The Problems #ownvoices Doesn't Solve
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
(This essay is an expanded version of this Twitter thread.)
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.
So what I want to ask is: if we're discarding #ownvoices - or if we're keeping on using it, knowing its issues - what are we doing about these underlying problems?
I'm going to address this from an autism perspective, because that's kind of my thing, but the same logic applies to many other identities as well.
Problem #1: Things About Us, Without Us
A lot of stories about autism are written by people who aren't autistic, don't understand autism, and use insulting stereotypes (or promote harmful advice) when they write about it.
It can be hard to find good autism stories without looking for openly autistic authors.
This is the original problem that the term #ownvoices was coined to address. It will keep being a problem with or without the term #ownvoices. There is a demand for autism stories by people who actually know what they're talking about. Without the term #ownvoices, we'll probably just start saying "autistic stories by autistic authors" a lot more.
I firmly believe that a non-autistic person can know what they're talking about, and can write a good story about autism - as can an autistic person who’s closeted or doesn’t know they’re autistic yet. But this doesn’t actually remove autistic people from the equation. It just broadens are role a little bit. How do you know which books are good and don’t dehumanize us in horrible ways? By asking autistic people. To ask autistic people, you have to know at least some people who are openly autistic.
Autistic people can disagree with each other about things - there’s no one Oracle Of Listening To Autistic People that you can consult - but knowing and caring what autistic people think is still a non-negotiable part of this problem. Therefore, we need at least some openly autistic readers and writers to be a part of this conversation.
Problem #2: The Self-Narrating Zoo Exhibit
When an author is known to be autistic, they can be pressured to write only about autism (or autism + the other marginalizations they have).
This often takes place in a very particular way. We're encouraged to write about autism but also told to be careful not to "speak for other autistic people" - because if we did that, we might talk about systemic ableism in ways that make NTs uncomfortable - so instead what's left to us to write is a kind of very narrowly personal story about how autism feels to us.
Not every autistic author is interested in writing this kind of story.
Even when autistic people are interested in writing this kind of story, we are usually also interested in writing about other things.
Reducing an autistic author to just "a person who can tell us what autism feels like" is dehumanizing.
Getting rid of the term #ownvoices might help solve this problem - calling it #ownvoices can lend a veneer of social justice to this pressure that it doesn't deserve. But it won't solve it for real unless we actively get interested in autistic authors, regardless of what they are writing about. Are we doing that? (I am not asking rhetorically. Are you doing it? Go do it.)
Problem #3: Boosting Marginalized Voices
Whether they are writing about autism or not, it's harder for autistic people to get ahead in publishing than NTs.*
NT authors writing about autism often get more promotion and better book deals than autistic authors do.
(*All other things being equal, of course. Autism is not and has never been the only axis of oppression. I’m focusing on it for simplicity.)
If promoting #ownvoices work isn't a good way to help autistic authors, what is? I am not asking this rhetorically. If you are a publisher, a reviewer, an editor, anyone else who has the power to draw attention and resources to some authors over others, what is your plan? You'd better have one.
Problem #4: Gatekeeping and Privacy
The book community has an increasing sense of entitlement to information about authors' private lives.
Information about disability, sexuality, gender, relationships, and trauma (among other topics) is private - not in the sense that it should never be disclosed, but in the sense that many people have good reasons not to discuss it. Disclosing it should always be a choice.
Pressuring authors to reveal private information, even in the name of good representation, is wrong.
Both readers (from the bottom up) and publishers (from the top down) can exert this pressure.
I suspect that, without the term #ownvoices, this problem will continue to be a problem. People will use different words, but they'll still say things like, "I want to know if you have the same trauma around ableism that your character has," or "okay, so you're autistic and queer, but have you had the kind of same-sex relationship that your character has, or are you appropriating other queer people’s experience?" They'll still assume that authors who don't disclose an identity must be NT (as opposed to closeted, questioning, otherwise neurodivergent, or simply none of their business).
If you want to only read books by openly autistic authors, that's fine! There are lots of openly autistic authors! I have a list of them! Go read those authors and have fun; no one’s making you read anyone else. But stop treating all the other authors like their private lives are your business, or like they're oppressing you by choosing not to talk about it in public.
If you are a publisher or an agent, also think about how you can help protect your authors from this kind of pressure.
Whether we keep using terms like #ownvoices or not, I want to know that we're engaging with these problems in a way that goes beyond just the language we use. I want to know that we're working on them, at a systemic level, with our actions.