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Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - eliasfrost - 05-08-2013
As some of you know, I'm making a game and I'm the writer, musician and graphical artist. But I want to talk about writing for a second, I've never been too keen on writing stories in text, but I've always been interested in telling stories through pictures, visuals, movement and feelings so I'm not here to talk about traditional writing like how to setup a story, the dramatic archs and all that jazz. I want to talk about writing characters, tokenism in game writing and how to approach the art of creating characters.
I hold the philosophy that the main role of the writer is to make the characters interesting, engaging, believable and overall relatable or at least understandable, but recently I've been thinking about the other end of the spectrum when it comes to writing characters: tokenism, tokenism is basically the false inclusion of a minority to make up for eg. opression, discimination and/or other types of exclusions.
While I was thinking about this, I realized how often writers, film makers and game developers include black people, gay people, women and religious people (other than christians heh) just to make a point, to make sure that they won't be looked upon as discriminating or excluding other ethnicities, sexualities, genders or religions: the false inclusion.
It is a double edged sword, if you include people just for the sake of them being there to avoid the label of discriminating minorities, you lose depth, substance and coherence and the character falls flat. But if you exclude people of minorities, you get the label. Huh.
I think it's very easy for people to say, "well just write a positive gay character, or a positive female character, or both. What's the big deal, you're a writer right?" Well, that's where the issue reveals itself, I don't write characters to make a point, or try to include character just for the sake of them being oppressed or part of a minority. That would mean limiting my creative freedom and ultimately leave me perplexed because the character is developed based on external forces and not from something I can grasp from within myself as a writer, and thus I end up writing a character that is shallow, flat and one dimensional, because the quality that defines the character is forced and in a sense requested rather than a natural property of the character.
I think the key to successfuly writing a character is to throw things like that out the window and ask yourself the question: "What will make my character interesting" and not "how do I write a female character" or "How do I write a gay character" because those properties are seconday, even third in row, the core of the character is who it is, strengths, weaknesses, interests, problems and struggles, dreams and ambitions, what (s)he is, is unimportant when it comes down to it and I don't think it should matter as much as it does today.
If someone wants to write a character that is male, short hair in his 30-ish then ok, do that, but I want him to be interesting, give him qualities that makes me want to meet him in person, learn more about him and feel engage in his personal development throughout the story and narrative, the same goes for any other type of people, women, gays, blacks, religious, it shouldn't matter as long as the character feels interesting and engages the player to want to learn more.
The way to achieve good character writing in games is to forget about the external voices about "you need to include this or that otherwise you might seem like a bigoted asshole", you know what I think? I think that very mindset breeds bigotry, because it treats things like ethnicity, religion and sexuality as a tool instead of a natural property of the character, the tools should be her interests, struggles, problems and dreams, the very properties that set up the reasons why the characters acts the way she does, her being female is not a reason to act a certain way, neither is her skin color, they are just natural properties of the character and should be treated as such.
Wow, that was a lot to write but I think I got my point through. I'm curious about what you think about and I'd love to hear your opinion in the matter.
Thanks for reading.
I think this would work better as a blog post...
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Bridge - 05-08-2013
Basically agreed - although I think that including certain types of characters in order to make the story more balanced is good writing. If the balance relies on the person possessing any of the external qualities you mentioned, then I don't see the problem. Still, including non-Caucasian people purely out of white guilt for example is absolutely undesirable, as you said.
I think the setting should dictate the types of characters above all. If you're making a WWII movie set in Nazi Germany then you clearly cannot cast non-Caucasians as SS soldiers. You just cannot. It's got nothing to do with racism - the ground rules have already been established and the fact that there are only Caucasians is consistent with the story and setting. It makes perfect sense and has no hidden agenda behind it.
BTW, political correctness is the bane of our modern society - it should die a horrible death, preferably public crucifixion. Upside down and at the end of a bungee cord.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - eliasfrost - 05-08-2013
Quote:I think the setting should dictate the types of characters above all. If you're making a WWII movie set in Nazi Germany then you clearly cannot cast non-Caucasians as SS soldiers. You just cannot. It's got nothing to do with racism - the ground rules have already been established and the fact that there are only Caucasians is consistent with the story and setting. It makes perfect sense and has no hidden agenda behind it.After re-reading my post I realized I forgot to mention this. I agree with what you say and I think it's important to let the setting and theme dictate the characters and their ethnicity, sexuality, gender and religion. For example, if the central theme of the game is about racism, then of course black characters will be included, and that's because they have a purpose to be there, the same goes with your example about nazi-germany.
But I think that when the ethnicity, gender, sexuality and religion is insignificant to the story, setting and theme, then I don't see the reason to include them on the grounds of tokenism, in my game, the lead character is female, but I don't let her gender define her character the way tokenism does. The character just so happens to be a white woman because I felt that's what she is, it's the first thing that popped into my head, but the real qualities that defines her character is her personality, problems, issues, how she handle stress, her history and everything related to that.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - PutraenusAlivius - 05-08-2013
I really thought you're gonna say about the writer J.R.R Tolkien after reading the title. LOTR is incredible.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Zgroktar - 05-08-2013
Including tokenism is basically following modern trends, and from my point of view, any writer that decides to mingle with those elements is not a serious writer in the first place. He may achieved popularity, but he will hardly create anything significant or of value. You already answered to your own question, you just need to silent those voices that encourage you to partake in that writing policy just to satisfy some spectrum of political correctness.
I also started writing, and I held that a story must be organic and full-blooded from the start to the end. It must feel like an living organic entity, something that the reader could fully experience and you can do a lot of things to achieve that, but not with including some modern catchwords, just for sake of appeasing general public.
