Green Room - Week 2 - Day 2

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In case you missed the thread yesterday where the topic came up, there was some talk about Diversity when it comes to writing, particularly fiction.

How do you handle it in your own work?

Do you?

I think everyone can agree - diversity, yay! Well, OK, everyone EXCEPT ME. Personally, I think the idea of there being other people with their own lives and opinions are overrated. You all just need to bend to my whim and submit to my rule!

But everyone else seems to like it just fine. (or the reasonable ones at least).

So, that leaves the question of how best to present a wider picture of the world around us? And what happens if the "world around you" really isn't all that diverse? Being online, it probably is. But personally, I'm originally from a small Ohio town where I didn't see anyone who wasn't white for years, and even then, I just heard about them since their kids didn't go to my school.

It literally took until my family moved, when I was in the 5th grade, to even get the chance to encounter someone "different", much less begin to understand those differences, and the similarities.

Granted, I was really young - and when I went back a couple years ago, there has been "an Asian explosion" in the population who have moved in. Which has had it's good points, and it's bad, as is to be expected.

If I were writing about that time growing up though, there wouldn't be a single non-white face in my story. There would be a stutterer, but no one who was blind or deaf, and certainly not any openly gay, lesbian or transgendered figures.

There are some people who would say that I should add them. There are some people who say that I should be true to the story, and time, that I am talking about. Both sides are likely to yell, or at least use all caps. ;)

I was reading an article yesterday about the "Girls diversity controversy" (two days ago I'd never seen an episode, and now I'm reading about their controversy!) and a line stuck in my head: That we (US culture. Apologies to the rest of the world culture for the generalization) don't have a problem with diversity in the media. The problem is with us. That we still don't have the diversity in our everyday lives to actual be able to create these fictional worlds filled with all kinds of people, who seem so real, because they are based on people we actually have known instead of characters created or altered to fill a void of "we need X".

Anyway - just throwing those hand grenades out there into the yard.

***
In other news - Tonight is the deadline for SECOND CHANCE IDOL: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/614176.html
and we also have the topic posted for the main competition: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/614821.html

So people have a lot to write, and read!

Results - Second Chance Topic 1

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Mark it on your calendars. Wake up the neighbors and pull them out of their beds. (Why are they sleeping anyway?) Because today is a historic event!

Not only is it the first Second Chance Idol deadline of Exhibit A, you are about to witness something rarely seen in the wild!

Mercy.

Five people missed the deadline, and have been eliminated from the competition. They are:
____hejira, blackeyes, butterbuns, elizabethsheryl and heatherenchantd. Sorry to see you go so soon!

As for the other five - you have caught a break. I’m not going to eliminate any more contestants this week from Second Chance. So you survive one more round.

Yes, I realize that might mean that not as many people will read your entries - but I HOPE that people take the time to read and comment on them, regardless of your survival being at stake!

Check out their entries at: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/614176.html

I’ll see you at the end of the main competition’s Week 2 poll to see who will be joining you, followed by your next topic!