i am intrestied in this space latino
Feb. 16th, 2016 02:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1oiISWr:
So far I haven’t found anyone who knows more about actual real-life Latinx issues (and as thorough a Googling as I know how to do hasn’t actually reassured me of when it is correct to say Latino/a and when Latinx, which might be actual-Spanish-speaking-person exlusionary, etc., and so on and so forth) who seems interested in helping with this, and so I’m still a little hesitant. But, I mean. Just regular betas are a thing, and I will do the best I can.
It’s clearly not up to me to write The Great Space Latinx Epic, but I’m certainly going to incorporate it into the story as best I can, as more of a setting/characterization detail than a major plot point.
And like. Clearly. Some of the oversexualization of the Poe Dameron character has got to be tied into the Sexy Latino Lover sterotype; I’ve seen some stuff that’s a little bit cringey, and lord knows it’s not like I’d know. And as I’m writing him, the character of Poe is really uncomfortable with a lot of the Myth Of Poe Hot-Damneron, and I was sort of wondering why he was resisting so much, but as I write more I tend to notice that– the character’s internal logic picks shit like that up before I do. And so, uh, yeah, Poe knows that shit is racist and it’s making him really uncomfortable.
So I’m actually really glad I’ve been taking my time with this story; some of it has been out with beta readers for three weeks now, and I’ve realized a lot of things in that time. If I’d gone ahead and posted it to AO3 already, I wouldn’t have had time to figure out that Poe wasn’t just uneasy about being a myth, he was really uncomfortable at being a racialized stereotype. The post I did the art collab with @albymangroves on, Dealing With Your Inevitable Crush on Poe Dameron? You bet your ass Poe himself in-universe has a pretty uncomfortable reaction to that video.
“So anyway. I actually found this out, like, immediately before I left on the mission I was on when you had to rescue me.” He tapped the spoon on the edge of the pot, and put a lid on it. “I walked in and they were showing a training holovid and it was about me.”
Rey had to turn and look at him, at that. “What about you?” she asked.
He made a face, and set the spoon down, turned, set his back against the cabinet and slid down to the floor again. “It was called How To Cope With Your Crush On Poe, or something like that, and it was all about how everyone wants to sleep with me and shouldn’t be weird about it,” he said, rubbing his face again and looking really sad and tired.
“Oh,” Rey said, baffled, and turned back to her wiring. “That– seems weird.”
“It is,” he said. “They had– interviews. With people– with ex-lovers of mine. Including one guy who’s since gotten killed. And it fucked me up, to see that. And he’s talking about how good I am in bed. Like– what the fuck is that.”
“What the fuck,” Rey echoed sincerely.
Poe sighed deeply. “General Organa was in on it,” he said. “They sent her to talk to me after I ran out of there, because like, what was I supposed to do? Behind my back, they’ve been showing this thing, Force knows how long. It’s– horrifying. And she said it wasn’t about me, it was about the mythology of me.”
“I thought General Organa was like, a mom to you,” Rey said thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Poe said, then amended, “I mean, no, but– it’s not the same. But. Yes. It felt like– really personal. Like I really– her parents were Iberican, the ones who raised her, I thought she understood, you know? And yet. But I mean. I figured they were mocking me, but she swears that wasn’t it at all. It’s sincere, apparently. People just– think I’m– some kind of– I don’t know. Whatever they think, I’m not, and it’s not fair, I’m a person.”
“Of course you are,” Rey said, indignant.
He tipped his head back against the cabinet, and sighed. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for listening so patiently. It’s been really bothering me and my ability to not whine about things is at a particularly low ebb because everything is terrible.”
“Well,” Rey said, “everything is objectively terrible, you’re not wrong. Thank you for telling me, because I would have been very confused to encounter such a holovid.”
“I wasn’t confused,” Poe said, “I was just really upset.”
“Understandably so,” Rey said.
“And it’s– I can guarantee you, literally nobody involved in this realizes how fucking racist it is,” Poe said. “But it’s racist. And it’s really– it’s hard to describe it? But specifically, specifically that, is just so specifically icky, in a particularly soul-killing and gross kind of way– it’s hard to talk about.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Thank you for listening.”
So. Yeah. I mean. I’m just glad I’m having a chance to think this over and make it maybe more internally consistent characterization-wise. Maybe I can actually make this interesting and also… I don’t know, accurate’s not the word. But anyway. It’s certainly something I’m thinking about.
