Me getting ready for a barbcue near the lake:
What I can tell you as a transgender woman is that occasionally I will read trans woman characters written by cisgender authors. And I can pretty much always tell when the author is cis, even if the character is portrayed respectfully, because they get some details wrong or something. But I certainly don’t think that they shouldn’t be allowed to take a stab at it, and I actually appreciate any representation that isn’t egregiously harmful. And I certainly don’t think that only transgender women should be allowed to write transgender women because then it falls on me, and that’s rather tokenizing, isn’t it?
Also it seems like demanding that only #OwnVoices authors should be allowed to write certain characters is an excellent way to enforce a situation where most books are about cishet white people.
And no: you probably won’t get all of the specific details of someone else’s lived experience correct, in much the same way that most authors don’t get all of the specific details about how, say, nuclear reactors or space work. But so long as your character passes as realistically human and not a one-dimensional caricature of what you think that other types of people are like, then I think that that’s reasonable.
Also, sensitivity readers are a thing, and enhance all of the above actions! Paying a reader from the demographic you have written to go over your writing and give constructive feedback is a wonderful thing to do. It benefits both parties involved not only in the financial and craft-honing senses, but also in the exchange of ideas and learning about someone whose perspective and lived experience are different from yours.
look I know this is sappy and cheesy but u know when a character loses control of their power or they’re possessed or w/e and their s/o shouts their name running towards them and then they stop their rampage and let their s/o hug them,, like that’s good shit
you. you get it.
damn then why was the monster so sad all the time
I don’t know which is funnier, the images or that comment
We shared our first breath. Now it’s time to celebrate that breath… together.
HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY SENSATES! (August 8th, 2020)
how did we all just casually listen to Take Me To Church on the radio in 2014??
you’re telling me we really heard lyrics like “there is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin” and “if i’m a pagan of the good times, my lover’s the sunlight” and didn’t go absolutely buck wild???
bold of you to assume i can comprehend the words that are said even to this day
as soon as hozier says "she's the giggle at a funeral" my vision greys out and i wake up 4 hours later in a church garden, shovelling handfuls of dirt into my mouth
fantasmalresplendent
