Writing Treatise VI Gender and Ethnicity

 

VI Gender and Ethnicity

                Gender:
                A modern discussion, one could almost argue a strange one in concern of literature. There is a push, mostly through film, for getting gender covered. However, there are arguments of doing it right versus just doing it? A part from Hollywood blunders, I find those blunders leaking into modern literature. Yes, American mass market media often underrepresents woman, trans, and other gender forms. I will not argue against that. However, media with strong female characters do exist and have existed forever written by both male and female writers. That is why this is a strange notion; it is treated as if these prexsiting characters do not exist at least they are not drawn upon in the current discourse. One can look easily at Ursula Le Guin and Andre Norton and point to strong female writers writing strong female characters. Yet, for some reason; there is this need to reinvent the wheel as a mass media plug in. Again, it is a strange argument. There was a colleague of mine, a professor of philosophy, “who argued let the woman have their twilight as they have nothing else.” I wanted to deck him in the face at what a silly argument. Again, there are works out there with plenty of depth written by strong female writers with strong female characters that have existed for a long time.  There is a strange perception of ignoring strong woman writers by the market, and a weird association of woman as audience onto of all of this. Yet, that point stands there is a struggle to express good stories in the market from a gender standpoint. Falling on tropes or perceived notions can blind us to deeper issues at stake in our daily life in our own gender and sexual identities. If such is a part of the tale it can be very powerful to audience if proper respect is taken care when exploring that identity and its everyday expression.

*Quick Note*
The anthropological definition of sex and gender:
Sex: The biological components both genetically and physically that define someone. There are more than two sexes in biology.

Gender:  The cultural script one expresses their individual roles within a society, often based on sex.  Cultures can have multiple scripts beyond just male and female sexes.  Individuals may feel partial to a script that defies a standard norm. Also a gender standard norm may no longer serve its purpose. This leads to conflict of identity. At the same time it creates a larger argument of why does gender really matter when an individual is an individual the way they wish to be.

                The first argument: Gender of character unless it is tied to an aspect of plot does not matter. There are plenty of stories that can be told and switch out genders and the character will not change.
                The Second Argument: Tableaux in the tale exists, the audience has its expectations in certain tale formulas that exist for the work to function. A knight rescuing a princess from a dragon is a knight rescuing a princess from a dragon. That does not mean it cannot be a female knight rescuing a prince from the dragon, but this is not the same tale formula, it is its own tale, a very similar one, but not the same tale.
                Third argument: Stories are locked culturally in their settings and so thinking on what it means to be a male, female, trans, something else can be a powerful tool for storytelling.
                The Fourth Argument: Characters are designed by you the author, you’re in control. Don’t feel like you have to make your characters anything gender wise you don’t want to. It is your story; you’re in control. Just make sure it pays slight attention to the second argument if you write a classic tale formula, and respect the third argument form matching function. In modern settings it’s very easy to well, not a give beep about what is what; do as you want.

Ethnicity:
                This also seems to be a fill in blunder in mass media. However, ethnicity is definitely underrepresented and misrepresented in media. It is a long hard fought battle in a now globalized world where people can now tell their own tales, but class stratification keeps many from pursuing the life of writing fiction or pursuing education to be trained in writing and a mass market which does not care about them.  Again, it is the plugging in of roles that leads to situations and often becomes tropes in their own way that do not provide realness to the character. There are two layers to this. The first is often an ancient and false notion of race, there is no different race simply a genetic variation of skin pigmentation. I think though that this is well understood. Our skin pigmentation should not matter, but often does due to gaze and existing systems within a culture. Due to these systems people may be or not be an included, removed from sight, disenfranchised, and not given power within a tale. The market and media cuts people out and frames often too much on skin pigmentation leading to issues. Simply being aware that such exists can make quite a difference to someone’s day.  This gets back to responsibility in the story. People are people. Respect your story, yourself, and audience. That is a power of the anthropomorphic and the animal as they reflect us in all our beautiful hues. The second layer is tied culturally. We like to pretend there to be a single massive culture, but the world and people are complex. It is a mixture of class, geography, upbringing, power barriers and dynamics, and as always a search for identity.  It is difficult as individuals to understand the other and that we too are another in the other people’s lives. There is a variation of multiple layers that make up the whole, but we are trained to perceive a whole which may or may not be partially true in at least our own ideal vision of the world. This leads to a lot of conflict of the small parts versus the perceived whole. The perceived larger whole of ethnical identity overshadows the small. When we paint general broad strokes of that whole it can reach many people. Yet, there are those we leave out of the narrative even if not intentional. Working with the small groups we can provide narrative voice and great storytelling mechanics, but it may lead to friction and uncomforatiblity for the whole. At the same time one can argue this uncomforatiblity, even if not good for the market at first glance, can be very healthy for creating self-growth and understanding.  Responsibility and care and perhaps a little research can go a long way.

