Doing Diversity in Writing

In this final episode of the first season of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss holy days and answer some listener questions. 

More specifically, we talk about:

• the fact that there are many more holy days than Christmas and it serves us as writers of diverse characters to be aware of that

And we answer the following questions:

• Reading and research can only go so far, so how do I make sure that the characters I write are authentic without having direct knowledge of certain identity markers?

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“Reading and researching can only go so far, but it gets you further and further these days.”

“A really good way to not check boxes is to give every character their own personality and to start from that personality.”

“Saying ‘happy holidays’ is not a war against Christmas, it’s a war against excluding language.”

“It’s important to look closely at any holiday and realize that it is in fact a story. And story does something. So what does this story do?”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• The Writers for Diversity group on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/779217692216226

This week’s episode page can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/12/16/episode12/

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As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—conclude our conversation about marking the unmarked by discussing description. 

In this third episode on the topic, we discuss:

• marking and unmarking in terms of description

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“Describing things as good or bad, welcoming or frightening, is done differently depending on history, religion, region, and the history that the people involved have.”

“The associations we create as authors need to be mindful, and we need to be watching for what kind of implications those descriptions can have.”

“As writers, when we’re looking at describing places, we need to consider who we’re placing in that place and how we want our readers to think about them. If we’re using terms like “high-crime” and “distressed”, that paints a certain picture of anyone we place in that area.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• “‘Twilight’: How much money did all 5 movies make?” by Abeni Tinubu:

https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/twilight-how-much-money-did-all-5-movies-make.html

• “Civilized Vampires Versus Save Werewolves: Race and Ethnicity in the Twilight Series,” by Natalie Wilson: https://www.academia.edu/28684886/Civilized_Vampires_Versus_Savage_Werewolves_Race_and_Ethnicity_in_the_Twilight_Series

This week’s episode is sponsored by Crystal Shelley’s Conscious Language Toolkit for Writers. You can find this handy resource by going to: https://www.rabbitwitharedpen.com/conscious-language-toolkit-for-writers. Listeners of this podcast now get 20% off by using the promo code DIVERSITYINWRITING.

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/12/09/episode11

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—continue our conversation about marking the unmarked.

In this second episode on marking the unmarked, we discuss:

• the importance of being conscious about the language you use AND how you use it

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“I don’t think we can go around judging ourselves and others for something we don’t know, unless we’re going out of our way to remain ignorant.”

“Apparently it’s OK to include women when using a male, unmarked noun, but it’s not done to include men when using a female, marked noun.”

“We need to know what kind of language our characters would use and think. How do they use gendered [or racial] language? How do they feel about such language? What are they signaling with its use or avoidance? If you are writing a futuristic society, have they done away with such language? Or have they doubled down on it? What can you say about a society through the use of grammar and grammatical markers without saying it aloud?”

“The language employed in a scene or entire story can designate rank and social values without ever actually acknowledging something.”

“One way to handle difficult language, such as gendered or racial language that you yourself do not agree with would be to allow the characters’ dialogue to contain such language, but, as long as they are not the narrator of the story, strip out any such usage from the narration of events.”

“I think of languages like a plant, some new leaves grow, some old leaves fall away.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• “7 Racist Slurs Which You Should Probably Drop From Your Vocabulary”: https://aninjusticemag.com/7-racist-slurs-which-you-should-drop-from-your-vocabulary-885c56ba97ae

This episode’s webpage can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/12/02/episode10

We don’t have any bonus material this week, but please go fill out our questionnaires if you haven’t already:

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about marking the unmarked. It’s the first episode of three on the topic.

In this first episode on marking the unmarked, we discuss:

• what we mean by “marked” and “unmarked”

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“As writers, we mark all the time, we mark characters, we mark landscapes, items, ideas, pretty much anything that is in our stories gets either marked or is left unmarked, and both are significant and influence the reader’s experience.”

“Marking and unmarking happens all the time for our characters, they do it, and we do it for them above and beyond that. For example, how we describe our character marks or unmarks them, and how they describe or ‘see’ the world is also an act of marking or unmarking. Such actions can even drive a story.”

