kaberett: a watercolour painting of an oak leaf floating on calm water (leaf-on-water)
kaberett ([personal profile] kaberett) wrote in [personal profile] calissa 2015-01-23 12:12 am (UTC)

For what it's worth, the reason that I track diversity and seek out authors who aren't white dudes isn't that I view folk who aren't (whether that's coz they're queer and trans and disabled and bilingual, like me, or brown or poor or lacking in educational privilege or whatever, unlike me) as SJ collectibles, but that I find that in the absence of making that effort I read things mostly be straight white men, and that worldview in aggregate over time is toxic and corrosive and insidious, to the point that I don't even realise the effect it's having. For me tracking diversity in what I read isn't about showing it off; it's about gentle reminders to myself to spend my leisure time engaging with art (when I do) that reflects me rather than erases me: art that isn't a struggle. Art is good if it has its roots in necessity; mirrors are necessary, and so is joy and so is ease.

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