at the top of my list of the three authors I tried, closely followed by Lauren Beukes. She gave the impression of being a masterful (no pun intended) conveyer of complex worlds in remarkably sparse, captivating prose.

[nanila]

There is insufficient Octavia Butler available for the Kindle. This is giving me grump, as I'm not allowing myself to purchase dead tree editions of things until after I move.

[nanila]

Aha, it was you who recommended Lauren Beukes! (I went on a bit of a buying spree for my Kindle after this post.) I'm 3/4 of the way through Zoo City and absolutely loving it. This is definitely a "will read more" author.