Signs your aliens are a dodgy stereotype in disguise

[sqbr]

As some of you may recall I helped run a panel on the use of "race" as a metaphor in sff at Swancon. Preparing for and doing that panel has made me really aware of just how often this is done, and done badly, and since I'm having a slowish day at work, I've been inspired to organise it all into two lists.

I talk about "aliens" here but it applies just as well to any other non human group. Similarly, I'm mainly thinking about race/ethnicity, but stuff like religion etc works too.

Anything in bold is in both lists and an automatic fail.

Signs your "aliens" are probably humans in disguise

Using aliens as a metaphor (or using real life groups to help you write your aliens) can be a really useful narative tool. If you do it right.

• The only differences from regular humans are physical or cultural.
  
• Any psycological differences are well within normal human variation, and with the right upbringing a human could function with no real problems in alien society and vice versa.
  
• Your aliens share distinctive physical or cultural traits with a particular human group, and none of your human characters have that trait (ie skin colour, religious belief)
  
• People talk about the aliens using exactly the same concepts and attitudes used towards human groups (ie "racial tolerance") Obvious nazi metaphors are a fairly unambiguous sign.
  
• Species are able to reproduce with each other
  
• Fantastic Racism
  
• Aliens have human standards of beauty/morality which make us better than them in their own eyes (ie alien men attracted to human women despite significant physical differences)
  
• Culture=species=ethnicity=religion=nationality=language as one big homogenous identity
  
• The moral of the story is they can and should be just like us
  

Things you just can't say about human groups

There's not neccesarily anything wrong with saying this stuff about genuinely alien species. But very few alien species actually are all that alien.

• You have: an Ethnic scrappy, Magical Negro, Noble savage, Evil Foreigner, Funny Foreigner or any other Unfortunate implications
  
• Treated as an exotic "other": impossible to empathise with or comprehend.
  
• Biologically predisposed to certain negative traits like greed or violence. Specifically, beings of pure evil are right out.
  
• "Races" strictly delineated, with blurring of boundaries either impossible or consisting of individual exceptions (who probably have a pretty rough time of things)
  
• They like being "oppressed"
  
• Aliens have human standards of beauty/morality which make us better than them in their own eyes (ie alien men attracted to human women despite significant physical differences)
  
• Culture=species=ethnicity=religion=nationality=language as one big homogenous identity
  
• The moral of the story is they can and should be just like us
  

This is all just my opinion of course, and a bit flip. I'm very open to suggestions for changes or additions.

I've been inpired by many works, but particular thanks go to: Final Fantasy 12, Schlock Mercenary, Angel, Star Trek: DS9, Harry Potter, and "This Alien Shore" (though I haven't finished that, and it may be heading towards a "Ha! You were being racist!" ending).

Comments

[kadeton.livejournal.com]

I would say that if the following is not true of a given depiction of aliens:

"Any psycological differences are well within normal human variation, and with the right upbringing a human could function with no real problems in alien society and vice versa."

Then the following must necessarily be true:

"Treated as an exotic "other": impossible to empathise with or comprehend."

[tevriel.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily. For example, the Moties in The Mote In God's Eye (Niven/Pournelle) are entirely alien, with a psychology that is entirely non-human, but it's still possible to understand and empathise with them. Niven has other aliens like that, too, like the puppeteers.

And the Outsiders are good example of an exotic "other", impossible to empathise with or comprehend, but this isn't at all a racial analogy. It's just that there's very little in the way of experience that humans can share with a species of creatures that live in deep space following star seeds from the galactic core to the galactic rim and back. Outsiders buy and sell information. Humans understand the fact of this, and understand the terms of this. They don't understand why, they don't understand why the Outsiders follow star seeds... they just do. They have their reasons, but we have pretty much nothing in common, so. What they don't have is any traits that can be analogised to any human ethnic group. Not even for the trading thing, because most of the merchant stereotypes also involve dishonesty, and the Outsiders are absolutely fair.

Some Niven stories even involve problems that occur when people project human characteristics onto aliens.

Culture=species=ethnicity=religion=nationality=language as one big homogenous identity

I can't decide whether Niven falls into this one or not. Certainly not the religion part - his stories involve little religion, but humans have multiple religions and with alien religion it's generally a sort of "we don't understand it and we don't really ask" thing. His alien races have a single language, but then, humans in his stories speak a common language too, the idea being that a race sufficiently advanced for interstellar flight will have a common tongue as well as their different languages; when communicating with aliens, you use translating devices, or a language you are both physically capable of producing. (His language for humans is generally referred to as Standard, and although the stories are obviously in English, it is sometimes implied that Standard is not English.)

Overall I agree with the list, although obviously exceptions will be possible to all of them. I'm interested to see how this "ood" thing (which seems to be going to be revisited) plays out in Doctor Who - a species which, it is alleged, likes/needs to be oppressed but which, in their first episode at least, gets the reaction from Doctor and Companion of "... you don't mean that, do you?"

[alias_sqbr]

Oh yes, there could definitely be exceptions, that's why the first list says "probably" (I do tend to generalise and ignore exceptions, it's a flaw)

One that struck me on the way home is hive mind cultures, they're pretty homogeneous but don't resemble humans all that much :)

[alankria.livejournal.com]

It's the label of "exotic other", particularly the notion of "exotic", that is the problem. I lack the vocbulary to properly express this, but what I understand is that labelling a person of a different race as "exotic" demeans them, turns them into a curiosity rather than another person. The same could apply to an alien. There's a difference between gulfs of comprehension and empathy but still treating the person/alien with respect, and treating them like a curiosity to examine, maybe admire, but ultimately not regard as a potential equal.

There would undoubtedly be people who acted racist to aliens, were we to encounter any. But there's a difference between showing people being racist asshats, and the author objectively presenting the aliens as having no more depth than a pretty (or ugly) curiosity.

[kadeton.livejournal.com]

I agree with that. The statement is phrased in such a way, however, as to suggest that an "exotic other" is anything that it is impossible to empathise with ir comprehend. I did think about omitting the "exotic other" bit for clarity, but decided, "Eh."

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

It would be possible to have an alien race where all (or the majority) of them are effectively within the extremes of normal human variation, but taken as a race the aggregate makes them effectively alien. Eg an entire race huse psychology roughly resembles human paranoiacs, or obsessives, or the extremely autistic.

[kadeton.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that "the extremes" count as "well within human variation". Also, I would argue that most people find it almost impossible to comprehend the minds of those whose psychological state falls into those extremes. Elizabeth Moon's Speed of Dark is the best fictional insight into the autistic mind that I've read, and even her character is very "high-functioning" to make him more accessible.

Also, wouldn't that race then be seen as a comment on the group it resembles? :P

[alias_sqbr]

There's a planet of mutated humans in "This Alien Shore" who all exhibit various mental illnesses etc, one of the POV characters has something like autism. They have an interesting system of established rules for dealing with people's various issues (ie "I can see from that guys facepaint that he has autism, so I won't shake his hand")

Pity all the characters with physically evident issues have been somewhat exotified :/

[alias_sqbr]

Mm, yeah, I just meant along he lines of "Like humans, but a bit more -insert trait here-", like Vulcans, Ferengi etc. Fairly small variations, thus "they could function perfectly well in our society".

kadeton is right though: it would be hard not to interpret a race of autistic-like aliens as saying something about autistic people, and if they were depicted as inherently evil etc due to their "autism", well that would be kind of bad.

[alias_sqbr]

Hmm. Maybe (if you remove the "exotic" bit. I'll admit I was smooshing together a few different ideas in that line).

But my issue is with people who do both at once :)