Um, if you’re reading this and you’re taking this challenge, avoiding white, straight, cis men, you’ve failed already. Sorry 🙂
I’m sure lots of people have heard about the post over at some web site where some lady says that you should challenge yourself to avoid reading white, straight, cis men for a year. Now, to be fair to her, she came about the challenge pretty organically. She’s a sci-fi/fantasy writer who was reading a lot of sci-fi and fantasy magazines to learn about the craft. And basically, she was tired of the same old shit, and so she decided to make a change.
That’s totally a fair thing to do, and let’s be serious, sci-fi and fantasy are pretty dong-heavy as books go. She makes some suggestions for alternative authors too, which is a definite plus.
But, ultimately, I think this is wrong. I’m sorry, I do.
Before anyone flies off the handle, which is a term I’ve never understood because what’s the handle and who’s flying, I’d like to refer to my credentials.
Here’s a link to a column I wrote that specifically recommends books to straight, white men. Books to help get them out of that comfort zone. Read it if you’d like. I think it explains itself nicely.
Second, I make no bones about the fact that the two best books I read last year were not by straight white men. And they were very directly ABOUT how the authors were not straight white men. And they were fucking amazing.
What I’m trying to get across is that I do read a lot of authors who are kind of all over the map. Not to say that I’m an expert, but to pose an alternate theory, and to pose that theory as not just a straight, white, cis man who is crying about something being unfair, but as a reader who isn’t coming from a boxed-in place and bursting out of that box with, perhaps, more condemnation than might be required to get the point across.
Let’s start here. This stated goal, not reading white, straight, cis men, is anti-feminist.
My understanding of feminism is foggier than Nelson, however I feel like it’s agreed that the goal of feminism isn’t to pull men down so that everyone is equal, but rather to lift everyone up to enjoy the same level of privilege and possibility. The idea is that society isn’t a see-saw, with one group needing to be pushed down in order for another to rise. We can all enjoy the advantages currently enjoyed by some.
Denying yourself reading a group, that’s pushing a group down. Pushing them away. Rather than taking an even-handed approach, rather than seeking coexistence, it’s seeking to even the score. Which isn’t the worst thing in the world. I can still see where the article’s author was coming from. If I’d read nothing but one kind of person for a stretch, I’d be looking for a change too.
Let’s talk about something else. Cis.
Just in case you didn’t know, cis means that whatever gender you were born, that’s what you’re good with and you’re sticking with it. Basically.
I read a book this year called Cat Person by Seo Kim. It’s a book of comics, and I read them, laughed, and then started looking to see what else this author had done. Which is when I started going, “Wait a minute…is Seo Kim a dude?” I looked at a handful of pictures, and I don’t actually know. I don’t say this to be a playground asshole guy or something. I just mean it’s not immediately apparent, and Kim doesn’t seem to make any big declarations about it.
I thought I’d read a book by a woman, but maybe it was a man. Or someone who’s transgender. I have no idea, and frankly, I prefer that. I didn’t like digging into someone’s personal life like that, and frankly I don’t think it’s any of my goddamn business whether a person is transgender or identifies one way or another. It’s a problem for this reading challenge because if someone transitions from woman to man, he might not consider himself transgender. He might identify as a man. However, I assume this person would still fall into the safe zone for this reading challenge, even though he self-identifies as a straight, white, man, no mention of transgender topics.
Not to get too micro here, but what if I read this:
When it came out in 1999, it would fall into the forbidden category. However, in light of recent news, it would be retroactively in the clear, right? Because my understanding is that Bruce Jenner has ALWAYS felt like he was someone else.
To read books ONLY by people who aren’t cis means that you have to know shit about them that THEY might not even know. And it means prying into someone’s life in a way that I don’t think I should.
Same goes for straight. Maybe even double. Chuck Palahniuk is a perfect example. He was closeted from the larger world of books for DECADES. But he’s gay. And I assume he’s been gay, even when he wrote and published his first books. It’s so great to me that so many dudebros with Fight Club posters had no idea…
What’s weird about loving an author like Palahniuk for so long, I can say first-hand that it doesn’t matter if he’s gay. I just don’t care. I mean, I CARE, I want someone who’s written stuff I like to have a good life. What I mean is, I loved his books before, and I love them now, and that hasn’t changed for me at all. Chuck Palahniuk’s sexuality might change his work and it might not, but what I know for sure is that his sexuality doesn’t change my ability to enjoy his work.
