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Incorporating diverse characters is not about an agenda

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I wrote a chapter for a friend's book, about cooking different types of vegetables. A black, London-based beta reader said the range of vegetables wasn't diverse enough. Fair point. So I edited to include calaloo, okra, plantains and other things that you typically see on market stalls in Brixton and other very multiracial areas. Reader was happy.

Then another (white) reader complained about "cultural appropriation" purely by mentioning these foods. You are always going to get people with a weird take on it.
 
I wrote a chapter for a friend's book, about cooking different types of vegetables. A black, London-based beta reader said the range of vegetables wasn't diverse enough. Fair point. So I edited to include calaloo, okra, plantains and other things that you typically see on market stalls in Brixton and other very multiracial areas. Reader was happy.

Then another (white) reader complained about "cultural appropriation" purely by mentioning these foods. You are always going to get people with a weird take on it.
True.
 
I'm really hating people right now.

One of my colleagues complained that Telenovelas are brainwashing Brazilians into Socialism.

Another colleague brought up the book that I think started the thread. I don't even know the name of it, but he said that he wouldn't have let his 12-year-old daughter read it if he knew it mixed mythology with "gender issues."

Seriously...I work in Hell.
 
Invest in You. Get Full Membership now.
I'm really hating people right now.

One of my colleagues complained that Telenovelas are brainwashing Brazilians into Socialism.

Another colleague brought up the book that I think started the thread. I don't even know the name of it, but he said that he wouldn't have let his 12-year-old daughter read it if he knew it mixed mythology with "gender issues."

Seriously...I work in Hell
It's just real life. Diverse people exist. They should be the heroes of a few stories. No agenda.
View attachment 12600
Nor Greek. Thinking of Tiresias. (I thought I wrote this as a reply to the quotes from Rick Riordan about Norse mythology. I wonder if anyone has done a comparative study of how gender fluidity is handled in a range of mythologies and how that correlates to current views and issues.)
 
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