One additional suggestion: shut up
December 18, 2019 8:48 AM Subscribe
Damn, You're Not Reading Any Books by White Men This Year? That's So Freakin Brave and Cool (Jia Tolentino, Jezebel) Justification for obviously rewarding acts is always unnecessary, and in the case of reading “diverse” writers, the reward can be meaningfully deflated by the announcement of the act itself. The people most excited to say, “Uh, I’ve actually been reading a lot of Nigerian writers lately?” tend to be white people; the space taken up by being interested in one’s own Here’s Why I’m Only Reading X Minority Group project is often counterproductive to the point.
I definitely appreciate the sentiment of "talk about the work, not about the category and how it affects you". These pieces seem like the essay equivalent of talking at length about your diet. Nobody asked, and I would much rather hear about a really good dish you made or enjoyed (whatever category it may be in) than exactly what foods you'll eat and how they've affected your digestive system.
I'm curious how you came across this now, since it is from 2016.
It reminds me of a high school experience where we had a "women's month" in English class where we read only books by women. My class of primarily boys (seriously it was like 20 to 3) hated every single book we read that month! What a weird coincidence! If the books had just been included in the curriculum without being specialized they might have been evaluated on their own merits.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:14 AM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
I'm curious how you came across this now, since it is from 2016.
It reminds me of a high school experience where we had a "women's month" in English class where we read only books by women. My class of primarily boys (seriously it was like 20 to 3) hated every single book we read that month! What a weird coincidence! If the books had just been included in the curriculum without being specialized they might have been evaluated on their own merits.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:14 AM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
On the flip side are the "literary" men obsessed with Jonathan Franzen and the fact that I do not care to read Jonathan Franzen and I haven't experienced all the words he put in a specific order in those books. Can you imagine!!!!!!!!
That was mainly my college boyfriends and it's been 10 years so maybe I should let it go but it left a mark, ok.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:21 AM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
That was mainly my college boyfriends and it's been 10 years so maybe I should let it go but it left a mark, ok.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:21 AM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
Yeah, I only noticed toward the middle when the author mentions that it's 2016, it still seems very relevant today, though I'm definitely not someone with my finger on the pulse of social media, activism, etc. It's kind of cranky, but the message is more (and better) than the fun pullquote that' used as the FPP title, it's to talk about and focus on what you're doing more than what you're not doing. The diet parallel is the first thing that came to my mind too, Emmy Rae.
posted by skewed at 9:22 AM on December 18, 2019
posted by skewed at 9:22 AM on December 18, 2019
Is this about the same thing as what's been called "virtue signaling"?
posted by demonic winged headgear at 9:23 AM on December 18, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by demonic winged headgear at 9:23 AM on December 18, 2019 [7 favorites]
On the flip side are the "literary" men obsessed with Jonathan Franzen and the fact that I do not care to read Jonathan Franzen and I haven't experienced all the words he put in a specific order in those books. Can you imagine!!!!!!!!
Previously ;)
Someone linked me to the article (I assume it's been making the rounds because New Year's resolutions are coming up) - I did notice it was from 2016, but it doesn't seem to have been linked before and the issue is evergreen.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:25 AM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Previously ;)
Someone linked me to the article (I assume it's been making the rounds because New Year's resolutions are coming up) - I did notice it was from 2016, but it doesn't seem to have been linked before and the issue is evergreen.
posted by sunset in snow country at 9:25 AM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Previously ;)
I did spot the Related Posts at the bottom after I first commented, which is probably what brought that up again.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:28 AM on December 18, 2019
I did spot the Related Posts at the bottom after I first commented, which is probably what brought that up again.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:28 AM on December 18, 2019
I totally agree with this, but also think that it's cute that Jezebel *now* has a problem with performative progressivism.
posted by chinese_fashion at 9:28 AM on December 18, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by chinese_fashion at 9:28 AM on December 18, 2019 [5 favorites]
No, I don't think it is fair to characterize it as an anti-virtue signaling screed. It's more like a critique that a person making a big deal out of this project centers their own voice rather than promoting those that they're ostensibly supporting. Talking about the books that you actually read rather than the ones that don't seems like a better way to accomplish something.