I loved Richard Siken’s Crush and didn’t know he was gay. I love it today as well.
I actually thought Michael Chabon WAS gay, for some reason, and it turned out he’s not.
The first thing I ever read by Dennis Cooper was God Jr, and I fucking loved it. I had no idea he was gay, and I read him and read him and read him.
It turns out that a disproportionate number of my favorite authors are, in fact, gay men.
Let’s switch it up and talk about straight, white, cis men for a minute.
It’s strange to me how these categories seem to be the most important things to a lot of people. They are important, and they change the way someone views society and is viewed by society. My question, however, is whether they’re the most essential qualities, whether we’re doing the right thing by reducing someone to those qualities. It’s like you’re working with two guys named Bill, and when telling a story about Bill, who eats Starburst all damn day and neatly folds the wrappers and stacks them in a tower on his desk, you refer to him as “Black Bill” or “Gay Bill”. No, he should be Starburst Bill. That’s the weirdest thing about him.
I read a book called My Pet Virus that was about a guy who contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion. He was a straight, white, cis male. But based on his book and its contents, these are not the most interesting things about him.
I read a book about a man working in Antarctica. That’s an interesting experience, to me, and there was no author photo so I don’t actually KNOW his race, nor do I know his sexuality.
There are so many other factors that come in to play here. It just doesn’t seem that treating authors like match.com profiles is the best way to go about it.
Maybe the best way to sum it up is simple. In the author photo, the original article’s writer is holding up Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, and superimposed over the top is that circle with the slash through it. You know, that thing the ghost is behind in the Ghostbusters symbol. Which it looks like he could just slide right through, but whatever.
American Gods is a wonderful, good book. Any reading scheme that would take that book out of your hands is just not something I’m prepared to endorse. Yes, I’m aware that this doesn’t need my endorsement.
Here’s the real truth. I’m a grown man, and I don’t need anyone to tell me that the world is full of white male authors and to take care to read with some diversity. I think Jhumpa Lahiri is fucking awesome, and I think that while also thinking that Dan Slott is fucking awesome too. There’s room for way more than one awesome author in my heart.
And here’s another real truth, which I’m stealing from someone else.
To take it back to Bruce Jenner (never thought I’d have much to say about her, but here we are), I heard someone online say something very true and telling about the situation. He said, basically, that he remembered when Ellen came out and all the things people said about her. And he remembers because as a young gay man, he saw what people thought about a gay person, and he heard what people said about her. His point being that you can’t just talk shit about Bruce Jenner because she’s not around. There’s a chance someone around you may be unsure about the future of his or her gender, so what you’re saying about Bruce Jenner can be heard and can hurt people who aren’t Bruce Jenner, who aren’t grown-ups who can deal with shit.
It’s not secret that boys are shitty readers. And I can tell you from a decade working at the library, adult men are probably worse. At least boys are being forced to read A LITTLE. Adult men, most of the adult men I knew didn’t read one book a year.
When you take the value away from white, male, cis authors, when you specifically target that group, you’re making the world of reading a less friendly place for people who also fall into that group. And you’re invalidating the efforts of many, many authors who work hard on their craft and yes, are white, male, cis and straight.
Not only do you invalidate their hard work, however. In a lot of cases, people are putting their lives on the page. And those are being invalidated as well.
I’d like to propose a balanced alternative.
If you want to take on a challenge like this, I’d suggest you spend a year PURCHASING only books by non-white, non-cis, non-straight men. And if you want to read books by folks who are like me (“like” meaning that we fall into those categories, so for once in my life I’m in the company of Stephen King and Neil Gaiman) just check them out from the library. You can send a message to publishers without denying yourself the opportunity to read some truly good shit. You can be more choosy about what you read and why you select what you do. If a great book by a straight white man comes out, or something you want to read by one of THEM comes out, you can.
But anyway, I’ve got to get back to my reading. I’m working through Modelland by Tyra Banks, a book that IS within this reading challenge. That should tell you what you need to know right there. Gaimain, out. Banks, in.