Oversensitivity vs. Creative Freedom - A Brief Reminder for 2016

HAH!

Thank you Link, that was just what I needed to hear right this moment. Am struggling through a real difficult scene which I don't want to write. Because it makes me be afraid of the reactions of people out there, yes that's right! So this little piece of advice was really needed right this second. I would write anyway because it just fits in with the story, but sometimes that doesn't matter at all to the little kid screaming in the back of my head. This kid who wants to be loved, who wants everyone to be in love with her novel.

That will not happen, though, of that I am real confident. Nevertheless the story needs to be told that way. So thanks for extending a helping hand here

It also pays to remember that nobody has the right not to be offended - being offended is meaningless. Someone could be offended by the colour combination I wore to the shops today. I'm not the type to go around hurting people's feelings, but you have to admit human beings will try and find fault with anything they can!

Our culture is a warzone, a never-ending struggle between groups and ideologies of all banners. Because every side perceives the other as self-righteous, there is little hope for understanding, and because the battle rages in so many different directions, our everyday language is more corrupted by aggression and stereotypes than most people would hope or care to understand.

For the few that catch a glimpse—liberals, for the most part—the first impulse is to rail against it, but this can quickly lead to paralysis, and the end result may simply fan the flames in yet another direction. I became aware of this drawback around a year ago, but I spent much of the time afterward policing my own mind to avoid being pretentious or politically correct, which was a betrayal of everything I believe.

In the end, the only solution is that there isn't one. It is impossible to avoid offending people, and it is almost impossible to avoid being offensive. There are simply so many different stereotypes that one could never hope to avoid them all. From that understanding, I learn that beating myself up over many of the lighter transgressions is pointless, because I would simply replace them with other faults, and I would cripple my freedom in the process.

If it would only be so easy Link!

I am not knocking what you say, in fact I agree completely. Yet society made laws, some of them real stupid but they are out there. I live in the UK and I have to be careful what I include in my novel if I want to ever give it out. I write certain stuff for myself at the moment, but the version of my novel which gets given out will not include what I am currently writing for myself. Because of laws. Yep.

But.. being the stubborn Alice in Dark Wonderland that I am, I am writing it anyway!! I just don't have to let people see. One-in-your-eye-you-stupid-fucking-easily-offended-society!!

Link, I don't know about you, but the planet I live on is not Shrangri-la. We live in a world where people compete with one another for everything from income to food to mating, where huge economic, political, and international injustices go by uncontested, and where a Facebook status is more important than the homeless man down on the street beneath you. The greatest thing about fiction is that it is free from all constraints, it is the one place where an author can be whatever it wants, and where any idea can be explored. If the ideal wife is a lady in the living-room and a whore in the bedroom, than the ideal world is one where compassion, respect, and reason are applied at all times other than in entertainment.Unfortunately, it seems some people would refer the reverse -equality in fiction and inequality in reality- because it is much easier to achieve. It's up to you to lead by example in your day to day interactions with others, and then forget about all that (if you choose) when writing fiction.

Ah, my pupil is all grown up.

So it's OK to use an old homophobic, racist, sexist male Aussie proud of his anglo-saxon convict roots as an MC?

It's okay to write whatever you want, @lastresort. It's freedom of expression, go nuts.

Being a real prude by nature, I'll end up offending myself. But I get your point.