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

[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 :/