Back in February, I came up with this challenge for Femslash February, and it really took off.
So, I want to do more to put women of color front-and-center in the ways we envision and talk about femslash, fandom, female characters, and media.
Why women of color? Mainly, it’s because the fandom spaces I go to tend to be inhabited by women. At the same time, it’s also because when people discuss gender, it tends to focus on white women, and when people discuss race, it tends to focus on men of color. In both cases, women of color are erased.
I want to counteract that by asking folks in fandom to do one simple thing to get people thinking and talking (not arguing and debating).
All you have to do is ask, “How does race impact this?”
Verbatim. Just like that.
It doesn’t matter what it is.
- Participating in a great conversation analyzing a character? Ask, “How does race impact this?”
- Reblogging a great GIFset making a point about gender or women? Ask, “How does race impact this?”
- Finding posts about fandom’s misogyny, homophobia, ableism, transphobia, etc. on your dash? “How does race impact this?”
- Making your own post about a show or fandom? “How does race impact this?”
- Doing an extended critique or review of a fanfic? “How does race impact this?”
You don’t have to do anything else. Just ask the question.
Feel free to tag it “race in fandom challenge.”
(I’m thinking this might be worth a video.)
This is an awesome challenge. And a good reminder that we should always be asking this question, to remember the perspectives of people who aren’t us.