But I also just generally enjoy snark about people's self-involved year-of-doing-x and/or new year's resolutions.
posted by skewed at 9:31 AM on December 18, 2019 [10 favorites]
But I also just generally enjoy snark about people's self-involved year-of-doing-x and/or new year's resolutions.
posted by skewed at 9:31 AM on December 18, 2019 [10 favorites]
I think this is related to reading as consumption tout court - reading one "important" or "on-trend" book after another without any particular guiding interest beyond whatever is in the public eye. And also about reading in the age of social media, where people often feel that they need to establish an identity as a reader through Goodreads, Twitter, public lists of their reading positioned as achievements. Both of these things are really about being pushed to consume, market, provide data to marketers through social media, etc - reading is pushed into being a very social occupation precisely because it's so heavily marketized*.
Because think about it - what if you were reading cumulatively? (As a lot of people do, but it's not what "genre fandom" urges - you're supposed to be keeping up with the latest thing, latest controversy, etc.) You might very plausibly say, "I want to read as many women writers working between 1960 and 1980 as I can because I'm interested in the different ways that the social upheavals of the 60s and seventies shaped women as writers". And in that case, you might in fact chew through a bunch of meh novels because they were by women. You might even think about what you learned.
I tend to think that we can learn a lot as readers from doing survey reading, and that does mean reading some stuff that doesn't grab you or that isn't especially strong.
It's only when reading is about keeping up with what's on-trend the way you would with always wanting to see the latest TV shows that this seems to become a problem, because you're not necessarily picking your reading so that you can learn a lot from it. If you read The Mill On The Floss and Modest Witness @ Second Millenium because they're both by women, you aren't actually going to get very much out of it (obviously you can do a convoluted and clever reading of Eliot through Haroway or vice versa, but it's not what springs immediately to mind).
*I wonder if there's any connection between all the consolidations of publishers in the 90s? At the time, it was widely predicted that there would be a push to have fewer and more profitable books, to advertise books the way you'd advertise clothes, etc, and that does seem to have happened.
posted by Frowner at 9:51 AM on December 18, 2019 [14 favorites]
Because think about it - what if you were reading cumulatively? (As a lot of people do, but it's not what "genre fandom" urges - you're supposed to be keeping up with the latest thing, latest controversy, etc.) You might very plausibly say, "I want to read as many women writers working between 1960 and 1980 as I can because I'm interested in the different ways that the social upheavals of the 60s and seventies shaped women as writers". And in that case, you might in fact chew through a bunch of meh novels because they were by women. You might even think about what you learned.
I tend to think that we can learn a lot as readers from doing survey reading, and that does mean reading some stuff that doesn't grab you or that isn't especially strong.
It's only when reading is about keeping up with what's on-trend the way you would with always wanting to see the latest TV shows that this seems to become a problem, because you're not necessarily picking your reading so that you can learn a lot from it. If you read The Mill On The Floss and Modest Witness @ Second Millenium because they're both by women, you aren't actually going to get very much out of it (obviously you can do a convoluted and clever reading of Eliot through Haroway or vice versa, but it's not what springs immediately to mind).
*I wonder if there's any connection between all the consolidations of publishers in the 90s? At the time, it was widely predicted that there would be a push to have fewer and more profitable books, to advertise books the way you'd advertise clothes, etc, and that does seem to have happened.
posted by Frowner at 9:51 AM on December 18, 2019 [14 favorites]
Virtue signaling, in and of itself, isn't necessarily a bad thing. It often seems to me to be the basic "how to signal to others I'm a halfway decent person," but I'd argue there's a qualitative difference between virtue signaling like holding the door open for others and a white male posting long screeds on social media about how they've immersed themselves in black culture by only reading Nigerian female writers.
Because those simple acts like holding a door, they are virtue signaling just as well as the other, but they're more the subdued, what I might call the "dictionary definition" of a virtue signal, something some people might just call "being polite and considering others."
