*Image taken from Canva.
This is going to get messy. You have been warned!
First for some music to set the mood…
And the sign said
"Long-haired freaky people
Need not apply"
So I tucked my hair up under my hat
And I went in to ask him why
He said, "You look like a fine upstandin' young man
I think you'll do"
So I took off my hat and said, "Imagine that
Huh, me workin' for you"
/ The Five man electric band. “Signs” 1971/
I hate hippies. Though due to my chaotic and hedonic nature I sure could be considered one. When actually I like sensible order, logical rules and common sense as such. And guidelines - yeah! I love guidelines. Restrictions – yes, if the restrictions make sense.
That brings me neatly along to the song I quoted in the opening of this story (whoops, a fiction writer’s habit - everything is a story). Guidelines of who is allowed to submit their work and who is not, based on their appearance/colour or/and sexuality. Does a writer’s voice have colour?! Or sexuality? Does it matter nowadays what colour my skin is, if I want to submit a story to a journal? Or what my sexual preferences are? Or what reproductive organs I happen to have? I think it shouldn’t matter. Writing is a life of the soul, and the soul has no colour, right? Right??! Wrong! According to many submission restrictions/guidelines it does matter. Just check out the examples in pictures below.
*of course, the majority of the submissions are open to everybody, but I see more of these “special restrictions” lately.
Yes, yes, in some specific cases maybe it matters. For example, writing gay erotica. See, but that’s a specific theme. And who says a straight writer couldn’t write it using research and imagination?!
Ah, but you say - historically marginalized groups should have some advantages over the - what? Who? The oppressors? The key word here is historically. What about now? I don’t see how a brown working-class guy from Texas would be more marginalized than a white unemployed mother of 4 from a poor post-soviet country (ehem…). This is hypocrisy and virtue-signalling at its finest. Because to submit their work to these places, writers need to have access to a computer with writing software, an internet connection, proper understanding of the writer’s craft (writing in English) and time to write/edit/submit. I can’t see how a person is marginalized if they have all this. The truly marginalized writers are the ones who will probably never read these online submission calls, because they don’t have the internet, or computer, or time, or knowledge to write in English. So, all that talk about uplifting the marginalized writers (especially here on Substack) is bullshit! If a writer is on Substack, he cannot be marginalized.
By the way, I don’t believe these “uplifting the little folk” Substack projects. Be it Writing around the Edges, Smallstack or Unlocked or whatever. Even if the founders meant well, the masses applying for these groups are so huge, it’s impossible to “uplift” all of them individually anymore. How many thousands have applied to Smallstack? Who’s gonna read all that? The individual stacks won’t grow because they’ll be lost in this crowd. But being the cynical hag I am, I believe that deep down the hosts kinda knew they’re helping themselves more than anybody. All those hundreds of subs… very tempting. Using the naïve faith of the small ones. But I’m probably wrong.
But I digressed. Let’s get back to publishers.
Why am I ranting about this? Oh, just let ‘em have it, you’ll say. Okay, these are private journals/publishers, they can do what they want. But when I see more and more of these submission restrictions, it’s getting kind of weird. Not only is the trad industry stagnating, but it’s also getting more WOKE? (yes, that word is annoying, but it encapsulates these ‘progressive’ tendencies perfectly.)
So, you know my opinion. Writing, like other creative crafts is a work of the soul and mind, it’s forming one’s imagination into the shape of prose and poetry. It shouldn’t matter what colour the writer’s skin is. Why couldn’t I write a decent Sci-fi story about a black guy’s adventures in space? Why couldn’t an Asian girl write a historical novel about Wikings (yes, historically Nordic people were white). Why couldn’t an elderly brown woman write outstanding essays about the history of Polish folk dance? Or a white guy write poetry about Masai tribes? Our imagination is what matters. Our skill. Our persistence. Not some external qualities, unconnected to our writing.
Now, tell me honestly! If you were given a book without a way to know its author’s name, age, sex, skin colour, health condition, nationality, education, ancestry, nothing. Let’s say you read this book. Could you guess all the forementioned after reading it?! Could you really? Would it matter?
Oh, and before you use the magical word “racist” to attack me, because I happen to be a white chick, I’ll be quicker and tell you - anybody who points out any race as a reason to offend them is a racist. If you want to accuse me of my foul opinion just because of my skin colour, then you’re the racist!
P.s. I didn’t write this to spread hate. I wrote it because I want to ask questions. And maybe get some answers. Maybe I could urge some of you to think deeper, think for yourselves and ask questions. Don’t rely on loud voices. Think. Be critical.
P.p.s. To anybody cheering for closed Substack groups for writers of colour - I think you are promoting segregation. What is diversity? It’s hearing all the voices. No matter what colour they happen to be born with.
P.p.p.s. If I were a character in Harry Potter books, I’d be a Slytherin for sure. I tend to question authorities, and don’t trust them blindly, even if their intentions are seemingly good.
A. The publication is their property, and they can specify whatever they want, which I'm sure you already know, but I just had to get that out there for the nimrods who don't.
B. WTF!!! Actually, this was one of the reasons I stopped submitting to lit mags and anthologies. I started seeing these wokist restrictions that have NOTHING to do with our writing ability.
C. I need some chocolate now to calm down.
Have a great evening.
Several good points, Kathrine. I am reminded of a something Robert Louis Stevenson once said, “The important tale is the tale, the well-told tale, not he who tells it.” Over-emphasis on physical and cultural characteristics for writers kind of ruins the idea that what we all have in common is our basic humanity and instead creates a divisive barrier that presumes to assert we cannot possibly understand and relate to each other because our differences define us.