The Problems #ownvoices Doesn't Solve

[ada_hoffmann]

I’m still chewing over the talk Book Twitter had this month about #ownvoices. A major review website, “We Need Diverse Books,” decided to stop using the #ownvoices label to describe works of fiction about marginalized characters by authors who share that marginalization, because the label has gotten to the point where it’s doing more harm than good.

I don’t disagree with WNDB’s decision. I like #ownvoices fiction, but if you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’ve never believed in only #ownvoices – and I’ve never cared as much about labels as I do about the narratives and beliefs that underlie them.

(Read the full post on Substack)

Comments

[rhoda_rants]

Not surprised, but I am sad to hear this. It sometimes seems like every good idea eventually gets polluted and ruined. I know that's not true, but still. :/ I think I feel the same way about #ownvoices as you do. Basically, I'm not a biographer, I don't want to write from just own point of view, it's boring. Lifting up marginalized voices has never meant shutting down everyone who doesn't write from their own particular experience.

[ada_hoffmann]

Yeah, I agree with you! Although I also think #ownvoices is a useful word if you just use it as a marketing label (which is how the person who coined the word, Corinne Duyvis, originally intended it) - some readers are looking for the thing, so here's where they can find the thing. It's when it started to be treated as a moral requirement that it got out of hand.

[rhoda_rants]

Exactly--it's like a genre label. "This is what this book contains." Rather than "This is what all books MUST contain to count as good books." I keep forgetting Corinne Duyvis came up with that; I remember talking to them on Absolute Write ages ago before this all started. I doubt they remember me though.

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