Whereas yes, the other strikes me as absolutely performative, and when I run into people who do that kind of stuff they immediately seem performative and kind of weird. You can tell because they're kind of obsessive in a strange way that doesn't seem like they're celebrating anything except their own obsessiveness.
Like, if I want to make inroads with people of color, I probably will have better luck just being myself, accepting them for being themselves, and above all actually listening to what they have to say and digesting it and being willing to consider it from their point-of-view and not immediately dropping the "but not all white people" rebut like it was ever directed at you to begin with, because if they're taking the time to hang out with you, you're probably a little less "all white people" than the next white person.
Because the performative aspect of these scenarios, they strike me as though they are trying to say "But not all white people! Look at me, I read only black writers!" To me, it honestly screams that from the rooftops: "But I'm not like the rest" which in itself is a focus on the self and an attempt to prove oneself to the world as opposed to being comfortable with oneself, race, gender, and place in history.
To quote Mr Lamar, the best way forward is to "Sit down, be humble."
posted by deadaluspark at 9:59 AM on December 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
Because those simple acts like holding a door, they are virtue signaling just as well as the other, but they're more the subdued, what I might call the "dictionary definition" of a virtue signal, something some people might just call "being polite and considering others."
Whereas yes, the other strikes me as absolutely performative, and when I run into people who do that kind of stuff they immediately seem performative and kind of weird. You can tell because they're kind of obsessive in a strange way that doesn't seem like they're celebrating anything except their own obsessiveness.
Like, if I want to make inroads with people of color, I probably will have better luck just being myself, accepting them for being themselves, and above all actually listening to what they have to say and digesting it and being willing to consider it from their point-of-view and not immediately dropping the "but not all white people" rebut like it was ever directed at you to begin with, because if they're taking the time to hang out with you, you're probably a little less "all white people" than the next white person.
Because the performative aspect of these scenarios, they strike me as though they are trying to say "But not all white people! Look at me, I read only black writers!" To me, it honestly screams that from the rooftops: "But I'm not like the rest" which in itself is a focus on the self and an attempt to prove oneself to the world as opposed to being comfortable with oneself, race, gender, and place in history.
To quote Mr Lamar, the best way forward is to "Sit down, be humble."
posted by deadaluspark at 9:59 AM on December 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
The behavior described by Tolentino is best analogized to holding a door open as you stand blocking it.
posted by PMdixon at 10:10 AM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by PMdixon at 10:10 AM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
a white male posting long screeds on social media about how they've immersed themselves in black culture by only reading Nigerian female writers
I appreciated Tolentino criticising the act of people in general boring on about their planned year of woke reading (while noting, accurately, that the most egregious offenders tend to be white people), rather than framing this simply as 'a bad thing white men do' and thus letting everyone else who isn't white and / or male off the hook.
posted by inire at 10:18 AM on December 18, 2019 [7 favorites]
I appreciated Tolentino criticising the act of people in general boring on about their planned year of woke reading (while noting, accurately, that the most egregious offenders tend to be white people), rather than framing this simply as 'a bad thing white men do' and thus letting everyone else who isn't white and / or male off the hook.
posted by inire at 10:18 AM on December 18, 2019 [7 favorites]
I wonder if it matters to the authors, as they cash their checks and pay their bills, why a person is buying or reading their work?
We live in an age of performative everything thanks to social media. Chastising people for reading and for possibly driving the publishing industry in a favorable direction seems a bit off the mark to me, but then again I have taken pride, albeit not publicly, to have purposefully diversified my reading over the past several years as well, and I know that my reviews and yearly recaps have some small influence on friends of mine who read.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:29 AM on December 18, 2019 [5 favorites]
We live in an age of performative everything thanks to social media. Chastising people for reading and for possibly driving the publishing industry in a favorable direction seems a bit off the mark to me, but then again I have taken pride, albeit not publicly, to have purposefully diversified my reading over the past several years as well, and I know that my reviews and yearly recaps have some small influence on friends of mine who read.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:29 AM on December 18, 2019 [5 favorites]
I wonder if it matters to the authors, as they cash their checks and pay their bills, why a person is buying or reading their work
I take Tolentino to be talking about how people talk about the books they read, not how they choose them, and it very much matters how people talk about why they chose them because depending on how that is described it can be more or less likely to come across to readers of the reader as a choice they would like to make.