“When I’m writing a character, I’ll consider things like, ‘Do they wish they weren’t lost in the crowd, do they want to be marked and recognized or do they just want to finally be left alone and invisible? How do their desires show up in their language and how they mark others?”

“This Everyman character can be set into a world or extraordinary and act as the connection to the reader, much like the main character clutching his towel through The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. He’s supposed to be the character readers identify with so they can access an alien landscape through him.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• More information on the Russian linguist, Nikolai Trubetzkoy, can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Trubetzkoy

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about diversity within diversity and what writers can learn from the concept of intersectionality.

More specifically, we talk about:

• how Kimberlé Crenshaw came to coin the term ‘intersectionality’

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“Identity markers intersect - hence the term intersectionality - and how they intersect in a given space and time influences how they affect your place in society, the kinds of stereotypes that exist about you, the kinds of expectations people have of you, and so on, depending on the context you find yourself in.”

“When we’re writing inclusively and adding diverse characters to our fiction, it’s really important to look beyond what might seem the single most important identity marker for a character.”

“If you have a white male character and you decide to make them gay, you have to think through how that might affect anything else in their story and the story overall.”

“Good writing always includes characters that make sense when considering where they’re from, what they’ve encountered in their lives, what emotional baggage they acquired along the way, and so on. Adding this intersectional lens through that uncovering of who your character truly is and what they want and need just helps having a firm grasp on these characters.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• Kimberlé Crenshaw: https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/11/11/episode7

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about the third common pitfall when representing diverse characters: tokenism.

More specifically, we talk about:

• what tokenism is and why it is problematic

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“Tokenism is inclusion for the sake of inclusion. It’s not about making any actual changes but about appearances.”

“If we just merely add a few diverse characters to our stories just so our writing looks inclusive, chances are the story doesn’t leave any room for these characters’ lived experiences and realities to be fully investigated. If we only include them to make sure a particular minority is present within our writing so that we look like open-minded and progressive writers, we run the risk of reducing these characters to one-dimensional summaries of what we think their community is like and thinks like.”

“You can add a whole set of characters from the same community, but if they’re all more or less the same and don’t contribute to the plot beyond being their identity marker, if they get to contribute to the plot at all, it’s still tokenism. It’s really about the depth and complexity that a character is allowed to bring with them beyond whatever identity markers they might carry.”

“Proper research into our characters’ cultural, historical and political backgrounds will go a long way in creating more well-rounded characters with a developed background.”

“Even if you only have one character from a particular minority community in your work, allowing them space to be their own person beyond their identity markers will go a long way in making sure they don’t become tokens and in showing the diversity that exists within each and every community.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• The Oxford Dictionary definition of tokenism: https://www.lexico.com/definition/tokenism

Please note that this is not the original video of Rachel Rostad performing the slam poem. At the time of uploading this episode, it was no longer available on YouTube.

• Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward’s Writing the Other: https://writingtheother.com/the-book/

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/11/11/episode7

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about two very common pitfalls when representing diverse characters: essentialism and affirmative myopia.

More specifically, we talk about:

• what essentialism is and what makes it problematic

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

From Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin: “Essentialism is the assumption that groups, categories or classes of objects have one or several

“If we believe people are determined by their biological make-up, we’re basically saying that the way the world functions and our positions and situations within that world can’t really be changed. If existing power relations are in place because there is some inherent logic in our DNA that defines our place and role within society, how do you challenge the status quo?”

“Those essentialised stereotypes, which are often based on science we no longer consider real science, are still running rampant. We still have so many assumptions about the ‘other’ – those with different identity markers – floating around in our collective unconsciousness.” 

“This doesn’t mean we can’t have late black people, angry black women, violent Muslims, perfectly styled gay guys and butch lesbians in our work. But, whenever we write a character, we should make sure we didn’t give them these characteristics just because they are gay, lesbian, white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, young, old, poor, rich, and so on. We need to give them solid reasons and explainable circumstances for why they are being this way or why they are acting that way, one that goes beyond mere biology.” 

“If we, in our attempts to elevate those voices by representing them in better ways, fall into the affirmative myopia trap by, for example, negatively depicting those who’ve always been in power, we’re perpetuating the same structures that created that status quo in the first place. We lift one group by bringing another down.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• Post-Colonial Studies: The Key Concepts by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0415661919

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/11/04/episode6/

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about how representation actually works.

