How do I know if a concept is sexist or not?
In my story's world, witchcraft is a respected institution, with the most powerful practitioners being at the top echelons of society. Due to this, society traces its lineage through matrilineal lines. A witch has the power to summon a familiar by using her body as a conduit between the mortal and ethereal plane. These powerful spirits are forever linked with their master, and used in a number of ways, such as magical batteries and amplifiers, or for battle. Familiars are birthed into the world in the same way that human children are born, through a ritual ceremony, and grow in power with the user.
When creating a magic system, I was taught that there always had to be a cost, to keep the magic interesting. I am looking for a drawback to explain why every witch does not go through the process. One that I was considering was that the witch must have never given birth before the ritual, and that the process renders her infertile afterwards, ensuring that they will never have a lineage. For this reason, familiars are rare in this world.
In that particular example I am rethinking that scheme, because someone has told me that this concept is sexist toward women because it suggests that a female's only worth is her fertility and that having kids is the most important thing to them. I do question whether that is accurate, or if I am overthinking it.
However, that example aside, my real question is less about this specific scheme, and more general:
Presuming an author wishes to avoid bigotry and prejudice in their writing, how can they decide if some story element of theirs is prejudiced or not?
Are there tests to apply, or ways of analyzing their ideas to come to some objective conclusion?
(24)24 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
thanks for asking this question. I feel like far too many people would get defensive or just brush this off.
So, I'll say a few things...
A: The posters who've said that you should consult women are dead-on. Really, those are the only folks who can give really good feedback on this. You might also want to think about the implications of this for the trans community or non-binary folks.
B: My personal opinion is that you're probably fine. I'm not a woman, so my own feedback should be taken with a grain of salt, but the magical system only identifies fertility as something of value. It doesn't necessarily imply that the people themselves have more or less value. I have one eye, and I feel that having two eyes would be preferable, if only for the simple fact that it extends the range of action. To me, having the ability To is always better, because you have a choice.
For example, I'd say that having the ability to fly is better than not, all things being equal. Because if someone doesn't want to fly (maybe they have a fear of heights), they don't have to. They, personally, have the choice, and them not exercising that option doesn't have any functional difference than if they didn't have the ability.
Usually ableism is a problem in that certain kinds of ability are tied to the worth of the person, and/or barriers are erected for people who don't have certain abilities.
That "disability" itself has no bearing on the worth of the person, all that comes from the social construction of it, and discrimination against it.
By that standard, infertility itself is simply the denial of a choice, it doesn't make the person less valuable, or enshrine the ability to choose as a source of that person's value. And hell, why wouldn't witches be able to have a magical birth, anyway? I'd say that the inability of infertile people to birth familiars seems unnecessary, and revisiting that might solve your problem.
But again, I'm a guy, so my feedback should be taken with a grain of salt.
C: My partner is a Women's and Gender Studies PhD candidate. I ran this by her, out of curiosity, just to understand the perspective of your friend, and she said its "flirting the line" because its elevating fertility as something of value. For similar reasons to B, she didn't consider it misogynistic, but thought you might want to revisit the idea and rework it a bit to avoid the problem of being misread.
So...overall, the vibe I'm getting is that its probably not sexist, but there's a decent chance it could be interpreted as such, and you may want to revamp specifics to avoid the problem.
Generally speaking, if you have to ask, even if its not sexist, its problematic enough that it might need work.
I've gotta say, though, I like the core of the idea. You may also want to dig into the various perspectives of women who either choose not to have kids, or cannot, to see how they feel about it. If you go through any iteration of this, that's going to be huge for this project. And understand that it's not your lived experience either...so be extra careful.
Good luck, m8 ?
Tackle it head-on. If you are wondering this, a share of your audience is probably wondering it - why can't a character in the world you are building wonder the same? They can discuss the question with someone else, at which point you can have them come to a conclusion or have split opinions about
a) yes, this is sexist, and here is how people accept or deal with it, or
b) no, it is not, and why not.
Please do not shy away from something that just might maybe perhaps tickle someone somehow the wrong way. Almost every interesting topic has that potential. What great writers do and always did was to tackle those problems, and what mediocre writers always do and did was trying to skirt them.
Among the topics to explore is how people in your world view women in general and mothers in particular, how women view themselves and how men view them, what the importance of children and family lines is, what kind of choices women can make in the world and what the consequences of those choices are - all of which are great, intriguing questionsthat will make your world come so much more alive if you have answers to them. You can also use them to set the world apart from the real world, which will serve to explain other parts of your book because readers understand that in the real world that girl would have had a choice, but in your world, due to tradition and social rules, she doesn't.
I can't help but feel that in large part the solution to this problem is to have good and varied beta readers and/or editors. Any author can offend unintentionally by approaching what they consider a non-issue from the wrong angle and they often can't see what they've done. So you only really know if you're being sexist, or otherwise offensive, because someone else points out to you that something you're written can easily be read a certain, unflattering, way.
Can I add my perspective as a reader rather than a writer? I think you don't need to worry too much about whether you use something that might be seen as sexist. Good fiction very often explore the borders of what is permissible, and I think that is in fact one of its most important features; thinking, writing and talking about things is a relatively safe way of working with difficult issues, and it can help us improve our collective attitudes, I think.
However, from what you describe, I can't spot anything sexist - you describe a context in which your story happens; if you don't use a setting with some level of inequality and injustice of some sort, you will end up with My Little Pony, which may be a worthy ambition, of course, but I sense that this isn't what you are aiming for.
Previous Page Next Page
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2025 All Rights reserved.