Writers can only Write about what they Know
Just when you think you ‘get’ life, it comes and punches you straight in the mouth.
Yet again I’m left reeling, my head screaming ‘what the hell are you all on about now?’ as I scroll through my Facebook newsreels, follow the trending patterns on Twitter and listen to the news. The Perpetually Offended are back out in force again, and this time women are being racist. Yep, all of us.
Black feminists, white skinny women and female writers! All of us.
Let’s start with the writers…
Lena Dunham, the creator of the hit TV Series Girls, has been accused of being racist through her portrayal of four young women living in Brooklyn. Why? Because her amazing characters are all, you guessed it, white.
This isn’t advertising that we are talking about. It’s art. A make-believe world. Surely anybody who views a TV programme and tallies up the ratio of white to beige, brown to caramel, and pink to black faces within an episode is an fool who clearly doesn’t understand what they are watching. They are somebody intent on pissing on the success of an immensely successful writer who has more balls, creative audacity and talent than many male writers who have gone before her. Lena is a (very young) female writer who has brought forth a televised interpretation of not what women want to be, or what women should be… but what women are.
Yes, these are the problems of white girls who have nothing to complain about – and that’s where the humour lies. Her characters are a lovable but flawed collection of fucked-up, emotionally unstable, selfish, self-obsessed, insecure, needy, confident, warm, giving, impulsive, ungrateful, lazy and ambitious friends lurching from one bad decision to another. They are, in short, every woman I know. The fact that they happen to all be white, living in a multi-ethnic community, is irrelevant.
You know how Lena got to be so talented at writing such exceptional dialogue and genius narrative? How she got to be the poster girl for modern feminism?
Because she wrote about what she knows and what she has experienced. And she’s not black, or Asian or European… so neither are her main characters. But those that are black or Asian in the series are not portrayed in a negative light either, they are relevant to the story line and in keeping with the reality of the characters and the small circles around which they revolve. That isn’t racist. That’s life.
And life is not a Benetton commercial.
I hope that one day other such successful series will be commissioned portraying other girls from other backgrounds with other issues. But don’t complain that there isn’t something out there representing you – if you can’t see it then do it yourself!
As a writer and a woman from a mixed background, I pride myself with having the ability and opportunity to inject each article and story I write with an underlying current of feminism and empowerment to women. Skin colour doesn’t come into it. My female characters are, like us all, both flawed but strong. They are on the outside pure fantasy, but running through their imaginary veins are the millions of women I have been, encountered, loved and hated. I can’t write about things I don’t know anything about, not if I want my words to carry with them my true emotions… to smell, feel, taste and sound like the life I (and many of you reading them) will know.
For me, the act of writing through the eyes of a person I am unfamiliar with (although possible but a lot harder) would only lead to further critique. Imagine the headlines now – ‘Lady Lolita writes from the perspective of a Jewish-Afro-American man, how dare she presume she can get inside our heads?’
So we are fucked either way.
Therefore (much like Lena, I imagine) I will stick with what I know, the community that has moulded me and the experiences that my friends and I have been through. Some of my mates are black, some are not. Some have money, some do not. Some are gay, some are not.
Who cares?
Of course not everyone will like what I write because they won’t be able to relate to it, but that doesn’t make it any less valid. Another writer out there will be able to speak with authority on what it’s like to be someone else, and they will gather just as many fans and haters.
And while I’m on the subject of writers, has it occurred to you that every single one of us now has the opportunity to be a writer on a daily basis?
Through the power of social media, each day we are all writing our own lives 140 characters at a time. We are all speakers of our own truth. Our hastily un-edited words, laden with spontaneous emotion and filled with biased personal opinions, can reach out to the world in a matter of seconds. A more enlightened but more dangerous world; that is now tainted by misinterpretation at every turn.
Because, according to our social media tweets and Instagram posts, as well as writers being prejudice, now white women fighting the feminist cause are also being racist (Google #whitefeminist and welcome to MindFuckLand). And their non-white sisters, who also want equality for women (just, evidently, not women who are unlike them), are in turn being accused of reverse-racism for saying that white wealthy women can’t fight for any cause because they are more privileged.
Do me a bloody favour! Clearly ALL your lives are privileged enough if this is these are the trivialities you have to worry about.
Why can’t we appreciate that everyone has struggles of different degrees?
My gender, sexual orientation and skin colour means that I will go through experiences that others will not. That doesn’t mean I won’t empathise with, or support, the cause of another – but my ignorance in that subject (because I am me, I can’t – no matter how hard I try – be a different skin colour or no longer fancy men) doesn’t mean that I am prejudice or think myself better than anyone else. In fact I support every woman, and I will do what I can to bring us all the power of equality by standing for what we all believe in – women’s rights. Woman’s rights that are not based on what we look like, our abilities or who we like to have sex with.
Sadly, over the last few years, the word Feminism has risen back out of the ashes like a new buzz word for the I-feel-left-out woman and has been pulled, squeezed and twisted out of all proportion. We seem to have gone beyond the basic principle of ‘women having the same rights as men’ to believing some Orwellian rhetoric that some women now have more rights than others. That actually some women (slim, white, moneyed women – mainly) don’t have it as tough as other women (ethnic minorities, gay, disabled women). It reminds me of the scene in the film Life of Brian where one Anti-Roman group hates the other fraction, when they are all fighting for the same cause (watch it, have a laugh, then recognise the stupidity of the feminist in-fighting).
Nikki Minaj wasn’t being ‘reversely racist’ when she said skinny white girls have a higher chance of winning music awards than her – she was speaking her truth. But had she worded it ‘why don’t curvaceous women of colour get the praise they deserve?’ instead, then the likes of skinny white girls like Taylor Swift wouldn’t have felt attacked. Because, to be fair, Taylor has been writing songs and performing since she was 14 and is a talented lady (yet we all judge her for her skin colour and skinniness, so shame on us all)!
How about we let all women have their say? We make up 50% of the world’s population after all… that’s a lot of potential power. Men don’t hate on each other, so why do we? Dads don’t judge other dads. Men just get on with it, and so should we!
Perhaps if we stop acting like the hormonal, petty bitches we are accused of being by misogynists, we may actually make our opinions heard. At the moment, my fellow women, we are losing our credibility and power because we are acting like Mean Girl teens.
I don’t care what type of woman you are. We are the same and I stand by you.
So when someone of a different background to you has something to say that doesn’t validate your own life or belief system, don’t instantly accuse her of being racist or prejudice. She can’t understand your own plight because it won’t have occurred to her, because it’s not in her immediate level of consciousness, because that is YOUR life and not HERS. Her emotions and problems are big enough to her, so support her and in turn show her how she can support you.
Women – put down your iPhones, stop the hasty hashtagging and look around you. See that woman over there you know nothing about? Hug her. See that other woman on the TV who doesn’t look anything like you? Listen to her. Learn from her. Let her have her say and stand by her. We are not all the same – looking different and coming from different places is what makes us so beautiful. We can all be right.
Feminism is about defending the rights of women. So how can we be expected to do that when we are so busy attacking each other?
I’m going to get back to writing my novel now. It may have white women in it, it may not. I may include some black, gay or disabled women in it, I may not. It doesn’t really matter. But I promise you something – it will be good because it will be real. And if someone, just one woman, out there enjoys it and understands me… then it’s all been worthwhile. Because that’s why I’m here. Being me. The only woman I know how to be.