posted by PMdixon at 11:07 AM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
I take Tolentino to be talking about how people talk about the books they read, not how they choose them, and it very much matters how people talk about why they chose them because depending on how that is described it can be more or less likely to come across to readers of the reader as a choice they would like to make.
posted by PMdixon at 11:07 AM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
I feel like there is a difference between performatively announcing that you're reading poc-written books for clout because they are So Important, which is what he article denounces, and:
Privately deciding to rework your unconscious bias by seeking out and reading marginalized writers
Deciding to do a survey of writers of a certain identity in a certain time period or genre
Deciding that your book group or publication or blog will prioritize works by marginalized writers
All of which are fine and not what she's talking about. I also don't think calling attention to marginalized writers because of their identity is necessarily wrong, it's when marginalized writers are only mentioned when someone decides We're Going To Care About This Identity This Year that things go wrong. (see also that one podcast that invited their only Native guest for the very special Thanksgiving episode, see also Black History Month syndrome)
Also, when individual people decide to do a poc or women reading challenge I actually don't think that's a bad thing. Presumably they'll find writers that they like during that time period and keep following them afterwards.
posted by storytam at 11:28 AM on December 18, 2019 [18 favorites]
Privately deciding to rework your unconscious bias by seeking out and reading marginalized writers
Deciding to do a survey of writers of a certain identity in a certain time period or genre
Deciding that your book group or publication or blog will prioritize works by marginalized writers
All of which are fine and not what she's talking about. I also don't think calling attention to marginalized writers because of their identity is necessarily wrong, it's when marginalized writers are only mentioned when someone decides We're Going To Care About This Identity This Year that things go wrong. (see also that one podcast that invited their only Native guest for the very special Thanksgiving episode, see also Black History Month syndrome)
Also, when individual people decide to do a poc or women reading challenge I actually don't think that's a bad thing. Presumably they'll find writers that they like during that time period and keep following them afterwards.
posted by storytam at 11:28 AM on December 18, 2019 [18 favorites]
Mod note: One deleted. If you find yourself testily dismissing this article as if it has nothing useful to say, and saying how you, a white man, know better what women of color writers need -- that is a good time to reconsider whether you want to be that guy. Consider engaging with the parts of this essay that you find useful or illuminating, rather than looking for things to reject.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:13 PM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:13 PM on December 18, 2019 [15 favorites]
literally the only time anyone asks me what books i've been reading this year is when they want to performatively tell me about the Important Books they themselves have been reading and it gives me great pleasure to tell people "i'm only reading fanfiction right now" and watch them struggle to not be judgmental.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:24 PM on December 18, 2019 [24 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:24 PM on December 18, 2019 [24 favorites]
Mod note: Correction: the person I was speaking to is not white and I want to publicly apologize for making that assumption.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:28 PM on December 18, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 12:28 PM on December 18, 2019 [12 favorites]
yes, but is it Important fan fiction?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:47 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:47 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
I'd hear what you've read, poffin!
I have two thoughts:
1. the library is my favorite place, I love you, Library. It's the only place my brain sits quietly and peacefully.
2. not participating in performative online things has been a good decision and lets me do more reading at the library. which is a place I love. I only mention these two things because I try to read one book from every display they put up which kind of just started by accident, but then became a habit and I dunno, maybe someone else will be inspired to try it. They range on a lot of topics and they do 2ish a month. I don't think this is very common because it seems like a depressing number of books at those displays stay there the whole month so I'll spread my idea a bit, and you are the only people I've told!
Okay, sometimes I grab a Blu-ray from the display instead if there is one but that still counts. That's why I'm watching Rocketman tonight.
