I'm very excited about today's #WriteInclusively guest post and guest blogger. It's about a sexual identity (Asexuals - people who have no sexual desires) that I knew little about - and as such, I desperately needed to read this post. I'll strive to learn more in my free time. For now, take it away, Tiffany!
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You’ll see plenty of articles on how to write asexuals
characters or how not to write
asexuals. Seriously, you can find
them on youtube, you can find
them on tumblr (a lot of them actually). And while it is really important
to know how to write diverse characters, I wanted to talk about a the what-ifs.
What if asexual characters were more common? What if
everyone’s most known detective was asexual? I wanted to tell you about how
including asexuals would build acceptance, and would help change society. That
your single work, a single character can change the world. And that might be
true. For example, Sherlock changed the mystery genre. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
had forensics in fiction before it was used by the police. Imagine if in 1887
we had a character who explicitly stated that they don’t experience sexual
attraction. Imagine how great that acceptance would have been for asexuals. How
far that would have carried now in 2015.
Sadly, when things are “different” people want to ignore
them at best. Writers censor themselves. They say things like, “Oh, I’d like to
include diversity. I just don’t understand it so we will have to come back
later.”
“You can't be what you can't see.” I love this quote. It powerfully shows the
importance of representation in a simple and elegant way. However, there is a problem
with it. In the case of asexuality you can
be what you cannot see. Often times, people simply don’t know the word for
it.
I’ve seen so many characters that are coded as asexual
undermined for an acephobic reason that further belittles and shuns the
community. I can’t say that including a marginalized group in your writing will
fix this. Because, no single thing will.
But, by existing even fictionally they are acknowledged. I
don’t mean universally they will be by everyone (who likely has some bigotry or
self-hate to work out first), but it matters to quiet voices who need it.
Repensation is a ray of sunshine to those who face hate and dehumanization
daily.
It’s just a simple thing to avoid the case of the missing
ace. Include them.
Because it’s not a simple thing to have a stranger you might never talk to, or ever see, include you in something as tangible literature. Please #WriteInclusively.
About Tiffany Rose:
Until Rose's Starfleet uniform comes, she spends her time writing about magical girls and the morally gray. When she's not writing there is a good chance Photoshop is open. Any extra time is spent looking out for plot bunnies and serendipity. Find the author on Twitter, Tumblr or follow her own #WriteInclusively story on wattpad [GAH! How awesome is that?!?! - SC]
Thank you for sharing :DDD If you would like to guest post about #WriteInclusively, please contact me through email! If you'd like to be signed onto the pact, also let me know and I'll manually add you on :D
Make sure to thank Tiffany with a Tweet and take a look at her story!! THANK YOU for sharing!!!
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A very interesting group of people I almost never think of. Thank you, Tiffany!
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