Political (in)correctness - or - Get Out of My Head, You

There was a cool panel at the HNS conference last week about whether and how authors should go about writing characters of a different gender/race/creed than their own. One person decried the "political correctness" of insisting that authors keep within their own gender/ethnic boundaries - a phrase I'm always suspicious of, since it never seems to mean exactly the same thing to any two people anywhere. Someone else suggested it was more of a marketing issue - editors want to make sure their target demographics are reached, and not "offended."

As an atheist (arguably a minority in the U.S.), I've read some atheist characters in fiction who were clearly NOT created by authors who shared these views, and who were reduced to shallow stereotypes that reflected the prejudices and misperceptions of the person typing. Personally offensive, sure - but far more important than that, it contributes to an overall climate of intolerance and misunderstanding. That's far more dangerous than just hurting my little old feelings.


Many of the analogies being tossed around at the panel were theater-based, about actors playing characters that transgress the physical boundaries of the actor, etc. Yet when I ask the question "So how do you feel about a white actor playing Othello?" I often am met with a long pause, followed by the ubiquitous, "Well, it would depend on the actor."

It certainly would. And in fiction, it depends on the author. When the intent is to seriously get inside the mind of an "Other" character and render him/her sympathetic (as in "believable," not nececssarily "nice"), that I can respect. If the intent is darker, however subconsciously, then you have problems.

Some case studies (and, incidentally, the first two are books I wish I'd written):

--Gone With the Wind - Good book? Certainly. Racist? Absolutely; the slaves enjoyed their slavery so much that they were very sad
when the mean Yankees came and forced freedom on them, etc.
So sayeth the white southern lady.

--Memoirs of a Geisha (double-winner that bends both race and gender)
- Western Cinderella story that did not play well at all in Japan (the
movie resoundingly flopped there as well).

--A nameless book that I am embarrassed to admit that I read in high
school (not histfic), in which a 50something white male convinces a
young African-American woman that she really does have a big chip on
her shoulder and this whole "racism" thing is really pretty much all in
her mind. Yeeerrrgghh. And then they have sex.


For better or for worse, we KNOW that histfic readers often take imaginative recreations as gospel truth. I can't feel that asking authors to think more carefully and explicitly about the ideology of their work doesn't seem like such a horrendous thing. For me there's a huge difference between a serious, sympathetic white Othello and a minstrel show.

But then, as my friends like to point out, I'm a godless heathen bleeding heart atheist liberal who hates all things good and righteous. And I'll be on a panel with you if you want to address this at the HNS conference in 2011. Takers?