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cutelittlelawyer:

natalunasans:

cosetties:

i really like the advice “write marginalized characters but don’t write about marginalization unless you experience it” 

absolutely i think cis people should expand their horizons and write trans characters, but they shouldn’t write stories about being trans. likewise i think allistic / NT authors should write about autistic characters! but not stories about being autistic. 

represent us. absolutely. but don’t tell our stories. let us do that.

OK so… i’m having trouble understanding how to apply this advice.  

i’ll skip the trans characters part because that’s… (not my business?  not my lane?)

but okay.  say a non-autistic writer friend wants to write a story featuring an autistic character.  and i and their other autistic friends tell them our advice and tips and experiences (the writer friend does their homework, basically)… so, similar to real autistic persons,

an autistic character has an autistic existence… along with all the other parts of their identity.  at what point does the story pass from being a story about an autistic person to being a story about being autistic?  where is the magic line that they should not cross?  i would not know how to tell them where that line is, even when it’s about something connected to my own experience.  i could maybe tell them where they are getting it wrong about what an autistic experience might be like… and if many of their autistic friends feel like something is ‘off’, then it probably is.  but where is the line between representation and telling other people’s stories?

disclaimer, i do try to write stories about characters whose experiences i don’t share, and i am trying to do my homework like i described above (although i should probably get a wider base of examples to draw from, because i have one person i ask a lot of questions to, and i know several other people where i just try to remember the general idea of stuff they happen to mention about that experience).  but i still don’t know where that line is in my own writing (and someone else’s experiences), any more than i would in someone else’s writing (and my experiences).

I think I see where this is going.  If I read OP correctly, they are asking people to incorporate and accurately represent disabled or trans (or LGBTQ, PoC, whatever) characters, but not make the story centrally focused on the experience of one of those characters’ life experiences.  Like, don’t write a story specifically about the experience of being disabled if you haven’t actually experienced being disabled. 

But, I agree with you natalunasans. It is extremely difficult to separate the character from their experiences because that character would not have those experiences if they did not possess a certain characteristic.  And, on top of it, not everyone’s experience will be the same.  My experience as a blind person, for example, may be extremely different than another blind person’s experiences.  There is room for variation. 

I would not like someone to tell my story because only I can tell that, but do I want people to write accurate and believable blind characters even if the author is not blind? Absolutely.  I want them to do their research and do it right.  I want non-disabled writers to write realistic disabled characters, learn about them, and do them justice.  Learning is the best way to come to an understanding about the experience of “other” and what better way is there for a non-disabled writer to appreciate an experience they have not had themselves than to do good research, talk to real people, and then write something which their audience approves of?