(no subject)

[astridv]

I feel vaguely guilty for not putting my foot where my mouth is and commenting on the cultural appropriation issue. It's not so much that I'm afraid of unwittingly offending people (thought that does play into it) but mostly that my thoughts are scattered and too unstructured and don't make that much sense.

But I have given it a lot of thought these past days. And... I guess I realized that *not* having given it a lot of thought before now - that's the kind of luxury I have, and never quite realized having. This has been very revealing. I can only say that I'll try to be more aware, when it comes to my own work as well.

[eta: Cultural appropriation link roundup]

Comments

[rahirah]

It's not really a conversation I would want to enter, since I can't sling the appropriate ten-dollar words around. It's something I have thought about, because it's been an issue personally in re: depictions of the GLBT community in mainstream media, and locally in regards to Native American issues--there's always been low-level controversy in Arizona about that. But some of the discussion I see just makes my head spin.

[(Anonymous)]

It's not really a conversation I would want to enter, since I can't sling the appropriate ten-dollar words around.

Then there's that. I'm glad you say that, I already feel 27% less stupid. *sheepish grin*

Huh, logged out?

[astridv.livejournal.com]

That was me. What's with Firefox lately?

[makd.livejournal.com]

Interesting...These are "old" arguments, actually, in terms of sociological and anthropological writings and theorizing on the subject. Didn't know the arguments were still being waged, however, in Sci-Fi and Fanfic quarters. So, clearly, this fanfic reader has her head somewhere it shouldn't be.

Still: interesting to see the debates and the what-fors.

(some of the lj's are locked, but no matter: enough were public for me to see the situation.)

thanks, Astrid.

[astridv.livejournal.com]

[Grg, my computer crashed and ate my reply... I'll post quickly before it crashes again...]
It's a very interesting debate, but one I have no desire getting involved in. The whole thing looks like a minefield.

I personally think that some of the misunderstanding and knee-jerk defensiveness could've been prevented it the Wiscon folks had chosen a different word: cultural appropriation is meant neutrally here, and a lot of people keep repeating that, but it does have a really negative connotation (and if people google the phrase the end up at the Wikipedia entry which confirms that.) So we get a whole straw men army, people arguing their right to write other cultures while that was never questioned in the first place. Hey, if anyone ever tells me I can't write about a culture other than my own, just watch me argue until smoke comes out of my ears. But no one's saying that.

What a mess. But enlightening nonetheless.