Women in SF: Making UK Writers Invisible

Discussions of international speculative fiction tend to be very US-centric. Even when talking about diversity, it tends to be the diversity within the USA, not the diversity outside of it. This doesn't go away when a discussion is trying to be more inclusive. In fact, it causes a problem which affects me directly. The problem starts because discussions often go something like this:

"USA! US US US US US. Okay, now let's talk about somewhere other than the US or UK. Rest of the world, ahoy!"

And I'm thinking, "Wait a minute... we didn't talk about the UK."

It's not that I'm against talking about the rest of the world. It's a good thing, and I don't like to say my thoughts during those discussions for that reason (I think such discussions have already been derailed if they spend most of the time talking about the USA, so I'm not going to re-derail them). But this US = UK attitude is part of the US-centrism problem. It assumes the US represents the UK, in terms of culture, language and publishing.

The Women in SF debates have been a good example of differences between the US and the UK. In Cheryl Morgan's look at women being published in SF anthologies, the UK has a worse track record of publishing women who write science fiction than the US. When an editor was from the UK, only 16% of stories were by women. When the editor was from the US, 33% of stories were by women*.

Yet in the discussions, people were happily saying "well, if there aren't enough women writing SF in the UK, just invite some women from the US."

The problem in the UK isn't that women aren't writing science fiction, but that such women are considered to be mythical (other than a few exceptions) and that editors don't publish them very often (because they don't exist!)**. Hiring US writers in their place just encourages that invisibility. The more people say "hire US women then", the more invisible I feel, because it means the person saying it agrees with the general premise: that women writing science fiction in the UK simply don't exist to be hired.

Many prefer to focus on helping a hypothetical set of women, who might possibly write science fiction, given the right encouragement. The right encouragement being to hire women who aren't in the UK. As the hypothetical women are hypothetical, they aren't going to complain.

There aren't any easy solutions to this, but the first step is to acknowledge that there are women writing science fiction in the UK. They're just not getting published very often. Some may end up never getting published as a result. Others, like me, will jump ship and submit in other countries. The second step is to realise that importing successful women from other countries instead of hiring UK women isn't progress***. It's just reinforcing the current situation, where UK women writers are invisible.

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* One question it raises: why is there a difference? I can't say I'm treated with more sexism in everyday life in the UK. I've actually found the US worse on my visits. One possibility may be that UK publishing just hasn't faced the issue directly before. There's a lot more talk going on in the US publishing industry. Which is interesting, as some say talk never works and no one ever listens anyway... this would suggest perhaps they do, even if it's not immediately obvious.

** You'll note I didn't say "because editors hate stories by women". Though I know some firmly believe your plumbing changes the way you write, I don't. About the only thing that makes me think a man wrote it is when a female character looks into a mirror and says: "I couldn't help but admire my shapely and plump breasts. I never tired of oggling myself." I'd note neither men or women are prone to male characters looking in a mirror and saying: "I couldn't help but admire my shapely and plump balls. I never tired of oggling myself."

Fortunately, all forms of mirror oggling appear to be on the decline.

*** 'Instead of' is important to note here. An anthology with stories from all over the world would be great. But hiring women from elsewhere so you can pretend UK women writers don't exist is not so great.

Elements of Style (Comic)

A moment of humour, courtesy of xkcd. Follow the footnote for the full text description of the comic*:

This left me wondering if there really was Strunk/White fanfiction, but I'm not brave enough to go looking for it.

Though I noted an odd thing about hair in xkcd. Stickwomen have hair. Stickmen don't. Except if they're bald... then they have a little bit of hair. So bald men have more hair than men with hair. There's probably something deep and symbolic about that.

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* A stickwoman with her hair in a bun sits at a computer reading out the text. Behind her, two stickmen stand - one holding a book (no hair shown) and one smoking a pipe (a little bit of hair, to show balding). Comic text reads:

Dear Internet,

We, the current editors of Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, must - with great reluctance - clarify a point of orthography:

"Strunk & White" should be used for the style manual and "Strunk/White" for the erotic fan fiction pairing.