We talk about: 

• at representation is about who we make visible and who are rendered invisible because of those decisions

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“When there’s very little or no representation, or all the representations are the same, that one character, that one characterisation, can be all a reader knows for a long time.”

“It’s not just the case that certain groups of people are culturally absent or not as present, there’s also the fact that those few representations of them out there tend to be stereotypical and potentially harmful.”

“If we want to make a real effort, is it enough to sneak in a single homosexual character or someone belonging to an ethnic minority? Are we doing our bit to change the world by adding one black woman to our very white cast? Or one Muslim family to our otherwise Christian or secular world?”

“Inclusion matters, but representation just for the sake of inclusion isn’t really the answer.” 

“There’s more to diversity than race and gender. Don’t think you can’t write diverse characters just because it doesn’t make sense to include a cast of black or Asian or Hispanic characters in your world.” 

“Each society comes with its own set of stereotypes for those who are considered ‘other’, and it’s really difficult to counter or break down these different ‘types’ and provide better alternatives.”

“Representation is not only about who we make present, it’s also about how we make them present. Doing representation right means we should think through both steps.”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture edited by Rosemarie Buikema, Lieke Plate, and Kathrin Thiele: https://www.routledge.com/Doing-Gender-in-Media--Art-and-Cu-lture-A-Comprehensive-Guide/Buikema-Plate-Thiele/p/book/9781138288263 

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/10/28/episode5/ 

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—talk about the fear of cultural appropriation.

More specifically, we talk about: 

• How we define cultural appropriation

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“These days, cultural appropriation is understood to focus on those moments, those points of interaction and usage, where certain customs, practices, ideas, and so on, are being employed by usually a more dominant culture without any of the positives. There is no positive exchange going on that somehow benefits those whose culture is being used by that other, often more dominant, culture.”

“I can understand why some acknowledgement might feel like worth having, especially when there’s been almost none, but that doesn’t take away the fact that the bigger, disturbing picture remains solidly rooted within our dominant culture and history. And Pocahontas the Disney film did only acknowledge a fraction of it, while erasing the absolute tragedy and evil enacted on Pocahontas herself in real history.” 

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward’s Writing the Other: https://writingtheother.com/the-book/ 

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/10/21/episode4/

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting 

Show notes episode 3 – Common fears and frustrations

In this episode of Doing Diversity in Writing, we—Bethany and Mariëlle—discuss some of the fears and frustrations that might come up when writing diverse characters.

More specifically, we talk about the following fears: 

• Representing someone in the wrong way…

Some quotes from this week’s episode:

“Not all differences are considered equal. Depending on where we are as a society, and which society you’re writing about, some identity markers might carry more charge than others. Which is why some misrepresentations cause more outrage than others, and why we might be more scared of representing this character the wrong way than that character.”

“What we would love to see happen all around us is that people, instead of stepping away from the challenge because something is at stake, lean into the challenge and start taking those steps.”

“There are loads of things that are hard to get right as an author. The feel of a place, of an era, dialogue, how characters interact, character and story arcs that come full circle. Writing diverse characters is just one of those aspects. You don’t stop describing a place or cut out all your dialogue because it’s hard getting it right or needs more research.”

“Why put all of that labour on those diverse authors when we can actively contribute to creating a more diverse reading experience? Why can we not both create space for diverse authors and their voices WHILE we ourselves are working as hard to turn this world into a better place?”

And here are the (re)sources we mentioned on the show:

• Nicola Upson’s The Death of Lucy Kyte: https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571366415-the-death-of-lucy-kyte.html 

This week’s bonus material can be found here: https://representationmatters.art/2021/10/14/episode3/

To be the first to know when our next episode drops, subscribe to our newsletter here: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/r3p6g8 

As always, we’d love for you to join the conversation by filling out our questionnaires. 

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Writer Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/UUEbeEvxsdwk1kuy5

Our Doing Diversity in Writing – Reader Questionnaire can be filled in at https://forms.gle/gTAg4qrvaCPtqVJ36 

Don’t forget, you can find us at https://representationmatters.art/ and on https://www.facebook.com/doingdiversityinwriting