Thinking too much
Jan. 24th, 2005 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseI 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-24 11:51 pm (UTC)Thinking is really good. Thinking and doing something to change your experience is better.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 12:20 am (UTC)Anyway, I did know about the Dead White Guys. Thing is, I want to read everything, and that includes the classics. And the St. John's format is very attractive to me. And at a cetain point you can only read one thing at a time. I mainly just don't like the bias I see, in that women aren't in the "Great Books." I don't entirely mind that we don't study them, but I'd like it if we could stop putting female authors down.
After I leave here, I'm going to read other things: eastern lit, women's lit, gender-studies lit, celtic lit...but the greeks are good, too.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 08:44 pm (UTC)Huh. i thought we read ayn rand, speaking of influential women who wrote.
in summary: for a long time no body wrote besides white men and writing shouldn't be included in the curriculum based on the author, but on the merit of the work.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 10:34 pm (UTC)I know what you mean, and that's why Affirmative Action can bug me, but I suspect that the same chauvinism that kept women's work from being preserved keeps them from being integrated into literary canon in the present day. And I think we need to take another look at what the "great" books actually are.
Of course, you can also make arguments for books being worth studying because they have been seen as great books for many years and have been influential both for individauls and for cultures, but that seems to me to go against the Johnnie approach of reading without context.
Icon irony
Date: 2005-01-25 12:43 am (UTC)And who cares what other people think anyway?!
Re: Icon irony
Date: 2005-01-25 05:15 am (UTC)I do mainly just get on with it. But every now and again I panic. I am a silly creature.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 04:38 am (UTC)feng s.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-25 05:15 am (UTC)