Came In Like A Phoenix Emperor

He-Man: has Skeletor

1, This is not a restriction that any writers in any other venue have to deal with, wtf, or the entire YA genre would be banished; 2, Excuse you, children of Tumblr, no one is thinking about you.

If other people in fandom are older than you, by definition, they have been your age. When fans write about younger characters, we’re not peering through a keyhole at young people now and creeping on them.

We are drawing on our own experiences, thoughts, feelings and memories of what it was like when we were that age.

No one has the right to ask older writers to cut themselves off from their own past just because young’uns don’t want to acknowledge that people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, all of them, were also young once. I’m 41, but I remember vividly what it was like to be 14. If I write a high school AU, it’s about my high school experience, even if I were to set it in the present day and decorate it with some (probably comically out of touch) Stuff The Kids Are Into Now. If I write a high school AU with sex, it’s because I remember that too! I’m not thinking about kids today, why would I– I have my own experiences to draw on. And honestly, sometimes there are things about being young that you don’t really understand until you’re much older and have some perspective– and that’s worth writing about.

1) We’re making them uncomfortable by writing teen characters

2) there are all these adult characters we should be writing about instead

3) they’re here for escapism and don’t like being reminded of ‘things like that’

To which it must be said:

1) if you’re uncomfortable, stop reading it. It’s not our job to babyproof fandom for you. It’s your job to recognize personal boundaries and protect yourself. Fandom is a shared space. Get used to it.

2) we write about the characters we find interesting, same way you do. Age has very little to do with that. I know you don’t believe me now, but I also know you’ll understand when you’re older.

A PSA 💖💜💙

black and white morality wherein anyone who doesn’t believe/think/live exactly as I do is a dirty sinner Problematic and probably a predatory monster

everyone is a sinner Problematic but true believers people who activist the right way according to my worldview are still better than everyone else, and I will act in accordance to this belief in my own superiority to let everyone else know I’m better than them because I found Jesus am the most woke

casual and fucking omnipresent equations of womanhood with softness/goodness/purity/nurturing to remind every woman who isn’t/doesn’t want to be any of those things that they’re doing it wrong

aggressive desexualization (particularly of women’s sexuality, to the point where it may as well not exist at all) accompanied by pastels [not a criticism directed ace ppl having a right to sex-free content and spaces but specifically targeted at a wider problem resulting from the previous point]

YOU’RE VALID AND JESUS LOVES YOU and neither of these platitudes achieves a goddamn thing

historical context is for people who care about nuance and we don’t have time for either (see: black and white morality)

lots of slogans and quotes and nice little soundbites to memorize but does anybody actually study the source material with a critical eye to make their own informed analysis

the answer is no

I’ve been to bible study groups don’t @ me I know what the fuck I’m talking about

Good Christians™ Nice Gays™ don’t fraternize with/let themselves be influenced by non-Christians those terrible queers

all the media one consumes must be ideologically pure or it will surely harm the children

it is Our Sacred Duty to protect the children from Everything, thus ensuring their innocence/purity/etc until such time as they are idk probably 25 years old

literally just “think of the children” moral panic y’all can fuckin miss me with that

people who don’t conform to the dominant thinking WILL be excommunicated/driven from the social group, and any wrong treatment they suffer will be seen as a justified consequence of their wrong thinking

People of color are significantly underrepresented.

The “But Europe was white! We need to be *historically accurate*! Having characters of color would be *unrealistic*” excuse is bullshit. Not to mention that imbeciles often use it for fantasy books.

I’m sorry that you wasted your time typing this instead of reading my replies to other folks who have made that second point, but I’ll reiterate. I’m so over it. It’s cheesy, it’s overused, and it’s wrong. Fantasy books, while being known for using things like dragons, mermaids, faeries, magic systems and building whole knew worlds, countries and laws, often still use humanoid characters, real places and old lore & historical events as their base. What these characters look like is strongly influenced by the people who live around the author. It’s not about accuracy as much as it’s about your surroundings and cultural influences.

That being said, it won’t be surprising that a person who lives in a majority white country will write a book with a majority of white characters. Just like a writer who lives in a majority black country would likely write a book with a majority or exclusively black characters, or a writer who lives in a majority Asian country will write a book with a majority or exclusively Asian characters. This isn’t racism or discrimination or a lack of diversity for the sake of not being diverse. People like writing what they see and what they know, and I hate to break this to you, but if you look around and you see mostly white people, you’re probably gonna write about mostly white people. That doesn’t have to be true, and I don’t think it’s a problem (or rare) for authors to make a conscious effort to write black or brown characters as long as they’re interesting and help move the plot forward, but the fact remains.

I don’t know what you were trying to convey in your last point, but if your goal is to become a truly good writer, you should be focusing on writing the best story possible. If you’re a reader, you should be focused on the story’s plot, themes, messages, character development, etc. If you feel like there’s something missing in the books you’re reading, and if you have the skill to do so, you should be writing the books you want to see instead of demanding it from other writers.

