Sunday 2 July 2017

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Discussion: The Issues People Have With #OwnVoices

Discussion: The Issues People Have With #OwnVoices

I think we can all agree how important #OwnVoices - novels about marginalised character/s by authors who share their marginalisation/s - novels are. But #OwnVoices has been getting a bit of a bad rap lately, and I thought I would discuss the problems some people have.

There are a few issues people have with it. Or, really, not #OwnVoices itself, but the ideas people have about #OwnVoices. One idea is that we should prioritise #OwnVoices novels. The second is that if you are a marginalised author, you should write about your marginalisation/s.

It can make some authors feel pressured to talk about their marginalisations. Let's take the example of a gay author. If a gay author wrote about a gay character, but aren't not open to the public at large about their sexuality, there's the pressure for them to come out about their sexuality to claim that their book is #OwnVoices. That on it's own is pretty crap. What they wish to keep private is their choice, they shouldn't be pressured into being out to people they don't even know about their sexuality. But because most feel it's important to prioritise #OwnVoices stories, and they choose not to reveal their sexuality, then others' #OwnVoices stories with gay characters will be picked up over theirs, because people want the best representation possible. I used a gay author as an example here, but this can be used for any invisible marginalisations, anything an author may wish to keep private.

If we only prioritise books that are known to be #OwnVoices, we may be missing on other books that actually do have good rep. Just because a book isn't known to be #OwnVoices, doesn't necessarily mean it isn't.

Then there's the idea that authors should write about their marginalisations. Let's use the example anxiety. If an author suffers from anxiety, they should write books about characters with anxiety. But what if they don't want to? What if their anxiety rules their life enough, and they don't want it to be a part of their fiction, too. Or, what if they do write a book featuring a character who has anxiety, and then for their next book they want to write about a character who doesn't have my marginalisations?

Let's take that further, because there's also the idea that, not only should authors write about their own marginalisation/s, authors shouldn't write about marginalised groups they don't belong to. What if the gay author and/or the author with anxiety is/are white, cisgendered, non-disabled, an atheist. So, if they choose not to write about their own marginalisations, or do write about gay or anxious characters, and now want to write something different, but shouldn't write about other marginalised groups, the only thing they can write is a book whose main character is from no marginalised group at all. And books without diversity are also criticised. So they'd be stuck between a rock and a hard place.

I'm not sure there's an answer, really. I'm not saying we should no longer use "#OwnVoices", but maybe we should think about it a little differently. Maybe read some diverse non-#OwnVoices as well as those that are. Maybe not demand that authors - of any marginalisation, whether visible or not - write #OwnVoices stories, as if we are entitled to them.

Also, consider what S. Jae-Jones says in answer to the question, why did you choose to write a European story instead of something Asian? We don't know everything about an author. We don't know their past, their background. We shouldn't demand anything of an author, one way or the other.

What do you think? Or are there any problems with #OwnVoices that people have that I've missed? Let me know!

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9 comments:

  1. To expect someone to write about a certain type of character is a bit like saying a person's marginalisation is the only thing that is important about them not everything else they have to say about being human. This debate has got quite complicated.

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    1. Exactly! *Exactly*! Of course we should read more diverse books, but we should't demand an author writes about their marginalisations.

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  2. You make some very good points here. And thank you so much for sharing S. Jae-Jones's response about her work. Sometimes we need to take a step back and remember that even though we want Own Voices work, we can't demand it. And we certainly can't determine what someone else's voice "should" be.

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. I love what you say about we not being able to determine what someone's voice should be. I think it's the perfect way to explain it. When it comes to what an author shouldn't write, it's a tricky thing. But they definitely shouldn't have to be confined to writing only one kind of stories.

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    2. Right? We shouldn't be telling marginalised authors what they should write. It's just not ok. And I agree with Reverie Society above, that's such a great way of putting it!

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  3. Speaking as someone who is from a marginalized group, I still want to read (and promote) #OwnVoices. However, I am also not saying that if you are from a marginalized group, you can't write about anything else. Or if you are NOT part of a marginalized group, yoh can't write about those marginalized. To me that is just false. I want to see other authors move out of their comfort zone and write about whatever topic, race, culture, inspiration they want to write. Thw only thing I will have a problem is when what they write is misrepresentation. I want authors to do research, especially if they aren't part of the group they are writing about.

    One example that I can give is about 2 books with a main character who has the same culture as me. With one author, she was writing from her voice and I absolutely loved it. The tiny nuancez from my culture was perfectly captured. That being said, I also enjoyed the other author who didn't write #ownvoices but I also enjoyed her book. Granting, I have a few issues with it, but it's just me nitpicking.

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    1. Oh, definitely. Representation is so important, and if an author is writing about a marginalised group, they really need to do their research, and do their utmost to get it as correct as possible. #OwnVoices will always do it better.

      But at the same time, there is also the argument where readers have been complaining that #OwnVoices authors aren't writing *their* experience of their marginalisation, so the author got the representation wrong. Which is just ridiculous. There is no monolith for any marginalised group, not everyone is going to experience everything the same as each other, and an author can only write their experience of their marginalisation. It gets tricky when people start making demands about what an author should write, and how they should write it.

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  4. You make some great points here. I have issues with #ownvoices as well because it seems that if an author doesn't write something containing a marginalized group they are shunned, especially in the YA community. It is great to feature a book with a certain marginalization, but it is stupid to shun an author for not writing what they don't know.
    Thanks for sharing!

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    1. I think the criticism comes from a general lack of marginalised characters. Let's take race for example; it does seem a little ridiculous for a white author to write about a white character, who knows absolutely no-one of any other race. All friends, family, teachers, and so forth, are white. That's just not realistic. We live in a multicultural society, and our books should reflect that. When I was at school, I was the only white English girl in my group of friends, and each one of us was of a different ethnicity. I had Black teachers and Asian teachers as well as white. And I have a multicultural family, too, with a Latina cousin, a half-French cousin, and half-Turkish cousins. I am white, but books with only white characters doesn't reflect my world or the people I know/knew as a teen.

      And I have to say, the more diverse books I read now, the more I'm noticing the lack of diversity in others. When every single person is white, cishet, non-disabled, without mental illness, of no religion or Christian... it's just not ok. Other people exist and they should be seen in the pages of our books.

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