MutinyCrinshaw :anarchy_heart: on Nostr: #engenderedwriting 09. Is there a place for gender slurs in gender fiction? I should ...
#engenderedwriting 09. Is there a place for gender slurs in gender fiction?
I should imagine so. Gender slurs exist. Hopefully, a writer handles them responsibly. It's sort of incumbent on The Rest of Us to make sure we have a good idea of what that responsibility means & what we do about a writer or, more importantly, a publisher who betrays their responsibility to their audience(s).
So I guess the further question is, what does that responsibility look like, to me?
Earlier I said gender, to me, is a way we relate our bodies to our societies. I suppose slurs are a way our societies demean & reject us. So gender slurs are a way our society rejects us on account of our bodies.
So if you are writing about gender & gender slurs, it seems to me you are writing about bodily normativity. The policing of our bodily presentation, usually regarding reproduction (or the lack thereof). (Whereas, by contrast, race *seems* to be more about history & geography, although obviously the two overlap with biological phenotypes, political implications, &c. &c.)
So the question I would turn back to others is this: what role does bodily & sexual normativity play in your story? How are *you* thinking about these concepts, & what do you want to say about it through these characters?
As an audience, what do we want to see?
I should imagine so. Gender slurs exist. Hopefully, a writer handles them responsibly. It's sort of incumbent on The Rest of Us to make sure we have a good idea of what that responsibility means & what we do about a writer or, more importantly, a publisher who betrays their responsibility to their audience(s).
So I guess the further question is, what does that responsibility look like, to me?
Earlier I said gender, to me, is a way we relate our bodies to our societies. I suppose slurs are a way our societies demean & reject us. So gender slurs are a way our society rejects us on account of our bodies.
So if you are writing about gender & gender slurs, it seems to me you are writing about bodily normativity. The policing of our bodily presentation, usually regarding reproduction (or the lack thereof). (Whereas, by contrast, race *seems* to be more about history & geography, although obviously the two overlap with biological phenotypes, political implications, &c. &c.)
So the question I would turn back to others is this: what role does bodily & sexual normativity play in your story? How are *you* thinking about these concepts, & what do you want to say about it through these characters?
As an audience, what do we want to see?