Also, my favorite book this year was Range by David Epstein! Loses points for having literally 0 draculas in it though.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:51 PM on December 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
I have two thoughts:
1. the library is my favorite place, I love you, Library. It's the only place my brain sits quietly and peacefully.
2. not participating in performative online things has been a good decision and lets me do more reading at the library. which is a place I love. I only mention these two things because I try to read one book from every display they put up which kind of just started by accident, but then became a habit and I dunno, maybe someone else will be inspired to try it. They range on a lot of topics and they do 2ish a month. I don't think this is very common because it seems like a depressing number of books at those displays stay there the whole month so I'll spread my idea a bit, and you are the only people I've told!
Okay, sometimes I grab a Blu-ray from the display instead if there is one but that still counts. That's why I'm watching Rocketman tonight.
Also, my favorite book this year was Range by David Epstein! Loses points for having literally 0 draculas in it though.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 12:51 PM on December 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
Metafilter: Loses points for having literally 0 draculas in it
posted by chromecow at 1:23 PM on December 18, 2019 [14 favorites]
posted by chromecow at 1:23 PM on December 18, 2019 [14 favorites]
you can just write "100 draculas" on the end page though, that's allowed
posted by poffin boffin at 1:24 PM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 1:24 PM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
LOL, the first comment on that article is hysterical.
posted by rpfields at 1:42 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by rpfields at 1:42 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is this about the same thing as what's been called "virtue signaling"?
Yes and no.
Partly because the term virtue signaling is deployed in several flavors, from "I don't like what you're saying so I'm going to construe it as insincere and unprincipled and motivated by maneuvering for place in a tribe or other status group while I do precisely no introspection about the same habits" to somewhat thoughtful exploration of the ways in which people's opinions can indeed be primarily motivated by belonging and status (which is less a way of saying they're invalid per se and more a way of reckoning with the fact that values are in part socially constructed and even cognition is partly socialized).
Partly because there's *always* been a substantial case that talking about the contents of the books matters more than the status conferred by reading them. Even when talking about books by cis white dudes.
This applies upstream into the recommendation of reading more broadly. The greater the emphasis on the value of the contents of works that happen to be written by a broad segment of humanity, the more likely the virtues of the contents will be discussed for reasons along a continuum from status negotiation to direct engagement. The greater the emphasis on the background of the author, the more likely the virtues of reading along the author's identity will be expressed.
posted by wildblueyonder at 2:28 PM on December 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
Yes and no.
Partly because the term virtue signaling is deployed in several flavors, from "I don't like what you're saying so I'm going to construe it as insincere and unprincipled and motivated by maneuvering for place in a tribe or other status group while I do precisely no introspection about the same habits" to somewhat thoughtful exploration of the ways in which people's opinions can indeed be primarily motivated by belonging and status (which is less a way of saying they're invalid per se and more a way of reckoning with the fact that values are in part socially constructed and even cognition is partly socialized).
Partly because there's *always* been a substantial case that talking about the contents of the books matters more than the status conferred by reading them. Even when talking about books by cis white dudes.
This applies upstream into the recommendation of reading more broadly. The greater the emphasis on the value of the contents of works that happen to be written by a broad segment of humanity, the more likely the virtues of the contents will be discussed for reasons along a continuum from status negotiation to direct engagement. The greater the emphasis on the background of the author, the more likely the virtues of reading along the author's identity will be expressed.
posted by wildblueyonder at 2:28 PM on December 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
I do like the way that these kinds of things could help drive bookbuyers' money towards underrepresented authors.
That commercial dimension moves "I'm reading more diversely" out of mere performative progressivism and towards "let's engage capitalism's reward cycle to drive publishers towards more diverse offerings."
This may be hopelessly naive, I dunno.
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:16 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
That commercial dimension moves "I'm reading more diversely" out of mere performative progressivism and towards "let's engage capitalism's reward cycle to drive publishers towards more diverse offerings."