Out of 100 main characters, less than a third are women. And that’s if we count characters whose sole functions are “love interest”, “pretty prop”, and “sacrificial victim”.

I haven’t read a book in recent memory that was written without important people of color, or that hasn’t spoken on issues of racism/sexism/homophobia in one way or another.

Good for you.

I’m sorry that you wasted your time typing this instead of reading my replies to other folks who have made that second point, but I’ll reiterate. I’m so over it. It’s cheesy, it’s overused, and it’s wrong. Fantasy books, while being known for using things like dragons, mermaids, faeries, magic systems and building whole knew worlds, countries and laws, often still use humanoid characters, real places and old lore & historical events as their base.

SOMEHOW, this doesn’t apply to non-white places, lore, or historical events.

So, no. Fuck that excuse. The instant you whip out that excuse, you’ve already lost.

That being said, it won’t be surprising that a person who lives in a majority white country will write a book with a majority of white characters.

It’s surprising that authors who live in a majority white country consistently fail to reach even half of the non-white representation in that same country. Or that the non.white representation they DO write is often shit and/or a background prop.

Oh, wait, no, it’s not surprising at all. It’s because those authors’s idea of a fantasy world is “a world with less non-white people in it”.

I don’t know what you were trying to convey in your last point, but if your goal is to become a truly good writer, you should be focusing on writing the best story possible.

A story that makes all characters the exact same is NOT “the best story possible”. And whipping out the “but historical accuracy” excuse automatically makes it worse.

If you’re a reader, you should be focused on the story’s plot, themes, messages, character development, etc.

Exactly. A story that barely has any perspective besides “white, male, cis, straight, able-bodied guy” has a banal plot, a general theme of active erasure of other identities, and gives the messages that non-privileged identities aren’t worth telling. Add in a marginalized character that is a shitty stereotype (which is bad/non-existing character development), and you get a waste of money and time.

If you feel like there’s something missing in the books you’re reading, and if you have the skill to do so, you should be writing the books you want to see instead of demanding it from other writers.

This right in: criticisam is forbidden.

Not to mention how “Then why don’t YOU write it?” conveniently ignoreit’s counterpart: “Why do you have to pander to SJWs?”. And that crowd is a lot more loud than the “Why there isn’t enough representation?” crowd. Like “mass-canceling orders because ONE CHARACTER mentioned sex-changing potions in an optional and out-of-the-way dialogue option” loud.

Readers have a history of being entitled pricks, but we have moved into a territory where people like you are consistently trying to interfere in or alter someone’s creative process for your the sake of social justice and I find that egregious.

2. How about no dismissing the fact that, for some reason, I’m capable of finding the books with all the representation and you’re not. That says something. Like, maybe you don’t read as much as you think you do, or your purposefully ignoring the books with all the representation for the sake of your narrative.

3. Hell yeah, boy! Pick those cherries! ANYWAY, I wrote that this applies to non-white places and it should be assumed that it also applies to a black or asian author’s cultural lore. You either ignored that piece, or you’re not reading my responses fully. Both are your fault. I’ll say this again for you: If an author lives in a majority asian or black country, they will probably write a majority asian or black cast and obviously they will write about the lore and history of their countries. This isn’t a problem, this isn’t racism. It just is.

4. You have no idea how writers think (not that we’re a monolith in the first place) and it’s obvious at this point in your reply that you don’t read fantasy novels regularly enough to have an educated opinion on this. Moving on.

5. If your novel has a variety of characters with interesting and relatable personalities and histories, their skin color or gender shouldn’t matter. I can relate to any character if we share key personality traits. I’ve related to characters that are as unlike me in appearance and identity and ability as you can imagine, and I’ve accomplished this by not being shallow as fuck. You should try it out some time.

6. Some of the most popular fantasy books today are not exclusively lead by straight white men. Many are multi-perspective novels that follow a variety of characters with neat personalities personalities and skill sets and backgrounds. But then again, you’d actually have to read one of these fantasy books to know that.

7. Criticism is not forbidden. Invalid criticism should be ignored. Invalid being, “I didn’t see a character that looked like me in this book, so I’m going to ignore all of the amazing plot points, great characters and interesting dialogue and give it a bad rating.” A book is good because the writing is good, not because the characters are a certain gender or skin color.

Not to mention how “Then why don’t YOU write it?” conveniently ignoreit’s counterpart: “Why do you have to pander to SJWs?”

Not only is that point very childish, neither side you mentioned are the majority. Most people who read books don’t give a damn about race or gender of a character, or whether something vaguely LGBT was mentioned. You’re just neck deep in internet culture and that doesn’t mean what you’re seeing here reflects what’s really going on in the real world.

Me: not to worry, I have a permit

Them: this just says “I can do what I want.”