I'm reading Mice Tea
Dec. 28th, 2023 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariGavin makes me think about the real reasons behind positive discrimination.
I've always thought that when stories positively discriminate against minorities, it's to avoid offending minorities. For instance, the teenage black girl in Luann is too generous with her time and energy, but always in ways that run her ragged rather than cause problems for anyone else. I thought that the writer was afraid of seeming racist by giving her meaningful flaws that other characters might resent.
One time only, I read an article that argued differently re: Will Smith. It said white audiences are scared of black men, so the positive discrimination against his characters is to make him as nonthreatening as possible. I went "huh, interesting" and then never thought about it again.
Mice Tea is targeted towards traumatized bi women, cis or trans, who are scared of straight cis men. As the only love interest who's a cis man, Gavin is heavily focused around being nonthreatening. The only interpersonal conflict in his route is when he's wrongly seen as a threat, and everything he does in response to that shows he will never hurt Margaret. He actually gets to have more rough edges in other characters' routes, because he's not in a position of power over Margaret.
Now I'm thinking back about all the other positive discrimination I've seen in fiction. How much of it was really about making the characters inoffensive, vs. making them nonthreatening?
I've always thought that when stories positively discriminate against minorities, it's to avoid offending minorities. For instance, the teenage black girl in Luann is too generous with her time and energy, but always in ways that run her ragged rather than cause problems for anyone else. I thought that the writer was afraid of seeming racist by giving her meaningful flaws that other characters might resent.
One time only, I read an article that argued differently re: Will Smith. It said white audiences are scared of black men, so the positive discrimination against his characters is to make him as nonthreatening as possible. I went "huh, interesting" and then never thought about it again.
Mice Tea is targeted towards traumatized bi women, cis or trans, who are scared of straight cis men. As the only love interest who's a cis man, Gavin is heavily focused around being nonthreatening. The only interpersonal conflict in his route is when he's wrongly seen as a threat, and everything he does in response to that shows he will never hurt Margaret. He actually gets to have more rough edges in other characters' routes, because he's not in a position of power over Margaret.
Now I'm thinking back about all the other positive discrimination I've seen in fiction. How much of it was really about making the characters inoffensive, vs. making them nonthreatening?