This may be hopelessly naive, I dunno.
posted by Sauce Trough at 3:16 PM on December 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
Tolentino: Publicly announced diverse reading years seem akin to corporate diversity policies—showy and superficial fixes for deep problems, full of effort and essentialism that tends to only make things worse.
posted by PMdixon at 3:20 PM on December 18, 2019
posted by PMdixon at 3:20 PM on December 18, 2019
The final paragraph the article:
> If you were a queer writer, or a woman of color writer, would you want someone to read you because they thought they were doing something dutiful about power structures? Or because they gravitated to you, not out of any sense that you would teach them something about diversity that they could then write about in a year-end essay—but that they just read you because you were good?
I would certainly prefer that people read my low-key queer comics because they heard they were good. But I would be perfectly happy for people to read them because they were in the middle of Reading Stuff By Trans Women Month. Because there are fifty zillion new books printed every day* and anything that increases my chance of someone choosing my work out of all these possibilities is a thing I am all for. Go ahead, include "Decrypting Rita" and "Parallax" in your suggested reading lists for Trans Women Reading Month, give me free promotion instead of talking about yet another tedious doorstop written by Dude With An MFA.
And I am fine about people talking about doing this sort of thing, because they make other people realize this is a thing they can choose to do too, and possibly notice that their entire fiction diet has been straight white male authors.
* this may be a slight exaggeration
posted by egypturnash at 4:32 PM on December 18, 2019 [19 favorites]
> If you were a queer writer, or a woman of color writer, would you want someone to read you because they thought they were doing something dutiful about power structures? Or because they gravitated to you, not out of any sense that you would teach them something about diversity that they could then write about in a year-end essay—but that they just read you because you were good?
I would certainly prefer that people read my low-key queer comics because they heard they were good. But I would be perfectly happy for people to read them because they were in the middle of Reading Stuff By Trans Women Month. Because there are fifty zillion new books printed every day* and anything that increases my chance of someone choosing my work out of all these possibilities is a thing I am all for. Go ahead, include "Decrypting Rita" and "Parallax" in your suggested reading lists for Trans Women Reading Month, give me free promotion instead of talking about yet another tedious doorstop written by Dude With An MFA.
And I am fine about people talking about doing this sort of thing, because they make other people realize this is a thing they can choose to do too, and possibly notice that their entire fiction diet has been straight white male authors.
* this may be a slight exaggeration
posted by egypturnash at 4:32 PM on December 18, 2019 [19 favorites]
Is this about the same thing as what's been called "virtue signaling"?
Yup.
It's interesting to see somebody criticizing virtue signaling in far-left Jezebel, but of course 2016 seems like eons ago now. Her more recent writing in the New Yorker has been far more overtly conservative from my perspective, though she may not describe it as such. I see it as something like, "left-leaning person approaches mid-30s and realizes what the Christians have been talking about this whole time." Great stuff here, in my opinion.
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino
Also, I like her pointing out why "Blessed" and "Cursed" are showing up in millennial slang, how the generation is characterized by precarity, and just brushes against the insights into how fear and anxiety as personality / generational traits might be generated in the first place.
posted by phenylphenol at 5:09 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Yup.
It's interesting to see somebody criticizing virtue signaling in far-left Jezebel, but of course 2016 seems like eons ago now. Her more recent writing in the New Yorker has been far more overtly conservative from my perspective, though she may not describe it as such. I see it as something like, "left-leaning person approaches mid-30s and realizes what the Christians have been talking about this whole time." Great stuff here, in my opinion.
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/jia-tolentino
Also, I like her pointing out why "Blessed" and "Cursed" are showing up in millennial slang, how the generation is characterized by precarity, and just brushes against the insights into how fear and anxiety as personality / generational traits might be generated in the first place.
posted by phenylphenol at 5:09 PM on December 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
virtue signaling
could have been a useful term except the Right appropriated it as such an easy and all-purpose accusation of bad faith that it mostly ceased to be meaningful
posted by atoxyl at 11:30 PM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
could have been a useful term except the Right appropriated it as such an easy and all-purpose accusation of bad faith that it mostly ceased to be meaningful
posted by atoxyl at 11:30 PM on December 18, 2019 [11 favorites]
Kinda depends on the context doesn't it? If you are a dude with a bunch of dude friends who pretty much only read stuff by dudes, telling your dude friends you've decided to spend a year reading books by women because you've probably been missing a lot of good books might get you zero pats on the back and only a hope that some of your friends might consider broadening their reading as well.
