![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jolantruI think to have only a few people (and they are not the majority) decide whether you are a good legitimate sff writer is ridiculous. It's basically your friends and fans voting you in - but it doesn't reflect well on the matter of merit.
Merit means you get there by sheer ability.
But awards mean there is a bunch of select people who would decide if your performance is good. That's not counting the silent readers, the people who do not want to vote, and people who are politicking to get their agendas heard.
At the moment, the awards are all either US- or UK-centric. But are these countries arbiters of good taste or indeed meritocracy? There are many mediocre work passed off as award-winning.
As historians, we know that sources are often biased and the victor(s) often decide who is let into their circle of privilege. As sff writers, we should be ashamed that we are doing that - and science fiction and fantasy is often an utopian idea where everyone is accepted. Which we have found out is not the case.
I wonder why isn't this privilege called out? Why aren't people saying that enough is enough, that at the end, the gatekeepers (white, US, cis) still want to maintain their status quo. Bear in mind that the POC/non-white they let through are probably the POC they want to see - and nothing else. That's why you see the same people winning the same awards everytime.
I don't believe in the US push for diversity. I am not even going to talk about the UK. If they insist that what they are doing is indeed for the sake of diversity, it's a delusion they will keep.
Merit means you get there by sheer ability.
But awards mean there is a bunch of select people who would decide if your performance is good. That's not counting the silent readers, the people who do not want to vote, and people who are politicking to get their agendas heard.
At the moment, the awards are all either US- or UK-centric. But are these countries arbiters of good taste or indeed meritocracy? There are many mediocre work passed off as award-winning.
As historians, we know that sources are often biased and the victor(s) often decide who is let into their circle of privilege. As sff writers, we should be ashamed that we are doing that - and science fiction and fantasy is often an utopian idea where everyone is accepted. Which we have found out is not the case.
I wonder why isn't this privilege called out? Why aren't people saying that enough is enough, that at the end, the gatekeepers (white, US, cis) still want to maintain their status quo. Bear in mind that the POC/non-white they let through are probably the POC they want to see - and nothing else. That's why you see the same people winning the same awards everytime.
I don't believe in the US push for diversity. I am not even going to talk about the UK. If they insist that what they are doing is indeed for the sake of diversity, it's a delusion they will keep.