On Mass Character Death

~ Contains vague death-related spoilers for Torchwood (series 2 and 3) and George R. R. Martin. Doesn't include character names. ~

The most recent series of Torchwood started today*. I didn't watch it.

I could have done, but I didn't actually watch the third series either. I just read some spoilers online, to confirm that what happened is what I suspected would happen.

Why? Because everybody died in series two. Well, not everybody, but a substantial number of the original characters die, all at the same time. Then one of the few survivors dies in the next series. Both my favourite and second favourite characters died. Watching the new series would be starting again. Only this time, I know there isn't much point getting attached to anyone. They'll all die. I decided to skip it instead.

~ * ~

I've resisted reading anything by George R. R. Martin. Grittydarkland isn't my favourite fantasy setting in the first place, but the high death rate described means the chances of actually getting past book one would be slim. Why keep reading if the characters I like keep dying?

Yet people are still sure I'll like the books. I can't fathom why**.

~ * ~

The argument is always that if you don't kill characters, people don't take death threats seriously. There's some merit in this. Sometimes characters need to die. But it can be taken too far. At the point where I don't consider death a threat, but a certainty for every character, there's no tension left.

On the other side, I don't have an issue with horror stories that kill the survivors at the end. Such stories are rarely intended to be series, so I've had characters stay alive to tell the story for as long as they needed to be alive. (It's saying something when I trust a horror story to keep the characters alive more than a non-horror story.)

But killing everyone halfway through the tale... I'm never going to find that fun.

~ * ~

Do you love the carnage? Wish characters could survive at least to the end of the story? Related rantage welcome.

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* 'Today' is somewhat relative for a nocturnal person, and unrelated to actual calendar day.

** Though I suspect it's related to a previous comment on book recommendations. Some tend to assume everyone will like anything they like, regardless of stated preferences.

NAinUF: Characters I - Main Characters

Native American characters in urban fantasy do conform to a lot of basic stereotypes, which can be found in other genres too. The books that avoid them are mainly those written by Native American authors (but these are too small a percentage to make much impact overall). This post discusses some of the most common traits and some of the stereotypes behind them, in reference to main characters. Some of this is an expansion of issues first raised in Indigenous and Colonial Approaches.

Part II discusses supporting characters.

By Non-Native Authors

A main character is often mixed race Northern European / Native American, and usually a woman. If she's an uneven mix, Northern European will dominate. It's very rare for other racial mixes to exist.

Being mixed race is often used to justify:

• Native American supernatural abilities, such as being a medicine woman, skinwalker or shaman (note that shaman is a term used by anthropologists... some books seem to understand that and others don't). It's very clear in Native American beliefs that these things require training, yet they're often displayed as being innate skills requiring minimal training (if any).
  
  Characters never gain powers solely from their Northern European heritage (though in one case - Urban Shaman - it had some impact). There's no becoming a Celtic wizard or druid. It is possible for a character to have a magical power that's considered universal (in a world-view where all magic users are the same, but called different things in different places).
• Extra-special magical powers. In a world where everyone is magical, being part Native American makes a person even more magical.
• Lack of knowledge of Native American beliefs or traditions. It's not unusual for mixed race characters to have no knowledge of their Native American heritage, no desire to learn and possibly an aversion to learning. As the main characters knows little, if anything, about their Native American heritage, this means:
  • They're assimilated into a middle-class white culture.
  • They do not follow traditional Native American spiritualties. Nor have they every followed them. The lack of knowledge means most don't think about it, because it's never been part of their lives.
  • They have few, if any, Native American friends. If they are estranged from their family, it will be the Native American side of the family. They are usually raised by Northern Europeans (or if they are raised by the Native American side, still act as though they know nothing).

It's unusual to see:

• Main characters who aren't mixed race.
• Mixed race characters with races outside Northern European. It's unusual even to see other types of European.
• Mixed race characters as active members of their tribe.
• Urban Indians who are active members of their tribe.
• Characters who have been disconnected from their Native American heritage, but want to reconnect. It has to be said, it's more common in the real world for someone to be interested in their heritage than indifferent, but you wouldn't know it reading urban fantasy.
• Characters of mixed Native American ancestry. Most characters are descended from one tribe only. The main exception is Jennifer Talldeer (Scared Ground), who is Cherokee and Osage.
• Characters who are tribally enrolled. Note that one of the few characters who isn't mixed race - Jennifer Talldeer - is still not tribally enrolled. Her family has ethical objections to the idea of enrolment.

