The Wayback on Wednesday: Riffs on Political Correctness
originally published in August of 2000
This feature grew out of Laurie Gold’s 1997 review of a 1997 romance, A Well Pleasured Lady by Christina Dodd, and a subsequent column she wrote about it and other issues related to Political Correctness.
A quickie from Judith Ivory/Judy Cuevas – about politically correct writing (August 1997)
A quickie from Patricia Gaffney – about politically correct writing (August 1997)
A quickie from Kathleen Eagle – about fiction versus real life (August 1997)
A quickie from Lisa Kleypas – on forced seduction (August 1997)
A quickie from Jo Beverley – her response to some Quickies (August 1997)
A quickie from Sharon Curtis – on sexuality in romance (September 1997)
Paula Detmer Rigg’s Write Byte on writing taboo subjects (October 1997)
Kathleen Eagle’s Quickie on “Indian” P.C.
Cynthia Sterling’s Historical Cheat Sheet quickie on historically accurate writing (1999)
Sabrina Jeffries on historically accurate writing (January 2000)
These were really interesting. There are a couple I have to come back to read when I have more time but I thought Kathleen Eagle’s piece on “Indian PC” was particularly interesting. As her husband and children are Native American (after reading her piece I am not sure if I should use that term or another) she has a unique viewpoint.
I really appreciated that she constantly refers to what the members of the various tribes prefer (based on polls and facts) in terms of names rather than what “white guys” decided on their own was right.
I am very glad that the names of the sports teams that Native Americans had said over and over were offensive to them were finally addressed recently. I cannot imagine another ethnic group having to complain as long as they did to have the insulting names changed.
I know a lot of people mean well, but how hard is it to listen to the opinions of the people who are actually affected by the names when making these decisions?
I agree and I think we often don’t listen to how groups wish to define themselves. I find the whole Latinx issue fascinating.
Kathleen Eagle is right that a lot of these exonyms come from academia and don’t necessarily represent what groups like to be called. When the society is actually multi-cultural and in trying to be inclusive of all types of identities it can be very hard to reach any kind of consensus. I’ve read similar articles about what people from the Indian sub-continent prefer to be called. South Asian has gained traction and is now widely used for Indian, but not all Indians are okay with being called South Asian (from what I understand).
I think most of those who live in India prefer to be called Indian but not all those who live in South Asia do.
This is a fascinating blast from the past. Thanks for posting it, Dabney.
What I found most interesting is the evolving view toward rape in romance. I haven’t been reading the genre long enough where rapist heroes and forced seduction scenes were still a thing. In fact, everything I’ve read so far has been quite affirmative in the consent department.
My concern in 2021 is that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Lately, I have been bumping into romance after romance that is so concerned with verbal consent, I’m half expecting the hero or heroine to pull out a legal contract while making out. Forget forced seduction narratives; we’re barreling toward no seduction allowed narratives. Enthusiastic consent shouldn’t have to consist of constant repetitions of, “May I touch you here?”- especially when the characters have already had sex before!
This is a tricky subject to deal with. I remember reading M.M. Kaye’s The Far Pavilions and loving it, and so I read Trade Winds, an earlier book of hers. The hero is a slave trader, and he rapes the heroine to get back at her fiancé for raping the hero’s mistress. I was so outraged I wanted to throw the book in the author’s face. She may have written any number of other terrific books—heck, she could have written War and Peace for all I care—but I was never going to pick up one of them.
On the other hand, I think Patricia Gaffney’s To Have and To Hold is wonderful. And having the hero say “May I?” sounds as if they’re children playing Simon Says.
It all depends on the execution.
Of course, that could be potentially sexy depending upon how the author portrays it. ;-)
I think it’s hard to hold a single book against an author, particularly if they are prolific.
I can think of two books written by Victoria Holt under her many aliases where the “hero” did just such a thing to the heroine. (I am sure given the above mentioned “hero’s” occupation makes it even worse.)
But all that being said, I think I would be the worse for not having read a great deal of Ms. Holt’s various works over the years despite a few really awful plots in some of them.
I will say in Ms. Holt’s defense that in at least one of the books the guy was definitely not portrayed as a hero- but alas in others he was, at least an anti-hero.
I also read them many decades ago when I was much younger and would read pretty much anything in fiction as I was more detached in a way. I think getting older makes you more sympathetic and maybe more vulnerable in some ways.
And yet…
Rape FANTASIES are still remarkably common. This is from a recent Psychology Today article.
I bring this up just because I think romance writers who continue to write forced seduction are responding to readers. One only has to look at the wild success of dark romance on the Amazon charts to see the popularity of that trope.
It would be interesting to me to see a further break down of the survey you mentioned by asking when did the fantasies occurred (what setting/activity/etc.) AND asking whether the person would find reading about rape/forced seduction in fiction to also be pleasant or arousing.
I think the study might find that what one fantasizes about during a sexual activity isn’t necessarily what one would find pleasant to read about. I’m sure it varies, but I suspect there wouldn’t be a 1 to 1 correlation.
Oh, I think that’s very true. What has changed are the attitudes toward publishing these common fantasies in the mainstream. I remember watching a presentation about erotic literature where the speaker said if rape stories were allowed on KDP, they would easily be the hottest selling subgenre.