Whether virtue signalling is more performative than prophetic depends on how much expectation you have that people will agree and congratulate you.
posted by straight at 1:16 AM on December 19, 2019
Whether virtue signalling is more performative than prophetic depends on how much expectation you have that people will agree and congratulate you.
posted by straight at 1:16 AM on December 19, 2019
Is this about the same thing as what's been called "virtue signaling"?
Yup.
Nope.
The term as it has been popularized is meant to paint literally every social justice activist as someone without the conviction in their lives to live up to their stated values. A fair amount of the time it's used as the prelude to a screed implying that the "virtue signaler" is some sort of traitor to white people, men, etc. It's meant to delegitimize, not provide an actual description.
It's interesting to see somebody criticizing virtue signaling in far-left Jezebel
Jezebel has never been "far-left" by any stretch of the imagination. It's largely liberal as opposed to leftist, and has long been criticized for being white feminism-centered, with a lack of strong solidarity and intersectionality with women of color and AMAB women. It may not be centrist (and that's debatable), but it's also not preaching actual radical or even leftist feminism on the regular.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 6:00 AM on December 19, 2019 [7 favorites]
Yup.
Nope.
The term as it has been popularized is meant to paint literally every social justice activist as someone without the conviction in their lives to live up to their stated values. A fair amount of the time it's used as the prelude to a screed implying that the "virtue signaler" is some sort of traitor to white people, men, etc. It's meant to delegitimize, not provide an actual description.
It's interesting to see somebody criticizing virtue signaling in far-left Jezebel
Jezebel has never been "far-left" by any stretch of the imagination. It's largely liberal as opposed to leftist, and has long been criticized for being white feminism-centered, with a lack of strong solidarity and intersectionality with women of color and AMAB women. It may not be centrist (and that's debatable), but it's also not preaching actual radical or even leftist feminism on the regular.
posted by Glegrinof the Pig-Man at 6:00 AM on December 19, 2019 [7 favorites]
I feel mixed about this. When I was 13 I read "A Brief History of Time" because I wanted my parents to see me reading "A Brief History of Time" and to think I was Very Smart. Thing is, I actually ended up really enjoying it and it sent me down a long and rewarding path of looking for books that radically challenge my intuition.
As a white dude I feel qualified to comment (generally) on white dudeness, and can definitely imagine a younger version of myself wanting Woke Points for my year of Very Woke Reading. I can also imagine my younger self discovering authors I wouldn't have otherwise discovered and losing myself in their work.
The cough syrup line really opened my eyes. I don't know. I hope the next generation doesn't need Woke Points in the same way my generation does / did.
posted by a_curious_koala at 12:27 PM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
As a white dude I feel qualified to comment (generally) on white dudeness, and can definitely imagine a younger version of myself wanting Woke Points for my year of Very Woke Reading. I can also imagine my younger self discovering authors I wouldn't have otherwise discovered and losing myself in their work.
The cough syrup line really opened my eyes. I don't know. I hope the next generation doesn't need Woke Points in the same way my generation does / did.
posted by a_curious_koala at 12:27 PM on December 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
This post, although the article is old, is very timely for me, because I recently began a project to consume as much media by trans men, especially gay/bi/pan trans men, as possible (except for memoir—if I never read another transition memoir by a person who's only been out for two years ever again it will be too soon—and fanfiction, because I think I could spend the rest of my life reading slash fanfiction by queer trans men and not even get through 1% of the good stuff). Most of this so far has been small press poetry, SFF, and romance.
