(Author's note: Written as a response to a fracas over a panel on Multiculturalism in Steampunk presented at COSine, in January, 2017, and initially posted on Facebook. I've done some editing for clarity and meaning.)
I have crafted, moderated, and participated in panels on cross-cultural or multicultural Steampunk at various local cons for several years. It's not only a life-long personal appreciation of other cultures that points me in that direction, but there is a philosophical - dare I say "social justice"? - reason that I do so.
Steampunk retro-futurism is based in the real-world Victorian culture of the British Empire and the developing United States, providing the Steampunk creative community with a wide variety of cultural resources to draw upon for inspiration and incorporation into our works. This is due in large part to the effects of British Imperialism and American expansionism, in which cultural aspects were exchanged between the dominant and non-dominant cultures. This wasn't an equitable exchange; cultural hubris was expressed by exploiting and appropriating culturally significant aspects of non-dominant cultures, and as an enduring legacy of what can only be described as racism.
Clashes of cultures and classes (including gender-based classes) are a persistent source of the conflict in Steampunk literature. In the Steampunk genre, we have unique opportunities for exploring issues of racism and human exploitation, class warfare, environmental abuse, and a wide range of other current issues because we are viewing these issues in relationship to our own cultural past. The rise of technology and the moral authority to use it also plays into Steampunk literary conflict, as it relates closely to the human condition.
It's important to understand that Steampunk is a modern cultural construct; we're not re-creating a historical culture or re-enacting historical events. We may don the trappings of a historical time and place but we function in the current day, but we have created our own cultural norms and social events, such as Tea Dueling and afternoon teas, balls, absinthe parties, and conventions. As a contemporary sub-culture, Steampunk is subject to the same lingering effects of Victorianism as the rest of American society; dominant classes and underclasses, of racism and prejudice, of the struggle for women's equality. Cultural appropriation is a thing. We also have gender identification issues, size shaming, and agesim to add into the mix. (And likely more that I'm just not thinking of right now.)
My intent for a panel in multiculturalism in Steampunk is that we discuss cultural exchange without whitewashing appropriation and exploitation. Questions in my list include addressing how creatives incorporate multi-cultural aspects into their own work from cultures in which they might not have agency. My purpose is to honor what have been exploited cultures and to bring them to the forefront as worthy, admirable, and complex, to be a remedy for wrongs and a catalyst for change.
There are those in our community who will say that as a "white" person, I don't have the agency to do that. I respect that perspective, because I understand that without living in others' bodies I can't truly know what it's like to live their experiences; I can't be anything other than that which I am. I also disagree with it.
The problem is that everyone has a face, an appearance, by which we are identified and judged. Mine is female, and very pale. I was recently on a convention panel at which I was one of four people, all of whom at first glance, to be similar to me. Someone posted a photo on Facebook, with the description being "Multi-cultural Steampunk at COSine."
Initially, the photo didn't include me, because I had gotten delayed in Denver and was running late. I got there about 5 minutes after the panel started and another photo was taken of all four of us, three men and one woman.
The response to the photo was, naturally, "three white dudes??" (I'm paraphrasing here, btw.) After the second photo was posted, the response was, "that isn't helping."
Considering the source of that second response, I was substantially taken aback. This came from a con organizer who has put me on a similar panel at her cons for the past three (maybe four) years. I thought that she had more confidence in my perspectives and in my presentation than that. Either that, or I have to consider that I've been set up as the white-splainer between the POC social justice warriors who shared those panels.
The question always arises in some form - how can one address culturally significant issues, conditions, material goods, or motifs in one's work, when one does not belong to the culture which is supplying the significant thing? As a matter of fact, it came up that afternoon. I said that to some of our community, as "four white people" on a panel, we can't. Except that the "four white people" on that panel were not nearly as homogeneous as we appeared. What I know is that one of us is female, one is Jewish, one is Hispanic, and one is a self-described BWHM. I can't tell beyond that what agency my panel-mates posses, what their life experiences or sociological interests are, their education, or the gender or culture of their partners, parents, or children.
And neither could the people who expressed discomfort at the four "white" people on the panel.
The fact is that none of those who expressed dismay at that photo were there, or had volunteered to be on that panel. The didn't know what went down and they didn't bother to ask before making assumptions.
This is my complaint. And it's not unusual.
As an artist, a Steampunk creatrix, and a decent human being, I have an obligation to be sensitive to the condition of others, to understand, to listen to their experiences and to validate them. I have a responsibility to research and know the cultural significance of cultural things that I use in my art, to use them with sensitivity and in a unique fashion. I have read and listened to a number of perspectives, including those from POCs, those who are of different religions from mine, who love differently. And I'm pretty centrist on the issue of using culturally significant aspects in my work.
I incorporate Japanese and Indian influences in my work, both the pottery and the sartorial arts. I've been told by some people in the Steampunk community that it's not acceptable to do so. Some have said that it's okay if you're not doing it badly; it has been threatened that those doing badly will be subject to censure, including getting kicked out of a con. It's terrifically subjective. I use the invisible ruler analogy. Being critical is often an invisible ruler - we all use it to measure, but won't or can't quantify it. It's the pornography test ("can't define it, but I know it when I see it.). And yes, I take exception to that.
I see the invisible ruler as a power issue. Underclasses have had their power or agency eroded. As a female, my agency is eroded every day. I get that. It's unjust, and those feelings of injustice mean that we all want to get our power back. And we should! This isn't a bad thing. But it gets weaponized. And really, I understand that too. When you've got no power left, then recovering power requires a weapon. However, it's also valuable to know how to pick your fights.
In truth, the extreme majority of people in the SFF community - and by extension in Steampunk - are allies. The people who were on that panel are diverse, and every one of us have worked for years within that diversity and to be allies. We're not doing it badly; we are sensitive to the experience of others, and we are listening and validating, and creating unique works. Yes, there are Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies, and those who loudly exclaim that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (yes, that really did happen at a multi-culturalism panel <sighs>), and we're trying to marginalize them. All the f-ing time. We're trying to advance the diverse voices and stifle the hateful ones. I'm not looking for credit, but I would like to be known as having a bit of credibility.
In multicultural Steampunk, we need to stop making the "ideal" the opposite of "pretty good". And we all need to keep the dialogue going.
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