Boy, You Have To Put Some Effort In

[redbrunja]

Junot Diaz continues to speaking fucking truth about men writing women*.

(BTW, this totally applies to white writers writing characters of color as well.)

Comments

[phemyscira.livejournal.com]

*gets up and gives Junot Diaz an anchor*

This is so, so true and I agree that this can be applied to white writers who write characters of colour. Heck, it can be applied to any person who tries to portray a character who fits under the category of the "The Other" without doing their research first or questioning how society views them in the first place.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yep. It's not just enough to be a good writer and to be 'inspired.'

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent quote.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

That's a great quote.

Every time one of my male writer friends says, "Well, I didn't care much about my MC's first girlfriend, but then she dies..." I just want to say "Stop right there."

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Like, you care about the corpse more than the living character?

*rolls eyes*

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

It's not even that. It's more like they're just props for his MC's manpain.

And it's the kind of thing I can't really critique him about because it's so ingrained in his idea of storytelling he's just got to figure it out for himself. Someday.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Is he the kind of person you could go, 'you know, you really need to google "women in refrigerators,"' or is it one of those things were you just want to leave well enough alone?

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

Nah, he's the sort of person where if you try to argue with him about it, he'll get defensive and come up with a list of reasons as to why it's perfectly okay.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I've been in situations like that. Sometimes it's not worth the time.

[mistaria.livejournal.com]

Hahaha "Ok. Sir..." cracked me up.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I guess it's politer than, 'okay, fuckwit,'