IBARW 2: On the modeling industry, writing colorblank, personal experience, and link discussion

For general details, see my introduction post.

IBARW is almost over, and I've been working on this post for almost three days now. I still don't have a narrow topic. Everyone else is more mature and way more knowledgeable on the topic, as well as already covering a lot of things.

Oh look! I found something. This model for Marni is one of the few Asians in the industry, and she's so pale she might as well be white. I think the day-to-day encounters with racism are what frustrate me the most. That photo makes me so angry, and yet as oyceter said (wrote?), anger never helps discussions about racism. In the workplace, in schools, in life--racism is here to stay, but if I as a POC complain about, say, white privilege, most of the white people in the room will immediately rebut. White people are allowed to get angry about things that seem unfair to them--like affirmative action--but POC aren't allowed to complain about things that seem unfair to us. It's a vicious cycle.

Like many POC, for a long time I pretended to be white--calling my skin color "tan" instead of yellow or Asian, pretending not to care when everyone exclaimed over my 'tiny Japanese eyes" (I'm Chinese, FYI), and of course writing colorblind. Others, like John Scalzi, write colorblank--they know and think of their characters as multiracial but choose not to note race at all in their writing. And though I disagree with that, it's their choice. But the major burden lies with the writer--not the reader. The writer must choose to

I also notice that I've never considered a story--even in my head--involving black characters. I simply didn't include them in my worldbuilding, though Asian and Middle Eastern are represented. Is that personal prejudice, ingrained by my own Chinese heritage? Yet another example that POC can still be racist.

When I lived in Newfoundland, I remember there was only one black girl in the entire school (and only a few more Asians). But though I never spoke out directly against her, neither did I try to be actively antiracist. That's something I'm ashamed of now, because not-racist /=/ anti-racist. In fact, I would argue that being not-racist does equal good (notice I did not say harm) as being racist.

Then there are articles such as this one, calling race "the final frontier" in science fiction. I dislike the implication that one must be black/POC to write about race. Also, this paragraph:

The tendency to lump all black speculative fiction writers together also fails to acknowledge that these authors don't always tackle racial issues in their work. Robert Devney, 55, a longtime fan who attended the Readercon convention, calls Delany's "Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand" one of his favorite novels. But Devney, who is white, says of Delany's approach to race, "It's occasionally a point he wants to make and many times it isn't a point he wants to make."

seems, to me, is saying that as a black SF writer, Delany should be tackling racial issues in all his work. Are female writers expected to tackle sexism in all their writing? Are white writers expected to tackle any consistent issue in all their writing?

Just some food for thought.

And on a different -ism

Via StumbleUpon, surprisingly enough: The Male Privilege Checklist.

Magic Lessons, by Justine Larbalestier

Magic Lessons
by Justine Larbalestier
275 pages (hardcover)
Genre; Fiction/Fantasy/YA

A quick and breezy read. Reason, Jay-Tee, and Tom finally get magic lessons from Mere, while Jason Blake remains a looming menace and several plot revelations occur. This is book two of three, and it shows in the many loose threads left dangling by the end. The chapter endings were also often cliffhangers, teasing and slightly patronizing (although that might just be me overreading the subtext). There is more character development here than in Magic or Madness, enough that I'll probably read Magic's Child for the sake of completion (and because it won't take long). The metatext device of switching between Australian and American language is clever, but Larbalestier doesn't have a full grip on it. I found the Australian sections much more interesting--and would Danny, a native New Yorker, really say "littler"?

But still, this is a solid YA novel--kids will be engrossed in the story, and it only tends a little to the fluff side for adults. The love triangle, for one, is fascinating, and I love how Larbalestier doesn't shy away from mature issues that develop naturally from the plot. Recommended if it sounds like your thing, though read Magic or Madness first because there isn't much catch-up explanation here.

IBARW 2: Between Worlds, by Amy Ling (unfinished)

Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry
by Amy Ling
212 pages (hardcover)
Genre: Nonfiction

I have to return this to the library tomorrow, and unfortunately I'm only on Chapter 3 of 5. But I'll try my best to review it fairly, because it's definitely worthwhile reading for educating oneself on both racism and sexism. A Chinese woman suffered from two major oppressions: by the males of her own race, and by white people regardless of gender. The writing style is academic but accessible.

1. Writing As Rebellion, Historical and Contextual Backgrounds
An introduction of sorts, covering background information. Oriental stereotypes in the West, sexism in China, and the few Chinese-American women writers are all discussed. Very useful overview.

2. Pioneers and Paradigms: The Eaton Sisters
An entire chapter is devoted to analyzing the Eurasian sisters Edith and Winnifred Eaton, also known by the pen names Sui Sin Far and Onoto Watanna, respectively. Ling discusses at length the reasoning, implications, and consequences of the sisters' differing choices--Edith intentionally chose a Chinese-sounding name and aimed to become a martyr for the Chinese cause in America, while Winnifred chose to take on a Japanese identity and thus made a living off writing romance novels. The sisters, born of an American father and Chinese mother, also each wrote an autobiography (but again differing greatly) which sheds some light upon their choices.

In particular, the discussion of Chinese people being seen as heathens "in desperate need of Christian salvation" (48) disturbed me, not least because I don't believe that religion is necessary to be civilized and moral. And miscegnation, that term so debated in recent times, is also mentioned in telling how the interracial romances in Onoto Watanna's novels were acceptable "as long as the couple was white male/Japanese female" (51). In other words, as long as the white male was shown in a position of power and the Asian female as a stereotype.

3. Focus on China: Stances Patriotic, Critical, and Nostalgic
I am only on page 63, a little into this chapter, but it looks to be about exaclty what the title indicates. Detailed discussion of several Chinese-American writers and relevant themes in their writings.

4. Focus on America: Seeking a Self and a Place
From skimming, there is one section that I want to paraphrase. In discussing the autobiography Echo of a Cry by Mai-mai Sze, Ling quotes Sze after she purposefully sits next to a black woman in the cafeteria at college: "['Colored people'] still implies inferiority of a kind, doesn't it, as if 'colored people' were not up to others? When you think of it, we're all colored except the pure white man. And is there such a thing?" (107-8) That made me think of the widely used term POC (people of color), which suffers from the same negative connotation--but there isn't really a term to replace it yet, so we keep using it. (Although yhlee's "chromatic" shows promise.)

5. Righting Wrongs by Writing Wrongs
A difficult chapter to describe, but I will say that the conclusion on pages 177-9 speaks eloquently about the "between-world condition" of Chinese women in America.

The annotated bibliography on pages 191-9 is far too long to reproduce here, but I'll list authors cited under the cut so that the interested may seek out their work (though if you're that interested, I highly recommend reading this book first, at least the annotations).

( Not that long of a list )

And I'll note that my own family name appears above. But more importantly--what does it say, that all the known female Chinese-American writers can be named in a manageable list?

Ah, StumbleUpon...

I'm so behind on my essay, but let's channel-surf the internet anyway!

Via StumbleUpon: "Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." Can anyone read the attribution in that image? --Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler, thanks to roter_terror for pointing out the obvious (aka magical power of Google).