What I hate the most is when people say YOU DONT KNOW OUR STRUGGLE.
ok
Not every LGBTQ+ person is raised in hillbilly, bum f*ck nowhere with a bunch of homophobic assh*les, some of them are raised in places that are LGBT friendly.
So your saying that cis people can’t have LGBTQ+ friends or family, that someone who is straight couldn’t have been raised by an LGBTQ+ couple or single parent
That cis people can’t have friends that are LGBTQ, who are willing to help them write a respectful story
That cis people may have gone through a phase where they themselves didn’t know whether they where straight, bi or any of the other LGBTQ+
That every LGBTQ+ person life is horrible and dark and sad, no some of them live happy, successful lives without people talking down to them because of there sexual identity
This is so fascinating, that this thread is so drastically different from episode’s. I wonder if people with that point of view just don’t wanna post anything here.
It’s cuz all the cool people who used to be on Episode are here now. And there’s another thread for this contest started by @phnx, so maybe all the gatekeepers are over there.
My problem with this is, they named the contest ‘Queer’, which they would have found is a slur, had they bothered to look into it. I get that is this probably their June contest so the stories will appear on a shelf during pride month, but why not call the contest ‘Pride’.
Also, with the matter of gatekeeping. I don’t think that cishet authors shouldn’t participate but PLEASE for the love of God, do some research and actually have some idea about what you’re writing. For example, if your story is about a trans person, do some research into what it means to be trans. Don’t just make assumptions. That’s how stereotyping and misrepresentation surface.
Yeah, I’m a little uneasy about a large corporation using this term to literally profit when it’s used as an insult. I think a community of people can reclaim the word, but even if there are LGBT+ people working at Episode, it just doesn’t feel very genuine to me. Pride would have been an awesome theme.
I’m on the fence about entering. On one side, I have a cool idea. On the other, it makes me uncomfortable to have to put Queer in front of the title. Poor choice of words on their part.
I’d say write the story and you can add the word in if you decide you want to enter it later or just release it with its original title. Episode needs good stories!
I’m sorry, but this just made me lol!
Another fantastically moronic idea, let’s kick up an issue and tell straight people that they shouldn’t write about something that they aren’t… fantastic idea. Now let me see, if people could only write about what they are, what would we be left with?
That means, no one can write about animals because they aren’t one. No one can write about supernatural beings… because you aren’t one. (I hate using the race card but oh well ) if you follow the pattern if you’re of a certain race, you can’t write about another one because… You aren’t of that race. I don’t think I need to continue, because my sarcasm is practically dripping in dangerous levels now.
So lets try that idea… I mean, I don’t know about everyone else, but I can’t wait to read these narrow minded, single view, non inclusive, non imaginative, masterpieces!!!
This contest should be a chance for the authors of that community to truly shine. They know from a personal level what someone might be experiencing. However, that should not stop an author that is not in that community from being able to write a story for the contest.
Maybe I look at it this way because I’ve never questioned my gender, and I’m definitely heterosexual. The key is that someone who doesn’t have any first hand knowledge should do some research.
In response to where someone said something about that they shouldn’t write about something they’ve never experienced the struggles with. With that logic, a homosexual individual should never write about a non homosexual relationship of their own gender. A bisexual individual should only write about bisexual characters. Someone should only ever write characters of their own race. The list goes on and on with that logic. With that line of thought all diversity fades away.
Yeah some of us may not understand the struggles In the same way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do our research and try. For some of us, we want to understand and support, even if we don’t know how, but pushing us away makes us feel excluded and have a harder time understanding. It’s harder to support when you’re actively excluded.
Why though, what makes this contest so special just for them. Personally I view it more as benifitting LGBTQ readers and not necessarily authors. The rules only state that the MC has to be part of that community it doesn’t have to be about their struggles and imagine if everyone just wrote their stories about that, boring imo.
So I don’t even have to necessarily do any research, let’s say I’m writing the typical fantasy story and my MC just happens to be together with the same gender I don’t need any extra knowledge I can just write it like any other relationship.
It seems that members of a community that preaches about not excluding people due to there sexual preferences sure does want to exclude people that don’t fit into their ideals of sexual preferences
You’re right. I say it is a chance for them to shine since they know from personal experience. They have first hand knowledge of how they felt about themselves, and how others reacted to them. It seems like they often feel like they don’t get their chance to shine, so this would be a good chance for everyone to see what they know they bring to the table.
But just the same, someone like me could just as easily come in and write a story that is a million times better with just as much representation.
They just have the leg up of having the personal experiences to draw from. They know what they would want to see for representation in what they read, so they know what to write.
The readers will receive the most benefit though no matter what.
Yes it can be approached in the same way as any other relationship, but it has to be done tastefully and in a way where it doesn’t seem like you just gender swapped the LI. There’s more than that in the LGBT+ community to to represent. Research always helps when making a character different from yourself. I’ve researched stuff for characters different from myself many times.
It’s really stupid and silly, I think the main focus of this other than to “prevent traumatizing stories” is to cut down on majority of competition. I said this
If you’re educated, why shouldn’t you write about it? Sure, you know how not to misrepresent but cutting out your allies and people who want to support you by keeping out others for this contest is not how you do it. Personally, I’m not homosexual, I’m not a transgendered woman, I don’t have dyscalculia, I’m not Indian. By their logic I shouldn’t have written many of the characters I have written in the past. I do my research and I look into things, assuming that everyone is from some random town where everyone is Anti- LGTBQIA is just stupid and quite offensive. And the comment “Well just let us have this contest. It’s not a cis/straight contest” Also degrading and offensive. If I recall none of the contests were named “Straight Contest”. You had the ability to write characters main or not of any sexual orientation if you would’ve liked.
I understand where they’re coming from but like… straight and cis authors should still be able to take part…? How else are non-LGBT people supposed to educate themselves? Because implying that only marginalised people can to represent themselves in media really doesn’t help in terms of representation + implies they have to do all the educating themselves which sounds exhausting and counterproductive.
And I’m sorry but when it came to POC shelves, history months and any racial diversity thread on Episode no one cared so what’s new this time? Because it sounds like representation only matters to Episode and its users when it benefits them
Exactly! Because I’m sure all fantasy and/or sci-fi writers have interacted with talking animals, time traveled, had supernatural powers, or shape-shifted, right?
Okay, maybe a bad example, but I really hate this gatekeeping culture that a lot of Episode authors have been pushing. Every single time there’s a diversity topic, whether it be race, culture, LGBT+, or different abilities, those same authors are there policing every single thing and calling people out as if they were the only members of each and every marginalized community or minority.
I agree with your points but still, they can write those stories outside of contests too no one is stopping them. So I still don’t see why they should get special treatment, at this point it looks a little as if they are trying to better their own chances by eliminating other competition. If they have such important stories to tell they shouldn’t need a contest for that. Of course others should do their research but I don’t like how they all made assumptions that stories written by straight author WILL be bad representation and claim that they weren’t trying to exclude anyone when it was exactly what they were doing,I’m not even interested in this contest.
So, some right-wing bigot went and wrote that Episode is trying to push “liberal ideologies and agendas” and that they are “excluding conservatives ideals that are “family-friendly””
Pride would have been an awesome theme.
) if you follow the pattern if you’re of a certain race, you can’t write about another one because… You aren’t of that race. I don’t think I need to continue, because my sarcasm is practically dripping in dangerous levels now.
