Okay, now that we have all these weeks and days dedicated to POC in the 911/LS fandom, I just want to say something to y’all.
As a caveat, this post isn’t to scare any of you, rather it’s to make you aware of these small microaggressions, that even acclaimed authors end up doing. But it’s important to be aware, to read and listen to actual voices and then do better.
As another note: This does not apply only to fic, this also applies to every other genre out there.
Please, for the love of all God, do your research before you write any character of color, or any of their religion, and honestly, for a lot of it, stop fetishizing it. Stop sexualizing it, stop turning those things to suit your plots.
The reason is, you’re basically speaking over a whole group of voices, a whole group of experiences. You’re marginalizing already marginalized groups even further, and these microaggressions add up.
More commonly, we’re seeing a lot about Eddie Diaz these days, and people going out to make him speak Spanish over and over, turning him into pretty much an abuser, and then perpetrating all this other toxic bullshit about him too.
I am not going to talk in length about Eddie or Carlos because I don’t want to speak over the relevant voices that are already talking about how the Latinx men in this fandom are fetishized.
Instead I’m going to give Marjan Marwani as an example here, because that’s my culture:
In the first episode, when they show her praying, they show her praying completely wrong. That is not how a Muslim offers their salah, and then they had her do that to the background of “Old Town Road” AND showed a shirtless guy right after.
At the corn mill, they had her hijab pulled off for plot advancement. DO NOT DO THAT. Do not use a culture that is not yours to fuel your plot because holy hell i was so mad when I saw this. She did not need to get the hijab pulled off just so Rob Lowe and all the other men could be “heroes”
The hijab is a part of a Muslim woman’s identity. 911 LS had absolutely no reason to pull it off, and honestly? If that’s the Muslim character you want to give us? Take it back, we don’t want it.
Then when she was making ablution (wudu) at the mosque, they showed that in a pretty sensuous manner too. The only reason the hijab-pull-off scene was there was to show Marjan being ostracized at the mosque, and then for her to be ashamed of her culture. That is not the type of representation we needed on mainstream TV
I know that was a TV show and we’re talking fics here but please do not misrepresent people.
Look, most minorities, most groups are already underrepresented and when they are represented, they’re misrepresented. I’m not saying not to write at all, but just please be careful. If you are not part of a culture/group, do not manipulate it to fit your storyline, because you don’t know what effect that actually has on people.
Expanding off that, if you’re not from the same background as your character, do not write about experiences for them. That doesn’t mean you just don’t erase them being South Asian, Muslim, Latinx, African, European, etc. you just don’t write about cultural experiences because you (as someone from a different background) will not know them. If you do, you’re speaking over these groups, most of which are marginalized.
If you’re writing Marjan, stop oversexualizing her (there’s SO MUCH of this). I’ve seen so many people writing her taking her hijab off in front of everyone (and i also do think the show has a huge role to play in that), please don’t do this. Do not dismiss her beliefs because you’re doing nothing but speaking over other Muslims.
If you’re writing Eddie or Carlos, don’t turn them into abusers because they’re Hispanic, and don’t force them to know Spanish.
If you’re writing Paul, be sure to actually research Black trans people before you start writing.
Please do not perpetrate the same stereotypes that have harmed these groups and misrepresented them. And for the love of god, do not turn those stereotypes into jokes either.
A couple of resources, because this blog is WONDERFUL:
Stereotypes and Tropes Navigation
Diversity Writing Resources
there are so many other resources out there, I know I reblogged a post a few days ago but I can’t find it right now :/ Do your research!
