Help me, Obi-Fan!

[rivkat]

Okay, so I am going to this conference, and Madhavi Sunder and Anupam Chander have a paper, The Right to Mary Sue (28 pages long, pdf), which will be published in a major law review.  They use Mary Sue as a shorthand for much fan fiction, and also they argue that self-insertion into copyrighted works is a good thing.  I am very sympathetic to their argument towards the rehabilitation of Mary Sue, though I have serious doubts about using her as the representative creation of fan fiction.  Part of this may well be the usual fear that fandom will be misrepresented or misunderstood by outsiders.  Chander & Sunder are very sympathetic – in fact, I think they overstate the liberatory potential of fan fiction – but there’s always that worry.

Anyway, I have an opportunity to offer comments, and I have plenty about Mary Sue as feminist heroine and slash as feminist liberation of the original text.  What I lack, shamefully, is a comparable ability to discuss race in fan fiction/media fandom.  Chander & Sunder argue that fan fiction allows marginalized groups to insert themselves in the text or reorganize the narrative around themselves, and couple that with discussion of the underrepresentation/misrepresentation of characters of color in TV/movies, but how often does that happen with race?  We have plenty of gender-swaps; does anyone know of a race-swap story?  Any good discussion of Teyla and Ronon as characters of color in SGA fanfic? 

Things I already know I want to show them: Mimisere’s Jesus Walks (found a copy on YouTube, by the way; that result came up before any LJ result).  Remember Us, the archive.  (No SGA section, interestingly.)  Coffeeandink from 2002.  Them Mean Ol’, Low-Down, Lando Calrissian Blues.  Blaise Zabini is black (oh darn, am I going to have to explain FandomWank to them?).

I have been reading cultural appropriation posts with interest, but I didn’t realize I’d need to try to do some outreach.  So if anyone has links to good discussions of race in fandom that could help explain us – the good and the bad – to some smart, capable people, I’d really appreciate it. 

Comments

[abbylee]

No, I completely agree that we're fucked up about race. I just think that Teyla and Ronon are bad examples of where to look for that kind of discussion.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

I just think that Teyla and Ronon are bad examples of where to look for that kind of discussion.

Actually, I think they are perfect for the discussion. Much has been made of Teyla's alieness (Wraith DNA and native to the Pegasus Galaxy) but not one word has been said about the prejudices that the Earth people brought with them, beyond ones about encountering cultures vastly different than their own.

Which is why I think fan fiction is a good place to fill in some of those blanks. If people can go on and on about homophobia then you can slip in discussions about race.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Have you read any fic that addresses SGA personnel's racial attitudes? I've seen plenty on Ford's homophobia or lack thereof, which includes an assumed culturally conservative/religious background for him, but I can't remember reading about racialized reactions to the Pegasus folks. Or, for that matter, a black Marine assuming he has more in common with Teyla and Ronon than he does. I do remember some theorizing about possible Pegasusian (?) attitudes towards people with blue eyes ("ring-eyes"), but that struck me as fantasy wish-fulfillment that didn't engage with the racial implications at all, and therefore left me pretty cold.

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

Have you read any fic that addresses SGA personnel's racial attitudes? I've seen plenty on Ford's homophobia or lack thereof, which includes an assumed culturally conservative/religious background for him, but I can't remember reading about racialized reactions to the Pegasus folks.

Alas, no. And Ford was so severely underused on the show that having someone wrtie about a possible culturally conservative/religious background for him just hits me in the wrong place. The "Oh, Black folks are way more homophobic than white folks" argument, explicitly stated or assumed, is so annoying.

One person you might want to ask is jalabert who writes very good, in-depth Ford fic and probably has a better handle on what's going on Ford-wise.

Or, for that matter, a black Marine assuming he has more in common with Teyla and Ronon than he does.

Now there's a thought.

I do remember some theorizing about possible Pegasusian (?) attitudes towards people with blue eyes ("ring-eyes"), but that struck me as fantasy wish-fulfillment that didn't engage with the racial implications at all, and therefore left me pretty cold.

I can see why it would. The story that comes to mind right now is "Blood on Old Snow" (and I can't remember the author right now, dang it) which is John/Rodney/Teyla. Ronon sees how very pale John is but again that's from the Pegasusian point of view.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the additional info.

I think the religious/conservative idea is aided by the text's references to Ford's grandparents, but why it was Ford written that way and not Carson already has some racial implications. I think fans are taking canon and running with it in perfectly predictable ways, which is not to say that either should be that way.

Thanks to these comments, I have a page of links for Chander & Sunder that will probably intimidate the hell out of them.