throbbing light machine

I hate political writing.

Not writing about politics, but when my own politics interfere with my writing.

Here's thing thing: I worry way too much, and I have these nasty tendencies to over-think. Female characters are particularly difficult for me to get my Inner Feminist to approve. If they're not perfect I'm playing into the misogynists's hands, and I can't have me main female character be bitchier or frailer or worse in some way than my main male, because I don't want to present a dominant image of the patriarchy. But if the female characters are perfect, they're boring Mary Sues who hold up totally unreasonable sets of expectations for all women. And I'm always worried about not having characters of color, or of stereotyping them if I do. I'm a white girl from a town where dark-haired people were the closest thing we had to a minority. Who am I to tell their stories for them? But if I leave them out, am I being caucasian-centric or-normative? I just want to write about people!

On a semi-related note, I was struck today with just how uncomfortable I am with some of the politics of my college. I mean, for one thing, all the students are white kids. All of them. And all of the Campus Environmental Technicians and dining hall workers, the people who take care of us white kids, are black. And it feels really weird. I wouldn't want to deny them jobs, but...it's completely skewed one way. And then there's the Dead White Guy thing. There are two female authors on the program. Not cool, guys. Okay, at a certain point the Dead White Guys knew their stuff, and I know that the idea of the college is that it isn't "multiculti," but...two? That can't be right.

And sometimes I think that I just think far too much about everything, and sometimes I think that I don't think about things nearly enough.