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On Inclusion
Mar. 29th, 2012 10:30 amAs oft she does, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
seanan_mcguire's newest post got me thinking. This time about representations in my writing of sexual orientation and ethnicity.
Queen's Choice is set in an alternate California, though you probably have to either know it or live here to be able to dig that out. Catalina-->Catalans, Santa Cruz-->Holy Crossings, San Francisco-->City of Seven Princes, Alcatraz-->Alcatraces, etc. Some places are minorly renamed, others are translated, others are renamed entirely, so... semi-obscure? But regardless, a fantasy California setting mandatorily includes, or at least implies, (1) people of Hispanic descent, (2) people of native descent, and (3) people of Asian descent.
Ethnically, I think I'm mostly okay. Rosemarinda, who is a fairly major secondary character, is Hispanic, though to date I've really only implied so in her physical description. Should I toss the occasional Spanish-flavored word into her text? Maybe. People of native descent I kind of fall down on; I have the nomadic People of the Woods, but they're more like ice-cold Tolkein elves than anything else. I should perhaps rethink this. As for characters of Asian heritage, I'm probably okay. Baron Greencove is half-Chungkwon, and Higami was raised in a Buddhist monastery wherein most of his teachers are Nipponese.
Sexuality-wise, I have no worries. One of my main four is unabashedly homosexual. Another is unabashedly heterosexual (...and poly). One I really don't know, though I suspect hetero, and one is bi. The queen is completely asexual. Which I admit is implied to be a negative thing, as it's one of those "it's your own fault/the price you paid for your end of this bargain" deals. Plotwise, I really can't change that. On the other end of the spectrum, however, there's the amorous lesbian sugar fairy succubus....
seanan_mcguire's newest post got me thinking. This time about representations in my writing of sexual orientation and ethnicity.Queen's Choice is set in an alternate California, though you probably have to either know it or live here to be able to dig that out. Catalina-->Catalans, Santa Cruz-->Holy Crossings, San Francisco-->City of Seven Princes, Alcatraz-->Alcatraces, etc. Some places are minorly renamed, others are translated, others are renamed entirely, so... semi-obscure? But regardless, a fantasy California setting mandatorily includes, or at least implies, (1) people of Hispanic descent, (2) people of native descent, and (3) people of Asian descent.
Ethnically, I think I'm mostly okay. Rosemarinda, who is a fairly major secondary character, is Hispanic, though to date I've really only implied so in her physical description. Should I toss the occasional Spanish-flavored word into her text? Maybe. People of native descent I kind of fall down on; I have the nomadic People of the Woods, but they're more like ice-cold Tolkein elves than anything else. I should perhaps rethink this. As for characters of Asian heritage, I'm probably okay. Baron Greencove is half-Chungkwon, and Higami was raised in a Buddhist monastery wherein most of his teachers are Nipponese.
Sexuality-wise, I have no worries. One of my main four is unabashedly homosexual. Another is unabashedly heterosexual (...and poly). One I really don't know, though I suspect hetero, and one is bi. The queen is completely asexual. Which I admit is implied to be a negative thing, as it's one of those "it's your own fault/the price you paid for your end of this bargain" deals. Plotwise, I really can't change that. On the other end of the spectrum, however, there's the amorous lesbian sugar fairy succubus....