                The first argument: Ethnicity of character unless it is tied to an aspect of plot does not matter. There are plenty of stories that can be told and switch out ethnicities and the character will not change.
                The Second Argument: Stories are locked culturally in their settings and so thinking on what it means to be someone of an ethnicity can be a powerful tool for storytelling.
                The third argument: Stereotypes exist; stereotypes are not tableaux in the tale formula. Beware stereotypes; they do not make a character. There is the old argument there is always truth to stereotype, but measure your teaspoons correctly as stereotype is not character and miffs audience.
                The Fourth Argument: Characters are designed by you the author; you’re in control. Don’t feel like you have to make your characters anything ethnicity wise. Beware of the third argument. Pay attention to the second argument form matching function. In Modern settings it’s very easy to well, not give a beep about what is what; do as you want.

So some fast rules to not do Hollywood blunders:

1.       Do not force characters to be blank if it is not needed. Now following the first argument gender of characters much like ethnicity does not matter for many stories. However, following the third argument there is usually cultural baggage and interesting things to explore in a work for characters to exist as is. Beware though the tropes of filling in casts. Pretty much the line here is you do not have to force anyone in anything. 
 

2.       Strength of character is strength of character. People have flaws which can be a strength. Do not tell us these characters are strong; show us through their actions, words, failures, successes. Most often show us through their relationships. This is often missed.

3.       With gender do not invert to make the gender strong, simply make it so naturally. This is the one I catch younger writers doing simply writing of a character as an inventor, warrior, or scientist and leaving it at that as an excuse that this character is strong, when not realizing the insides are all missing. 

4.       Again beware stereotypes. A small tea spoon maybe ok, but they are not the character.

5.       Just do some research? You know men, woman, trans folk, other folk, folks of all shapes and colors, ask for their input, pull from your memories.

 

6.       Know that we are all people and we are writing the human story.

Gender as character:

                 Gender is not the end all and be all character. This is the trap I find many young authors falling into. There can be plots about the definition of gender as it relates to character, their struggles with gender in a culture milieu, but they are not just their gender. The character does not end with and be just that.

Gender and the sexy:

                 Again, sex should not be cheap. However, back to setting and rhetoric and culture. It is a weird circular argument.  Attraction is a natural part of our biology.  We have ideas of aesthetics and what is sexy whether if “good” or “bad.” In all honesty we have fetishes for anything under the sun. Nonetheless, keep your rhetoric triangle in mind when dealing with the sexy. Is it appropriate for setting? Does it make sense for character or does it cheapen them? What we do again marks our characters and ourselves. Fictional characters are fictional, but still contain powers as symbols in the eye of the reader. Gaze exists both male and female in attraction. Gaze also reflects self in the looking. How character look and how they gaze at others and internally look at themselves is something that needs considered in the balance of the rhetorical triangle. The right to look, be sexy, be not sexy ourselves, to not look all tied to social rules. Again, this is reflected in setting, but exploring these notions instead of just throwing them out there can be potent storytelling and character developing tools. 

Ethnicity as character: 

                Ethnicity is tied to culture perception of ethnicity. It contains both perceptions real and unreal of identity tied to self and often past concepts of self. It also conflicts with other ethnicities over that identity. The individual and their struggles with it can play out in many forms. This all very much depends on setting. True, ethnicity is not the be all and end all of character, but unless you have very flat society in concern of ethnicity it will play a lot into character. Remember what is shown and what is left out both in the world you are writing and in real life. We as author’s and as individuals can are very blind to things in the world concerning our fellow human beings based on what we see or not see day to day. The right character at the right place and time can make all the difference in the world to audience. This can make a great difference in character and bringing ethnicity to the forefront.

                Ultimately people are people with dreams, wishes, struggles, depth, treat them as such. Make sure that you consider the arguments of the importance of this in the work.  It all comes down to one word, Respect.