The older I get and the more I get into political issues, the more frustrated I get and the more things bug me or don’t feel worth it to talk about. One of them is identity politics. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel like they’re bad or anything, I just find them to be stressful and responses and anger from people are difficult to help or cope with. I don’t think anyone wants to purposely be offensive or make everyone uncomfortable, and for me…I don’t run on spite. At all.
I understand that I’m speaking US politics, so if you aren’t from the US, don’t worry. It’s just not your politics (but you may subscribe to them.)
So, what I mean is that some of my characters go under different brackets of LGBT and queer identities. Some are easier to explain and some aren’t. I don’t want to ever feel like I’m pushing the politics down people’s throats or forcing them to see something they don’t want to see…
The thing about identity, is that that’s the driving force of a lot of people’s personalities and nurture. For example, I’m a Black American. It doesn’t define my personality in a way that makes me act a particular way, but it adds nuances to my actions. For example, if you look at my characters and how they’re designed (I believe), you may be able to tell. You may not, oh well. It gives a big outlook on people’s artwork. I’m also in the B and T region in the LGBT, this affects my characters. Some of them are trans, some of them are cis. Some are straight, gay, bisexual, or some kind of nuance.
Another identity politic is neurodivergency and mental illness. This one is a lot more complex and controversial. Some of the characters go through various different traumatic experiences and events in their lives and some of them are just born different.
I want y’all to know that at a time in my life, I was very concerned with representation and identity and trying to do representation the best way possible and get everyone in, but now in my life my characters are written as they are. Their identities are as they are and they’re important.
I am aware none of y’all asked for this post, but it’s literally been a thing stuck in my head for hours on hours and days on days.
How do I acknowledge my characters for how they are? I understand that people could be offended and will be offended, but how do I write and explain these characters in a way that isn’t preachy, strange, or awkward?
I’m not going to write a list saying all my LGBT characters or explain the fantasy human races because firstly, that’s a lot of work, and secondly I don’t think that’s necessary. You’ll see more interaction posts with characters and maybe I’ll feel comfortable enough to write about them.
I’m not shy at all, but I get nervous and frustrated and I’m still trying to get rid of my SM personality and people pleasing tendencies. It’s like me getting uncomfortable writing in other languages because there’s usually an identity tied underneath it and personality and culture tied underneath that I feel like I’m impeding on. It’s ridiculous because so many people with different cultures and backgrounds write in English, but I still feel like a bad person doing it. For example, if you don’t know what I’m talking about. Spanish. I’m learning Spanish, and I feel like I’m impeding on Spanish speakers cultures and identities by writing stories and content in Spanish—even though I’m not writing about any ethnic groups or culture or anything. It goes into the other languages I’m trying to learn. (and this has nothing to do about cultural appropriation, I’m not whining about that.)
Anyway, I’ll see y’all! Thank you for listening.
What did you bring to the potluck? 
20 replies on “Identity Politics and stress”
This topic is like kicking a hornet’s nest. It’s very touching and emotionally charged. I have a daughter who is queer and suffers from several mental health challenges. She’s got lots of trans friends and I’m a huge supporter of all LGTBQ. I’ve written a few stories inspired by conversations with my daughter and for her. She likes when I include queer characters or talk about mental health.
I’ve gone back and forth as to if I have the right to write such things, not being queer myself. I think it’s a very complicated thing. I try and be representative in my stories, but ultimately I can’t write about being another race, gender or sexual identity. I think the trouble is when you try and write as if you are representing those identities versus writing inclusively. At least that’s the distinction I’ve given myself.
For example, it’s fine for me to include an African American or trans character in my story as long as I’m 1) not using harmful stereotypes or troupes and 2) not writing as if I understand the experience of being them. But it’s not okay to include them simply for the sake of it or to use them as props for my other characters. It’s about representation and respect…
This is a big topic and an important one worth discussing.
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I can’t either. It’s very difficult to write as I’m something else. I’m apart of marginalized identities but I truly don’t feel like I have an identity. I know what I am and how people view me…but when it comes to writing about other people and other climates and mindsets, I try.
That’s the great thing about fantasy. People take what they want out of it and cannot argue with it because it’s only real to the people within the fantasy. May my characters exist in a different dimension or their own microcosm of the world, I am not writing only as my experience but I’m writing about their world and their lives. It’s not like I’m writing about a particular race, I’m just writing.
It’s when it starts getting into the politics on the storyline/world vs our world. This culture is not on Earth, it’s referencing real life cultures. The people in the area are light skinned to darker skinned with variety of skin tones and different cultures and/or species. I want it to be shown in a way that it could just be a cut out of reality but still in a way that it’s not real. Like the culture could be anywhere in the Asian-African continents. It’s hard. Because I don’t want to do something and it affects people in real life.