So far I haven’t found anyone who knows more about actual real-life Latinx issues (and as thorough a Googling as I know how to do hasn’t actually reassured me of when it is correct to say Latino/a and when Latinx, which might be actual-Spanish-speaking-person exlusionary, etc., and so on and so forth) who seems interested in helping with this, and so I’m still a little hesitant. But, I mean. Just regular betas are a thing, and I will do the best I can.
It’s clearly not up to me to write The Great Space Latinx Epic, but I’m certainly going to incorporate it into the story as best I can, as more of a setting/characterization detail than a major plot point.
And like. Clearly. Some of the oversexualization of the Poe Dameron character has got to be tied into the Sexy Latino Lover sterotype; I’ve seen some stuff that’s a little bit cringey, and lord knows it’s not like I’d know. And as I’m writing him, the character of Poe is really uncomfortable with a lot of the Myth Of Poe Hot-Damneron, and I was sort of wondering why he was resisting so much, but as I write more I tend to notice that– the character’s internal logic picks shit like that up before I do. And so, uh, yeah, Poe knows that shit is racist and it’s making him really uncomfortable.
So I’m actually really glad I’ve been taking my time with this story; some of it has been out with beta readers for three weeks now, and I’ve realized a lot of things in that time. If I’d gone ahead and posted it to AO3 already, I wouldn’t have had time to figure out that Poe wasn’t just uneasy about being a myth, he was really uncomfortable at being a racialized stereotype. The post I did the art collab with @albymangroves on, Dealing With Your Inevitable Crush on Poe Dameron? You bet your ass Poe himself in-universe has a pretty uncomfortable reaction to that video.
“So anyway. I actually found this out, like, immediately before I left on the mission I was on when you had to rescue me.” He tapped the spoon on the edge of the pot, and put a lid on it. “I walked in and they were showing a training holovid and it was about me.”
Rey had to turn and look at him, at that. “What about you?” she asked.
He made a face, and set the spoon down, turned, set his back against the cabinet and slid down to the floor again. “It was called How To Cope With Your Crush On Poe, or something like that, and it was all about how everyone wants to sleep with me and shouldn’t be weird about it,” he said, rubbing his face again and looking really sad and tired.
“Oh,” Rey said, baffled, and turned back to her wiring. “That– seems weird.”
“It is,” he said. “They had– interviews. With people– with ex-lovers of mine. Including one guy who’s since gotten killed. And it fucked me up, to see that. And he’s talking about how good I am in bed. Like– what the fuck is that.”
“What the fuck,” Rey echoed sincerely.
Poe sighed deeply. “General Organa was in on it,” he said. “They sent her to talk to me after I ran out of there, because like, what was I supposed to do? Behind my back, they’ve been showing this thing, Force knows how long. It’s– horrifying. And she said it wasn’t about me, it was about the mythology of me.”
“I thought General Organa was like, a mom to you,” Rey said thoughtfully.
“Yes,” Poe said, then amended, “I mean, no, but– it’s not the same. But. Yes. It felt like– really personal. Like I really– her parents were Iberican, the ones who raised her, I thought she understood, you know? And yet. But I mean. I figured they were mocking me, but she swears that wasn’t it at all. It’s sincere, apparently. People just– think I’m– some kind of– I don’t know. Whatever they think, I’m not, and it’s not fair, I’m a person.”
“Of course you are,” Rey said, indignant.
He tipped his head back against the cabinet, and sighed. “Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for listening so patiently. It’s been really bothering me and my ability to not whine about things is at a particularly low ebb because everything is terrible.”
“Well,” Rey said, “everything is objectively terrible, you’re not wrong. Thank you for telling me, because I would have been very confused to encounter such a holovid.”
“I wasn’t confused,” Poe said, “I was just really upset.”
“Understandably so,” Rey said.
“And it’s– I can guarantee you, literally nobody involved in this realizes how fucking racist it is,” Poe said. “But it’s racist. And it’s really– it’s hard to describe it? But specifically, specifically that, is just so specifically icky, in a particularly soul-killing and gross kind of way– it’s hard to talk about.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Thank you for listening.”
So. Yeah. I mean. I’m just glad I’m having a chance to think this over and make it maybe more internally consistent characterization-wise. Maybe I can actually make this interesting and also… I don’t know, accurate’s not the word. But anyway. It’s certainly something I’m thinking about.