It's worth reflecting for myself on why I'm doing this and what I hope to get out of it. I like to think that my motivations are very different than the self-congratulatory attitude that focuses on one's bravery for giving up The Classics, or contemporary literature that's Part of the Cultural Conversation or whatever. Specifically, before I started this, I felt lonely, alienated from my sexuality and my community. Reading literature by other guys like me has felt like drinking from a firehose after dying of thirst. Now I actually feel, for the first time in a while, proud to be gay and trans, and connected to what that means.
I guess this comment has wound up rather self-indulgent, and probably far too close to what Tolentino is talking about. But I think that for marginalized readers there are very good reasons to engage on A Year Without Reading Cis People or whatever, but the reasons why someone would do that and what they get out of it are very different than what the article talks about.
posted by protondonor at 2:52 PM on December 20, 2019 [5 favorites]
It's worth reflecting for myself on why I'm doing this and what I hope to get out of it. I like to think that my motivations are very different than the self-congratulatory attitude that focuses on one's bravery for giving up The Classics, or contemporary literature that's Part of the Cultural Conversation or whatever. Specifically, before I started this, I felt lonely, alienated from my sexuality and my community. Reading literature by other guys like me has felt like drinking from a firehose after dying of thirst. Now I actually feel, for the first time in a while, proud to be gay and trans, and connected to what that means.
I guess this comment has wound up rather self-indulgent, and probably far too close to what Tolentino is talking about. But I think that for marginalized readers there are very good reasons to engage on A Year Without Reading Cis People or whatever, but the reasons why someone would do that and what they get out of it are very different than what the article talks about.
posted by protondonor at 2:52 PM on December 20, 2019 [5 favorites]
The thing that bothers me about these lists is less the fact that white dudes are trying to get a pat on the back for expanding their reading horizons, and more that they make it sound like such a hardship. The tone often seems to be "look at me, I'm giving up the really good stuff to do this virtuous thing" rather than "hey I'm going beyond my normal parameters and maybe I might discover something great or at least interesting."
The fact is that there are great writers from all backgrounds, but the mainstream publishing industry presents us with only a small portion of them. I'd like to see discovering some of them recognized as a positive opportunity, rather than some kind of bitter medicine.
posted by rpfields at 3:55 PM on December 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
The fact is that there are great writers from all backgrounds, but the mainstream publishing industry presents us with only a small portion of them. I'd like to see discovering some of them recognized as a positive opportunity, rather than some kind of bitter medicine.
posted by rpfields at 3:55 PM on December 20, 2019 [3 favorites]
Protondonor, I know you realize this, but let me just affirm it, that the process you're describing is everything that is the opposite of what Tolentino is complaining about? Like, there is such a difference between "I read this bunch of books to score points," and "I read this bunch of books that gave me life." That first kind of list, I mean, I never mind seeing them because I always like book recommendations...but that second kind, a list of books that someone finds life-changing and life-affirming, and that wouldn't normally be seen because they're at the intersection of genre fiction and marginalized identity--that's the kind of list the world needs.
posted by mittens at 7:19 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by mittens at 7:19 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]
For sure, mittens! I think that while they are so distinct in my mind, the two situations you outline can look very similar from the outside, especially to people who haven't had to search very hard to see their perspectives represented. For someone else, something like By Hook Or By Crook or We Both Laughed In Pleasure* might be a curiosity. For me, they are lifelines. But the kind of hyperbolic "This is the media we need right now!" way that a lot of people talk about diverse media on the modern internet can flatten that distinction. (And some of that feels disingenuous, like it may be an overreaction by privileged people embarrassed by being insufficiently enthusiastic about media by marginalized creators.)
* - Although I haven't finished it yet, We Both Laughed In Pleasure is already my favorite thing published this year—and yet it's made almost no major year end lists. Wonder why.
posted by protondonor at 1:02 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
* - Although I haven't finished it yet, We Both Laughed In Pleasure is already my favorite thing published this year—and yet it's made almost no major year end lists. Wonder why.
posted by protondonor at 1:02 PM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by loriginedumonde at 9:09 AM on December 18, 2019 [3 favorites]