By Native American Authors

In many ways, you can take all that's been said so far and reverse it. Native authors are more likely to have characters who aren't mixed race, are active members of their tribe, know about their own people and have an extended Native American family. These characters are not more magical than everyone else and may not be magical at all. Roles such as being a medicine man/woman don't spontaneously happen to people.

However, there is generally a greater diversity of character types, rather than main characters being cardboard-cutout reversals.

But there aren't enough books by Native American authors to have much impact on the common traits of characters, so the mixed race* characters described above are the majority. Also note as said in previous posts, books by Native Americans authors often aren't classified as urban fantasy**, so wouldn't be on the radar of most urban fantasy readers anyway.

Thoughts

There's a clear trend in the main characters - their culture tends to be as white as possible (in a generic Northern European-descended way). Anything that might highlight their Native Americaness, outside of unusually strong magical powers (a stereotype) and tanned skin (rarely to the point that anyone notices they aren't white), is removed. Native American family members are gone, the tribe is far away and the characters want no part in any of it.

This is often justified by having part-European ancestry, but not always. In the case of Jennifer Talldeer, her family happen to believe that living in a white middle-class neighbourhood is the true way to be an Indian. It's telling that she isn't tribally enrolled and only interacts with her nuclear family (rather than extended family and both tribes).

It's possible authors do this as a way to reduce the amount of research needed, but it seems more likely it's because the audience was never assumed to include Native Americans. It was assumed the audience was Northern European, and would identify more with a Northern European (or apparently Northern European) character. Which raises the question of why make them Native American in the first place.

It's could be the author entered with the best intentions, of giving a Native American character a strong role in a novel based on Native American stories (though it has to be said, many of the books consisted of mostly Northern European plot elements). But I was left with the uncomfortable feeling a lot of authors chose that route because they thought being part Native American was mysterious and 'exotic'. The extra-special magicalness contributes to that feeling, along with having a lovely tan that never draws racist comments.

Stereotypes aside, it leads to a rather bland sameness in main characters. This might make it easier for the author to crank out novels, but it's not so great for the reader.

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* This shouldn't be taken to mean mixed race characters are problematic simply for existing. Just that the way many authors approach it can be problematic.

** After writing the post where I commented on Native American authors being classified outside of urban fantasy, I found this interesting quote by Amy H. Sturgis, editor of The Intersection of Fantasy and Native America.

From an interview at Journey to the Sea. Bolding is mine:

Some of these Native authors produce works that are clearly fantasy by anyone's definition: Drew Hayden Taylor and Daniel Heath Justice are two excellent (and recommended) examples. Others write books often considered to be "magical realism" or simply "Native American literature." This again raises the discussion about how to classify works, which I mentioned last time regarding what counts as "science fiction": these are games with which the critics and scholars are more concerned than the fans and the practitioners. My concern is that many readers who love fantasy literature never discover some of the great Native authors, because these writers' publications are labeled and pigeonholed due to the artists' ethnicity.

This is a wider issue in speculative fiction, rather than an urban fantasy problem.

Writing Diary: Pink Unicorns

Story Sales

It's brief writerly updates time! I've sold a story to ChiZine. "Visions of Destruction Series, Mixed Media" is a dystopian science fiction thingy and should be out soon is out. I delayed publishing this post, and should have checked the 'zine before posting. So, it's out and online here.

This also means I might be able to upgrade to an active member of SFWA, but that depends on how it all adds up (it'll be tight to their earnings criteria, and depend on how payments in not-dollars are handled, but I'll worry about that later). Whether I can or not, this does bring me up to three pro sales. I now have even more realness*!

Novel Progress

I'm about halfway through my novel on the finalish edits. I say finalish, as after it's been through my critique partner, I'm going to be looking for people able to offer cultural critiques**. This is a tricky thing for an unpublished author, as it's hard to ask someone to go through a manuscript that may not go anywhere.

