❄Elsa Frost❄’s Comments (group member since Sep 17, 2017)

❄Elsa Frost❄’s comments from the Diversity in All Forms! group.

Apparently, I've been in this group for a while but haven't introduced myself yet.

I'm Elsa (not really, just my screen name). I'm a queer Boricua y Cuban-American. In part, I joined this group so I could find out about more diverse reads and join in on monthly book club reads whenever I'm able to. I love diverse work, and I especially love #ownvoices work, so I hope to find out about more #ownvoices reads and other great diverse works. Great to meet y'all!

katwiththehat wrote: "Kirsten wrote: "I think one problem is that you're told to write what you know. Also, some white authors are attacked for writing books from a POV that they have no experience with. You can't have ..."

Personally, I find it odd when writers don't do the research and, usually, it's obvious to those of us who are minorities. I, as a queer person, experience life differently from a straight person. I, as someone who is Latinx, experience life differently from someone who is not. And then we could break it down and get into more details from there: I, as a queer who is attracted to men and women, do not experience life the same way as a queer who is attracted to the same-gender. I, as someone who is Boricua (Puerto Rican residing in the States) and Cuban-American, do not experience life the same way as a Mexican-American or a Haitian-American.

To put it short, these are topics that if decided to be delved into must be delved into carefully. Yes, people who are not minorities and are writing about these issues may make mistakes, but it's still important to research to make a more accurate portrayal. If a historical-fiction writer can study enough to write about times they have never lived in and work hard to accurately portray it to the best of their ability, then why can't anyone research and write (as accurately as they can) about a minority experience they have never lived?

A poetry book I highly recommend that presents diversity (and is an incredible book overall) is Don't Call Us Dead. It is written by a queer black writer and is an incredible work of art.

Another book I also recommend is They Both Die at the End. It is written by a queer Boricua writer and is a YA Fantasy book. The main characters are Boricua and Cuban-American, both queer.

There are more diverse books out there, but these are the first two that immediately came to mind. I'll try to think of more I could recommend soon.

Unfortunately, I have encountered quite a few. One book that comes to mind is Dreams of Significant Girls. I thought it was going to be a more feminist approach to diversity, based on how it was described and the main characters' origins (one was European, one was Middle Eastern, one was Latinx). Instead, to me personally, it read like a book with no compass and unsure where it was supposed to end (which might be why it was such a short read). The book brought up sexual assault at one point, but it was brought up and then it was "erased" from the rest of the book, leaving me confused. After all, I thought it was a feminist work. Why did it leave this part alone instead of actually approaching the issue of sexual assault? What was the point of it? The main characters also came from very privileged lives, and so it felt very unrelatable, especially as I am someone who's living a not-so-privileged life. It also didn't really approach the topics of race and ethnicity, like it seemed it would? Additionally, one of the minor characters came out as gay but, again, there seemed to be no point to this except to prove its "feminist" value, of which the value was lacking.

There's a lot more I could say about the book, but I'll leave it at that. It was confusing overall.