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Thursday, January 15th, 2009 06:43 am (UTC)
I find your examples deeply flawed. Characterisation is based around background and motivation; a woman who 'gets angry about random things for no good reason' is an example of a terrible character, simply because her motivations are inexplicable beyond 'she's a woman'. Similarly, an Australian aboriginal who is a cannibal but has no particular reason to be so is a terrible character, in exactly the same way that a white character who was a cannibal 'just because' would be terrible. Neither of these is an example of 'good writing with racist/sexist misconceptions', they're just examples of bad writing that also happen to betray prejudiced views.

One thing a lot more stories need is contrast in their minority characters. Male fantasy authors in particular have a tendency to write all their female characters as indistinguishable clones. Other races and cultures are usually given even worse treatment in popular fiction. Again, this isn't good writing with flaws, it's just bad writing, and not because of any sexist or racist element. The writing is bad because having a group of characters that all think and act the same way because of a single shared characteristic is ridiculous, lazy and unconvincing.

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