Lost_Yonder
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2008
- Posts
- 16,927
if race isn't mentioned, there tends to be the assumption the characters are white...
i think race does matter, for a variety of reason. and here I'm using "race" in a very broad sense, to include ethnicity, nationality, and other differences (many of which are in fact not racial).
First, I think for a US audience it isn't just black and white that people relate to. there are other very charged racial interactions - such as Arab-Israeli, that most readers would understand, though others we may not recognize, not knowing the politics, such as Muslim-Hindu in India.
Second, race in stories isn't just about politically charged encounters, but race also invokes stereotypes - thus "Asian" women as seen as passive, "Arab" men as mysogynists. These stereotypes play out in different stories and can be important ingredients to a plot.
Third, "race", as broadly defined, also implies different cultures, different social behaviors, different norms - all of which are important details to making characters and adding "color", if you will, to a story.
i think race does matter, for a variety of reason. and here I'm using "race" in a very broad sense, to include ethnicity, nationality, and other differences (many of which are in fact not racial).
First, I think for a US audience it isn't just black and white that people relate to. there are other very charged racial interactions - such as Arab-Israeli, that most readers would understand, though others we may not recognize, not knowing the politics, such as Muslim-Hindu in India.
Second, race in stories isn't just about politically charged encounters, but race also invokes stereotypes - thus "Asian" women as seen as passive, "Arab" men as mysogynists. These stereotypes play out in different stories and can be important ingredients to a plot.
Third, "race", as broadly defined, also implies different cultures, different social behaviors, different norms - all of which are important details to making characters and adding "color", if you will, to a story.
