I...am really, really torn and frustrated by the h/c debate. I know people with firm opinions on various sides of the issue, and I keep reading everyone's things and thinking ze's right, then no, ZE's right too, and then well, ze makes some very good points...
This may be a bit awkward because I don't have the spoons and I am not entirely clear on my feelings about the overall issue.
I do know that I think it was a pretty fucking thick idea to come up with a whole load of topics in regards to this.
Compartmentalizing h/c like that boils the issues and identities of those of us with [bingo square whatever] down to generalities. It's also like O HAI ISSUE FAIRY flying around with a wand and bopping characters; it takes an excellent and thoughtful writer with lots of resources to provide accurate context and representation. I don't think this is impossible, simply very difficult. This issue's been discussed well by other people, and I don't think I need to reiterate that much more. In fact, as I worked on this,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dirty_diana said it pretty well.
But, stepping back from my own position as a PWD, it is also harmful to the work of authors who are approaching h/c from the general sense of writing emotional navigation through difficult times. This can be done and done well, working through relatively common experiences and canonical moments; we all experience fear and we all experience emotional pain, regardless of any conditions we might have or circumstances we might be in.
Forcing the author to push through highly difficult topics isn't a writing exercise in this case, but a constraint, pushing hir into situations that are entirely too complex to do negotiate under limitations, without the resources that ze would need to succeed.
In other words, I don't speak for everyone, no one does. And maybe I'm alienating people by saying that I think on certain levels h/c is entirely acceptable, and maybe I'm alienating people by saying that I, like others, really really have a hard time with even the idea of potentially being misrepresented.
And maybe I'm alienating people by being a waffler.
But my big problem: bingo, in this case. It's detrimental and wrong to those of us who face certain issues, and it's detrimental to writers. It has illuminated an issue that needs to be discussed, but it needs to be out of the way, because the air is not clear. For a start, I am seeing a big conflict arising from the fact that we do not have a definition here: what is h/c? People are not all working from the same playbook.
If we can figure THAT out, maybe we can decide what the fuck needs to happen next in this discussion, like, what is appropriation? what is acceptable use? what can people do to prevent hurt?
This may be a bit awkward because I don't have the spoons and I am not entirely clear on my feelings about the overall issue.
I do know that I think it was a pretty fucking thick idea to come up with a whole load of topics in regards to this.
Compartmentalizing h/c like that boils the issues and identities of those of us with [bingo square whatever] down to generalities. It's also like O HAI ISSUE FAIRY flying around with a wand and bopping characters; it takes an excellent and thoughtful writer with lots of resources to provide accurate context and representation. I don't think this is impossible, simply very difficult. This issue's been discussed well by other people, and I don't think I need to reiterate that much more. In fact, as I worked on this,
dirty_diana said it pretty well.But, stepping back from my own position as a PWD, it is also harmful to the work of authors who are approaching h/c from the general sense of writing emotional navigation through difficult times. This can be done and done well, working through relatively common experiences and canonical moments; we all experience fear and we all experience emotional pain, regardless of any conditions we might have or circumstances we might be in.
Forcing the author to push through highly difficult topics isn't a writing exercise in this case, but a constraint, pushing hir into situations that are entirely too complex to do negotiate under limitations, without the resources that ze would need to succeed.
In other words, I don't speak for everyone, no one does. And maybe I'm alienating people by saying that I think on certain levels h/c is entirely acceptable, and maybe I'm alienating people by saying that I, like others, really really have a hard time with even the idea of potentially being misrepresented.
And maybe I'm alienating people by being a waffler.
But my big problem: bingo, in this case. It's detrimental and wrong to those of us who face certain issues, and it's detrimental to writers. It has illuminated an issue that needs to be discussed, but it needs to be out of the way, because the air is not clear. For a start, I am seeing a big conflict arising from the fact that we do not have a definition here: what is h/c? People are not all working from the same playbook.
If we can figure THAT out, maybe we can decide what the fuck needs to happen next in this discussion, like, what is appropriation? what is acceptable use? what can people do to prevent hurt?
