This was a very engaging piece. What is your opinion regarding people who tell the stories of marginalized or oppressed groups to which they do not belong? (I didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing, so you may have answered this already.)
I think I addressed the subject in an old article but can't remember which one 😅
So there's actually a distinction to make: 1/ writing a character who happens to be from a marginalized or oppressed group in a story that doesn't focus on their experience
2/ writing the experience of a character from a marginalized or oppressed group.
The 1/ is okay, as long as you do your research (reasing testimonies, asking people from these groups or sensitivity readers). The 2/ is less okay, because there is a much higher risk of being fairly wrong, even with the best intentions. It is better, as a reader, to engage with "own voice" stories.
For example, I do the 1/ quite a lot (there are very diverse characters in my writing) and also write about my experience as an autistic queer person through my characters (which qualifies as "own voice"), but I would not try writing about the intimate experience of a person of color with every day racism or about a medical transition.
This was a very engaging piece. What is your opinion regarding people who tell the stories of marginalized or oppressed groups to which they do not belong? (I didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing, so you may have answered this already.)
I think I addressed the subject in an old article but can't remember which one 😅
So there's actually a distinction to make: 1/ writing a character who happens to be from a marginalized or oppressed group in a story that doesn't focus on their experience
2/ writing the experience of a character from a marginalized or oppressed group.
The 1/ is okay, as long as you do your research (reasing testimonies, asking people from these groups or sensitivity readers). The 2/ is less okay, because there is a much higher risk of being fairly wrong, even with the best intentions. It is better, as a reader, to engage with "own voice" stories.
For example, I do the 1/ quite a lot (there are very diverse characters in my writing) and also write about my experience as an autistic queer person through my characters (which qualifies as "own voice"), but I would not try writing about the intimate experience of a person of color with every day racism or about a medical transition.
Hope this makes sense!
Found the article I wrote on the subject: https://open.substack.com/pub/lemmaginarium/p/qui-peut-raconter-quelle-experience?r=6pv6q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web