What I mean is like the orcs=Black people, goblins=Jewish people thing where a character is coded.
I don’t know how to even explain how a character could be intersex because I don’t have that experience, I can’t write how a character is autistic because I’m not only not diagnosed but I don’t understand it in a way. Of course there are characters that are neurodiverse in my story, but I don’t know how to label them. It’s somewhat based on stuff on the past and there weren’t always words to explain that.
I don’t know how to even write to add words like lesbian, gay, bisexual, so on.
All the stereotypes or harmful stuff are in the stories but they’re handled accordingly, that’s not even the hard part. 😭
It’s just really hard and the thing is, I did all this work and 1% will be on the story unless I want it to smack every single reader on the head. That’s also why I struggle with a graphic novel.
It’s exhausting, but I care and I don’t mind caring.
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Love this post so much!!!!
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Thank you
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The whole identity debate is really complicated and often so because I feel people want more control of peoples identity they should. That’s just my opinion though.
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I agree. The irritating thing is how politics produce outrage and race wars online and offline and how people try to be outraged for other groups when nobody asked them to. Or when some people think they should talk for everyone. It’s frustrating.
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Yeah, politics these days is all about manufacturing controversy and outrage. It’s sad really.
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If you want an appreciation, I’d say that you write and come over as a perfect 100% human being. Apart from guessing that you’re an American I’d have no idea where you are situated on any spectrum. I don’t like gender politics or culture wars either, they’re wars, divisive, and I don’t know why anyone subscribes to them. Or why some want to be treated the same as everyone else, and also be treated differently, to denounce discrimination and want to claim ‘difference’ that nobody else is allowed to touch. You’re right, it’s tiring and unnecessary. Learn Spanish because you want to, and speak it with Spanish-speakers. If they’re normal people they’ll be flattered and pleased that you want to learn something of a different culture.
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It’s a very complex thing and one of the aggravating and very interesting things about human culture. I like human culture but living in it sucks. It feels like I’m ripped apart in two different ways and get frustrated.
And oh do I wish to be perfect, I just think I’m friendly and professional. I’m a much different, sensitive, and complex person offline. I’m not different from now, but I don’t like shaking the table in a way that annoys people online where as when I’m offline, I can be very fussy and annoying but the same.
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I don’t know. It’s when we start on a hierarchy of culture that things get unpleasant. We as human beings are too quick to give everything points. Even victims get points, some types of victimhood being higher up the scale than others. Spanish and Italian immigrants here wanted their children to get on in the French system and not be penalised for coming from a less valued culture, so they didn’t pass on their language, names, family traditions, and they became ‘French’. The clashes come now with religious fundamentalists. In a secular state, it sets people’s teeth on edge when you invoke a religious reason for not obeying a law. You can’t be ‘diverse’ if it breaks the law.
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That’s one of my biggest GRIPES. I hate hierarchies, especially when people want to be diverse but assimilate but complain about assimilate but choose not to assimilate.🙄
But dang, all the cultures you listed are heavily cultured, especially for the people here. They literally brag about being all of them even though they’re American because it’s not interesting enough. Nonsensical.
But isn’t it stressful how the world is like that? 🙄
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It’s stressful because people seem to be so illogical in what they shout about. An intelligent argument is like water off a duck’s back. Like you, I refuse to get into mud-slinging sessions on social media, it’s like kids in a school playground, but in real life, with real people whose names I know and who have to make eye contact while we’re arguing, I’ll let them have it. Both barrels.
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😂 I get that so much. I also just have work on social media more. There’s so many things that irritate me that I just have to take breaks now, just like real life. People talk wayyy too much and too much about nothing, and not necessarily in a mean or they’re dumb way but in a callous way and there’s no point for me to argue.
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The anonymity helps. They feel they’re untraceable as real people so they don’t make any effort to follow human codes of acceptable behaviour.
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Some of them are irritating and bitter people that feel lost in life and the anonymity makes them comfortable but they already were stank.
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I don’t know why people want to be so public about their private lives anyway.
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I mean, I am public about my private life. I like the attention and it makes me feel happy when I’m happy. ☺️
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We’re all different. I started using social media because publishers make it essential. That’s my public life. If I were to post about my private life, it wouldn’t change my status as a writer, but it would cease to be private and become public.
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Gotcha. There’s always something that embarrasses people and makes them not as public.
I can see why you wouldn’t be blunt about your personal life. It’s a great choice.
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It’s not that I’d be embarrassed, but often our private lives are also part of other people’s private lives, like family and friends. So there’s consent, but also, I don’t want to argue with people who ‘aren’t there’.
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