Sensitivity readers

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 Big Ger 27 Apr 2018

Really? Is this needed?

 

> Anna Hecker, whose young adult novel When the Beat Drops is published in May, says she first contacted sensitivity readers after two rounds of edits with her publisher. Her protagonist, Mira, is mixed-race – half Caucasian, half African-American – and Hecker is not.

> She hired three sensitivity readers, who all gave feedback. Hecker did not describe race in her initial draft, something she was told was typical for white writers. As a person of colour, it was suggested that Mira would make note of white characters’ ethnicities, in the way a white character would make note of black or Latino characters. One reader queried how Mira’s white mother learned how to braid her daughter’s mixed-race hair. Another encouraged Hecker to be more creative with descriptions, saying her initial description of “light brown skin, a wide nose, and kinky dark hair” was both cliched and boring – feedback Hecker described as “fair”.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/27/vetting-for-stereotypes-meet-...

Surely one of the things we look to from authors is imagination and different perspectives?

Post edited at 13:42
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 Blue Straggler 27 Apr 2018
In reply to Big Ger:

 

> Surely one of the things we look to from authors is imagination and different perspectives?

I look for good writing, fleshed-out descriptions and a lack of lazy cliche.

I see this case as not being much different from any author doing their research and hiring helpers. I imagine Tom Clancy has quite a retinue of military advisers, so that he doesn't come across as some kid making it all up as he goes along. 

So, yes, we do "need" this. I don't know why it's a news story, unless it is an advertorial for the book.

 

 toad 27 Apr 2018
In reply to Big Ger:

Nothing unreasonable there. If my protagonist was a police officer, or a social worker, or French, or whatever I’d talk to people from that background to make sure I wasn’t just using my own preconceptions and stereotypes.

Or do you like your literature “cliched and boring”?

 dread-i 27 Apr 2018
In reply to Big Ger:

Would you expect someone writing about space travel, to understand all the nuances of travel at light speed, gravity wells and the like? Especially if the author only uses space as the backdrop for a story.

With race being such a delicate subject, especially in places like the US, it doesn't hurt to get other opinions on areas you're not too familiar with.

In reply to Big Ger:

No different from someone writing a detective novel talking to a cop or pathologist for background to make it more realistic.   The only problem I have is calling them 'sensitivity readers'.

 Timmd 30 Apr 2018
In reply to Big Ger:

If something we look for is different perspectives, isn't it a good thing for there to be less chance of stereotypes?

Thinking of somebody  I vaguely know of who has Asperger's, I guess she might be vaguely put out if there was a character who didn't seem 'authentic' one might say.

More authenticity and fewer stereotypes seems like a good thing to me...... 

Post edited at 13:25
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