Sensitivity readers are the new literary gatekeepers

[beastlyslumber]

Interesting article on the ongoing destructive purity spiral in publishing.

Here's a quote: When The Men, Sandra Newman's sci-fi novel in which everyone with a Y chromosome suddenly vanishes from the face of the earth, came under fire for what critics termed the "transphobic" implication that people with Y chromosomes are men, one of the chief questions was whether the author had engaged a trans sensitivity reader. But when Newman said that yes, she had, the outrage only multiplied. Why had she hired only one sensitivity reader? Did she think this was an excuse?

"That only makes it WORSE," one commenter wrote, "because you're claiming you KNOWINGLY did this."

I don’t think we need this. We know literature might offend people. It’s a built in risk. Employing people to make sure it doesn’t offend people a) doesn’t work and b) is authoritarian and creepy.

And yet book after book with sexual assault as a plot point and women as props get released constantly.

<sigh>

Sensitivity readers is a chilling concept.
I mean great to run by your content for a specific cohort, were I to run a workshop to a demographic I know nothing about I’d get advice but the thought that general content for a general audience is sensitivity screened is Orwellian.

I would say that whether they are called sensitivity readers or not, this already happens doesnt it, look at the outrage when writers write things that piss people off, I dont agree with some of the stuff I read but that doesnt mean it shouldnt be written, Im thinking about that book a teacher wrote some time ago and theres a current thread about an article in the Times by Giles Coron, just as a couple of examples off the top of my head.

Yeah I agree, sensitivity readers are not a good thing. They've been causing trouble for quite a while now. Kate Clanchy's article about the sensitivity readers forced on her was interesting too.

I don't think there's anywhere near as much fridging of women these days. The sexual assault thing is interesting because women do quite often get sexually assaulted. So should we not represent that in fiction? Having said that, I read a lot of crime and horror and think it's dealt with loads better in those genres than it used to be.

@MrsTerryPratchett

It’s annoying but not as annoying as people telling people what they can read.

I don't think there's anywhere near as much fridging of women these days. The sexual assault thing is interesting because women do quite often get sexually assaulted.

It's the tired, lazy trope of wanting to make a 'baddie' the easiest way is to make him threaten rape. And then the baddie will die in the end, ignoring that no women IRL get that closure.

I just vote with my enormous book budget, people can write poorly if they'd like!

This is fast departing from being a social issue that one might take various political positions on, to being a one-way ticket straight to loonsville. It’s a science fiction novel FFS, if she’d written that everyone with a Y chromosome is really a cat with three tails, that’s her prerogative as a writer of science fiction. FICTION. You know, that thing that is made up.

It’s not like the online alphabet community isn’t intimately familiar with science fiction, fan fiction, AU, anime, and every kind of fantasy from wizards to hentai to that genre where everyone’s an alpha, beta or gamma, (I forget what it’s called). If it’s asexual neutrois aliens with soul marks that reveal themselves as magic skin tattoos everyone’s there for it; somehow if it doesn’t fit the fashionable political gender narrative however, it goes over the side of the pram ASAP 😂

Wondering if Gretchen Felker Martin employed one.

'Filled with rage and violence towards women, including torture, murder and rape'

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/transgender-writer-gretchen-felker-martin-kills-off-jk-rowling-in-horror-novel-gstt6m60g

It's because rape is seen as a sure sign the fellow is a rotter, where as plenty of heroes now are thieves, murderers, or even cannibals.

It's no different than any other kind of ideological censorship.

Bloody hell, I didn't even put a link to the article. Blame the menopause, I am.

reason.com/2022/07/05/rise-of-the-sensitivity-reader/