We live in a world that has taught us since we were very little that woman, non-binary people and other gender minorities do not deserve to take up space, specially within our stories, if they don’t have something to give over to cisgender men. It doesn’t matter if I am a feminist, anti-patriarchy, and looking for (trans) gender liberation. There is always that first… not a thought, not even an idea, is an impulse of prioritizing cisgender men, giving them the benefit of the doubt, listening to them and reading their stories. As a writer, I go about fighting such indoctrination by writing main characters that fall under the gender-minority umbrella. Though I have written once or twice about cisgender men, I do make a conscious effort of centering the experiences of trans men, cis and trans women plus non-binary folk. And it is difficult, although it sounds so simple. Even Ursula K. Le Guin, author of the Terramar series, couldn’t imagine a female protagonist in a fantasy story while writing her hit books. However as I grow it has been easier to catch that little impulse before I even start outlining. As a reader though, it is immensely more difficult. For me this is because reading is a passive activity while writing is an active one. I can not “read as a writer” and as a way to deal with some poorly constructed media I love, I tend to not care for the plot all that much. When I’m reading I let myself go into the words of the writer and whatever emotional adventure they have planned for me. Discovering tropes and stereotypes to watch out for while writing have helped me identify them while consuming media, however. Now I am able to identify when a character gets screwed over, the narrator paints them in an unfair bad light, or they are just a stereotype. However, it is more difficult than that, as @tombilboos writes on tumblr: “female characters often have weaker writing compared to male characters” and “audience is unable to appreciate female characters no matter the quality of the writing because they subconsciously see female characters as women first and people second” are two statements that can, should and will coexist” Recently, I wrote an article where I recommended 5 different books, of those five, only two (2) had a female protagonist. I’ve been reading a lot of books this summer, but I can’t named a book with a trans woman protagonist that I have read, and my favorite book at the moment is the coming-of-age story of a cisgender boy. Although there is nothing wrong with me liking stuff, there is a big sign of internalized misogyny painted all over my bookshelf (and e-book library). What can I do about it? Well for starters look for books about gender minorities by gender minorities (I’m sorry cis men you are great writers but I can’t trust you about this). Second, actively question my impulses: why am I choosing this book to read instead of the other? Thirdly, give space for the characters to be messy, flawed and a bit annoying at times (I support trans rights but I also support trans wrongs). Like Beth Aderhold says in this article: “Giving space to female characters to make mistakes and grow is just as important as growing ourselves and allowing each other the time to break out of the cage that society forced us into, but made us believe we put ourselves there.” Lastly, write fanfiction! The first f/f ship (read: Fanfiction 101: main genres) in AO3 [Most Popular] Ships Stats of 2022 is in the 28 position (twenty-eight) of 100. It is no secret that fandom lacks sapphic content but I didn’t know it was this drastic. If you struggle like me, and found your bookshelf to be painfully masculine and want to add a sparkle of femininity here are some books I love with women and non-binary main characters within the #ownvoices:
To conclude, I have a problem, a problem that I am not alone with. I have read posts about people that struggle like me, saying that they rather not read about women (and other gender minorities) because it doesn’t allow them the escapism they crave or because gender minorities are [insert bunch of stereotypes here]. However, we need to challenge those feelings, admit that we struggle with internalized misogyny and make actions to battle it, not only as readers but as people. In this article I went about exploring this issue with fiction in mind but if you want to read about a similar experience in regards to non-fiction I suggest “How Reading Made Me More Aware Of My Internalized Misogyny” by Shruthi Sundaram. Ari Ochoa Petzois a Mexican-Venezuelan bi genderfluid writer. They like dancing to old music and history. In their free time you can find xem trying to coerce their friends to participate in another of their crazy projects.
MORE FROM THIS AUTHOR:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.Categories
All
Archives
May 2023
|