I enjoyed this post very much and it resonates with me in lots of ways. I think you’re so right that representation (and other important things like understanding and empathy) are about much more than whether or not you fit certain categories of, say, gender, ethnicity, or class. It’s demeaning to anyone who does fit category X to assume that they are ‘representative’ of it, or (the other side of the coin) that the only story that they might have to tell is about their experience of being an X. (Which is a reductio ad absurdum, but it’s not so far from the way some people come across when they sound off about this.)
This may of course be self justification because I’m a poor match for the main character in my series. She’s female, not exactly white, and she’s 19 at the opening of the first book. But she’s the one who came to the fore as I was writing and demanded I tell her story, and she’s still at the centre as I am finishing the fourth book.
And I can’t be getting it totally wrong as the majority of my 5* reviews are from female readers.
Thanks for reading - I didn't mean it to be so long! I think if a writer takes care over the character, they ought to be able to write from whatever POV suits the story they're trying to tell, and if they have the writing ability they will get it as near to 'right' as anybody else would. I'm sure you've had quite enough of reading my words for today but a few years ago I wrote a piece about how absurd it would be to assume I would write female characters better than a male writer would, given what you might call my lack of experience: https://jacquelinesaville.substack.com/p/writing-another-gender
I enjoyed this post very much and it resonates with me in lots of ways. I think you’re so right that representation (and other important things like understanding and empathy) are about much more than whether or not you fit certain categories of, say, gender, ethnicity, or class. It’s demeaning to anyone who does fit category X to assume that they are ‘representative’ of it, or (the other side of the coin) that the only story that they might have to tell is about their experience of being an X. (Which is a reductio ad absurdum, but it’s not so far from the way some people come across when they sound off about this.)
This may of course be self justification because I’m a poor match for the main character in my series. She’s female, not exactly white, and she’s 19 at the opening of the first book. But she’s the one who came to the fore as I was writing and demanded I tell her story, and she’s still at the centre as I am finishing the fourth book.
And I can’t be getting it totally wrong as the majority of my 5* reviews are from female readers.
Thanks for reading - I didn't mean it to be so long! I think if a writer takes care over the character, they ought to be able to write from whatever POV suits the story they're trying to tell, and if they have the writing ability they will get it as near to 'right' as anybody else would. I'm sure you've had quite enough of reading my words for today but a few years ago I wrote a piece about how absurd it would be to assume I would write female characters better than a male writer would, given what you might call my lack of experience: https://jacquelinesaville.substack.com/p/writing-another-gender
And your initial point reminded me of an interesting panel discussion I went to via Zoom during lockdown, which included something about the dilemma of a gay writer who wants to not have any gay characters in his novel because that's what suits the story: https://jacquelinesaville.substack.com/p/inclusion-and-diversity-in-books-and-publishing