My current plan is to ask other writers, as that way I can offer to beta their work in exchange.

But before that, I have another half of a novel to put through the cheese grater.

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* Debates on the blogosphere about the invisibility of woman in SF include discussion of a UK anthology lacking women. You'd think from the responses that I was less real than a pink unicorn, so for the record, I: 1) Am a woman, 2) Live in the UK, and 3) Write science fiction. With real science!

The logical conclusion to this is the pink unicorn must live in the house down the road.

** As mentioned previously, the book has Native American characters and themes. I'll post more details when I'm ready, but I figured a pre-emptive mention wouldn't be a bad thing. I'll be open to readers from any tribe, though the book does focus mostly on the Spokane. Just in case there's someone out there who might be interested in such a thing.

Second Life 8th Birthday: The Aftermath

The SL8B celebrations in Second Life are all done. I'm not one for partying, so I spent my time exploring the other exhibits. This post has some pretty pictures of the things I found (click for the large versions), some musings on what made exhibits good/bad and some thoughts on my own exhibit (the first post about my exhibit is here).

The Good and the Bad

The builds that consistently got talked about on blogs were ones that looked good from a distance. People also liked pretty photo opportunities. That said, I was surprised that some of the builds I photographed weren't more popular, as they did stand out from a distance and were unique. There's always going to be some element of personal taste.

Some builds were hard to get inside. This could be because it needed a scripted object to get in (when there are loads of people there, it is bound to go wrong). Sometimes it was because it only had one small door. If a build was hard to get inside, I generally kept going to the next one.

Some overdid giving out their information, with signs containing lots of detail. Others didn't give out even a basic landmark to the creator's main place in Second Life. The best balance was to have a landmark or notecard giver, but to keep it simple... no signs full of text or anything else. Just a basic 'click here' item.

So in summary: I tended to stop if it looked interesting, the design was a unique take on the theme and it was easy to get inside. I was disappointed if I couldn't find a landmark or any information about the creator.

A Few Favourites

As commented on above, some people were allergic to landmarks, making it hard for me to provide links and information about the creator's main Second Life area. What I have done is include their SL name, so you can find their profiles and see if they have nifty stuff elsewhere.

Honey Swamp - Claudia222 Jewell

The honey swamp was a surreal fantasy swamp, with floating honey particles and baby-faced birds. It was both twisted and cute. Very atmospheric. I didn't really match, so I kept out of this shot.

Soaring with Magic - windyy Lane

This was one of the most popular ones for photographs. It's not hard to see why, with the simple greyscale design. I got into the spirit and turned into a grey mushroom to match the birdies.

The Owl and the Pussycat - Empyreal Dreams (Ariel Wingtips and Remington Aries)

The outside of the exhibit showed a book with the start of 'The Owl and the Pussycat' by Edward Lear. The picture on the page is a hole showing the poem world inside the exhibit. This is me hanging out inside with the Piggy-wig.

Sands of Creation - Perefim Cao

There were a number of builds about the magic of building stuff in Second Life. I liked this one particularly due to the play on the idea of sandboxes.

Music and Cats

This was a shot of two builds I felt complemented each other well. The foreground is 'The Magic of Music' by Crap Mariner. The giant hands holding violin bows danced around the area. The background is 'KittyCatS', with a cat popping out of a Magician's hat.

Mushrooms and Balloons

My final shot shows my build, 'Natural Magic' with the balloons of The Gay Archipelago's exhibit in the background. Whimsy for the win!

On Natural Magic

One issue with my build is it didn't stand out from a distance. I'd focused on a photo display, rather than a single big sculpture. It's not that no one liked it (I did get some responses, and I took a count of how many took the notecard), but in future, I need to think more about the distance impact. Sneaking a look at other people's pictures of the event, the most popular bit of my build was the rainbow with cloud photos hanging from it.

I also lacked interactivity. People could play on the lightstones, but I'd like to do something more for next time. I have a few ideas, which I could script ahead of knowing the theme and then adapt.

Overall, I think it was worth it. The build did get some attention and I'll use some of the work for a revamp of my main gallery. Plus, it was fun!