Many modern works are for the same reason just shallow and bland, and sometimes very mean. They often tend to insult and ridicule some, in the eyes of modern man, old-fashioned ideas for instance like conservative world view, sexual chastity, religiousness without trying to understand them more clearly. It seems that political correctness is only correct to very narrow range of the spectrum.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - MyRedNeptune - 05-08-2013
(05-08-2013, 03:39 PM)Bridge Wrote: BTW, political correctness is the bane of our modern society - it should die a horrible death, preferably public crucifixion. Upside down and at the end of a bungee cord.
Why? What's wrong with being politically correct?
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Bridge - 05-08-2013
(05-08-2013, 07:48 PM)MyRedNeptune Wrote:(05-08-2013, 03:39 PM)Bridge Wrote: BTW, political correctness is the bane of our modern society - it should die a horrible death, preferably public crucifixion. Upside down and at the end of a bungee cord.
Why? What's wrong with being politically correct?
I actually wrote an essay on how bad it is, there are too many reasons to fit into one post. But generally speaking:
Being politically correct ironically entails being politically incorrect. Because race is the biggest issue "dealt with" through political correctness I'll take an example that pertains to it: By making a huge fuss about something that is in the distant past (slavery) you are actually advocating racial segregation. Why not let bygones be bygones and just move on? There will always be racists. Instead of getting defensive for black people and act like they need to be protected by using sterile language and patronization, let racism die out once and for all. Not like it's an issue anymore; a fifth of the population is black.
Politically correct language is often completely incorrect. Case in point: African-American. They are freaking black, if you have to make the distinction. Most black people living in the US have absolutely no ties to Africa, and no desire to be associated with it. I have yet to hear a single black person say: I prefer to be called an African-American. It's because they don't care. It's based on white guilt and the only people who advocate political correctness are people who are "thinking of the minorities". If you ask me, condescension and fake concern is much more dangerous than indifference. Not to mention, some of these morons actually call Africans African-Americans. Need I point out how stupid that is?
And I could go on and on about specific examples, these are two glaring issues off the top of my head. But basically, everything is wrong with it. Especially the systematic destruction of the English language. Trying to suppress curse words is a clear non-racial example. I could go into great detail about that, but I won't. I'm sure you realize just how bad censorship is.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Adrianis - 05-09-2013
(05-08-2013, 08:53 PM)Bridge Wrote:Spoiler below!
(sorry about going off-topic on an argument)
Quote:It's based on white guilt and the only people who advocate political correctness are people who are "thinking of the minorities". If you ask me, condescension and fake concern is much more dangerous than indifference.
You automatically assume that anyone advocating political correctness / 'think of the minorities' are being condescending and faking concern? Based on white guilt? You ever consider that many people advocating these issues are not white? The way you present that statement, so matter of fact, is an insult to so many hundreds of thousands of people who over many decades have volunteered a great deal of time and effort to dealing with real and current issues that you would rather ignore.
Quote:There will always be racists. Instead of getting defensive for black people and act like they need to be protected by using sterile language and patronization, let racism die out once and for all. Not like it's an issue anymore; a fifth of the population is black.
Aside from the obvious contradiction in that statement (always be racists... let racism die out), you seem to be passing over the primary cause for bigotry in our societies (I'm sure you're essay covers it but still). The cause of much of the bigotry I've experienced here in the UK, usually directed at Eastern Europeans & Arabs, is due to a complete lack of exposure to people from those groups - they have no concept of 'they are exactly like us' because they have no frame of reference, they never met & spent time with people from those groups, so why would they think they are like us?
Do you think that by ignoring the issue of 'race' and not promoting equality laws that eventually everyone will simply forget that there are different races? No, by not encouraging exposure to different cultures you foster minority groups that retain a belief that foreigners are different in a negative way, the common in-group/out-group mentality.
Going back to this sentence...
Quote:act like they need to be protected by using sterile language and patronizationHave you thought about protecting groups (not just blacks) using something other than sterile language and patronisation? I don't know if your only reference for that is politicians, to whom sterile language and patronisation is a matter of day to day communication with the public.
For anti-racist and anti-fascist groups, as well as feminists, Unions and others that you seem to dismiss out of hand as 'politically correct', that isn't the case at all, it tends to be more about promoting equality in workplaces (by far the most insidious cases of racism exist where unaccountable individuals have power over employment), confronting & discussing with people about their beliefs when they voice them, running educational campaigns, and occasionally organizing counter-protests to stop roving gangs of violent bigots marching through our streets promoting hatred. Oh but, of course, those people don't exist because racism isn't an issue because a 5th of the population is black. Need I point out how stupid that is?
But hey you're probably right, we're all just fussing over nothing and if we ignore it, hopefully it'll go away. You just keep writing your essays about how equality advocates are promoting racial segregation, that'll definitely help.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Bridge - 05-09-2013
EDIT: Actually, let's not even bother. My post can be summed up with the following statement:
Equality good - political correctness bad. And that's all.
I saved my post. If you wish to read it I'll PM it to you. I agree that this is going way off topic, and this discussion is rather pointless.
RE: Tokenism, Character Development and Writing - Adrianis - 05-09-2013
I read it, and equally wished to put an end to this in a quick way.
I'll just say that my hostility was based on the fact that what you presented was not just your position on the whole PC thing, but you actually insinuated that the people who advocate it are condescending, faking concern, and promoting segregation and inequality. You assumed the intent of the people behind it without understanding it, which I find personally insulting. Had you talked about it being a way to avoid the problem and focused on language and not ideas, I would have only argued against those points, and would not have been so hostile.