The Dresden Files > DF Spoilers
DragonCon
Bad Alias:
It's weird to point out that all your panelists are men in this day and age where many object to white men generally. The panel skirts this issue of ever present political correctness/identity politics when discussing "sensitivity readers" in YA fiction. Sensitivity readers are beta readers who "review unpublished manuscripts with the express purpose of spotting cultural inaccuracies, representation issues, bias, stereotypes, or problematic language." Think of them as political officers. See https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePoliticalOfficer.
Basically, they are incentives for straight white authors to only include straight white characters as they don't even stop controversies over "insensitivity" anyway.
magnuskn:
Hm, yeah. I found those stories about the YA publishing world pretty upsetting when I heard about them. One controversy was over a novel called "The Black Witch", where the author was accused of all sorts of terrible things because she depicted racism, even if it was in a completely negative way.
Anyway, aside from I guess one sentence from Kevin J. Anderson about him not being wild about those "sensitivity readers" being required by some publishers for some genres, the panel was, as I've stressed already, very informative and really helpful for me. Especially some of the stuff Jim said, but then again he is always awesome and informative on his panels.
g33k:
--- Quote from: magnuskn on September 12, 2019, 06:15:05 PM --- Still don't get it. They had some of the most accredited popular authors in SF/Fantasy on and they happened to be male.
--- End quote ---
And ... ? I got no problem with what you present in that.
I mean, if you took the 50 top-selling names from fantasy (say, from the Amazon ranking, or NYTimes Books, or any other large pool) and put their names into a hat, and drew a panel's worth of names... sometimes you'd end up with an all-male panel. Sometimes all-female. Sometimes both genders.
I got no questions or doubts about any of that.
But on the theme of "words mean something" and with the notion that "titles should convey some substance..." actually titling the panel specifically as "Male" hits all sorts of problematic notes.
<shrug>
If you don't see what I see in that, then I don't suppose this tangent to the conversation has any real future.
magnuskn:
Since I don't have a fundamental problem with male or female members of the race of humankind, I'm pretty chill about the whole topic.
Bad Alias:
--- Quote from: g33k on September 12, 2019, 10:00:58 PM ---But on the theme of "words mean something" and with the notion that "titles should convey some substance..." actually titling the panel specifically as "Male" hits all sorts of problematic notes.
--- End quote ---
I can only see a few reasons for naming the panel as such. 1. You wanted an all male panel to get a male perspective on something(s). This panel didn't appear to be that. 2. You happened to have all males on the panel and went with the name because you were completely oblivious to the current woke call out culture. 3. You happened to have all males on the panel and went with the name because you were aware of the current woke call out culture and wanted to thumb your nose at it. 4. You also had a "Female Stars of Fantasy/SF" that we didn't see because, obviously, Jim wouldn't have been on it. 5. You wanted an all male panel because ... reasons?
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