Writing that Offends

Yeah, I've been slack and haven't put anything here for quite some time. I'm currently in the process of writing a series set on the island of Greantalia, which is to the west of the continent where many of the other stories will be set. I made a comment about one of the protagonists in the current work in progress which seemed to cause some consternation. You see, he's eighteen winters old (which you should know means either seventeen or eighteen years old, depending on the how advanced summer is), and he meets a young woman. I neglected to mention he noticed her breasts and said this was me having forgotten what it was like to be seventeen.

This apparently meant the character was either a misogynist, or a misogynist in training, and the story was misogynistic because it objectified women. That's a lot to glean from the simple statement:

"Tall, thin and small-breasted, she smiled too easily and was everything Lainashael didn’t dream of in a woman. Her smile was delightful though."

I should have left it at that. Instead, I tried to explain the main theme of this character's story and somehow came off as a dick. I'm a writer, so if the misunderstanding was genuine, then it's entirely my fault. I believe it was genuine since I have no reason to believe this person is a troll. I may point her to this post, or just leave her thinking I'm a dick. Probably best leave her thinking I'm a dick.

The story in question is a big story told from multiple points of view. Being third-person limited, the beliefs and values of the point of view character will come through in the writing. They must. If the work is considered misogynistic because one adolescent POV character notices a pair of boobs (and is impressed by her smile), then what about the POV of the main villain? He has a justification for genocide and a way of excusing rape (although he does plan retribution for them once the Landers are no longer useful)? No matter how screwed up his motivations and excuses are, they're what you’re going to find in those chapters. Sadly, Lingen don’t grow facial hair, so he has no moustache to twirl. That means we need to understand why he’s such a dick, and ‘he’s a bad person’ doesn’t cut the mustard. You can pick and choose the POV character and say it’s all about -X-, with X being anything you want to be offended by. That’s the risk of multiple points of view, unless all your characters are Disney princesses that is.

The big issue of this entire series is an insidious form of racism I still come across today, and it’s often prefixed with “I'm not being racist but...” for some reason. It’s wrong to discriminate against the indigenous folk but apparently fine to discriminate against “them half-casts” because “they’re the troublemakers”. Being a WASP, why would I even know about this, or even care? I had a very dear friend a long time ago whose mother was indigenous and whose father was white. She copped it from both sides. Whites who didn’t know her didn’t like her and many indigenous folk hated her because of her father. There was only a small group within her church who accepted her, but she was lovely. Warm, caring and intelligent and incredibly easy to talk to once you got past her defences. No, I wasn’t involved with her, I was dating someone else – in fact she was a girlfriend’s friend which was how I got to meet her.

Alright, let's be fair. Was there some truth about some behaviours of these people? Of course. What would you expect from somebody who is not accepted by, and unacceptable to, the majority of people of both cultures from which they came? Are they going to be saints? Or are they going to be angry because they’ve been treated badly for most of their lives, and frustrated because they see that treatment continuing for the rest of their lives? No, I don't accept we should condone the behaviours, but perhaps extend some empathy toward where those behaviours came from and maybe even do something about the cause.

My story was denigrated as misogynistic based on a single reference to the breasts of a young woman being noticed by a young man, and nothing else. Why should I care? Well, the main theme is more important to me then it probably should be to somebody of non-mixed descent, white or black. It’s something neither of us has had to deal with. We're each accepted by our own people. Truth is, I probably wouldn’t have noticed the issue, nor cared, if not for past friendships. It has been a long time since I moved to Western Australia, but I still get angry when I hear someone going on about “them half-casts”. Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe because of my skin colour I have no right to say anything. Maybe, when something is wrong, I should just shut the hell up, and let those affected by it deal with it. Maybe the idea of loyalty to a friendship is an outdated concept. I mean let’s face it, it’s nearly thirty years. She didn’t commit suicide because of the crap she had to put up with, nor anything dramatic like that, in fact, last I heard she was married and working as a teacher. Although a dramatic ending would make this story more poignant, I’m glad she doesn't have one. Perhaps that’s a story for someone to write, I won’t. A white male author with a female main character who’s not white? That’s a mine-field in which I will not tread. The message, if it was to sell, would end up lost in whatever bun-fight emerges because of that.

But I did write a story with offensive content. There are three races with three different cultures. Misogynistic? Yeah, that’s the Theolympian culture which isn't featured. Objectifies women? Well, I haven’t had cause to write a scene where a male Theolympian noble goes to a slave market to buy a female slave, but you can bet your arse any description from his POV is going to objectify every female body he examines, and a lot worse than is apparently here. The same will go for a female noble looking at male slaves. I’ll even go so far as to ask female friends what they would look for when evaluating a near-naked man for a slave. I’ve asked something like this of friends in the past, and used their answers in my narrative.

As to the content present in the story, is it offensive? Absolutely. Uncomfortable? I bloody hope so. For me, the most offensive and uncomfortable line in literature goes like this: “He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” It doesn't let me feel comfortable with complacency. I’m no George Orwell, but I won’t want to write nice, comfortable little stories that don’t have uncomfortable elements. There's no need for a hero to make you aspire to be a better man or woman. I don't want anything like that in my fantasy world, Gardijon.