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Avoiding fetishization

Marian Perera

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So I've been working on a historical romance (set in England in 1885) where the hero is mixed-race, half white and half Indian. Then I read a review of a recently published romance with such a hero where the reviewer was uncomfortable with the fetishization of the hero. The specific examples quoted in the review were his "dark looks" and "foreign flair".

I want to avoid this in my own writing, so I've been trying to think of ways to do so. No comparisons of skin to food, and no mentions of the Kama Sutra as some kind of exotic sex guide. Also, the (white) heroine's attraction to the hero shouldn't be dependent on how different his skin/hair/eye color are from hers. No othering.

I'm wondering, though, if there are any other suggestions you can provide, or approaches I've overlooked. Also, is it acceptable for one of the characters to think that the hero looks foreign if this description isn't related to attraction - i.e. it's not like "he looks foreign therefore he's sexy", but more like "he looks foreign therefore I'm not sure whether I can trust him"? He's not actually foreign, since he was born in England, but the other characters don't know that at first.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!
 

indianroads

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Rather that looks, could the attraction be based on intellect or deeds of service? I’ve always been attracted to interesting people, and in terms of appearance, healthy works best for me.
 

Marian Perera

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Rather that looks, could the attraction be based on intellect or deeds of service? I’ve always been attracted to interesting people, and in terms of appearance, healthy works best for me.

The heroine is definitely going to be drawn to the hero's abilities, actions, and so on, but there is also a physical component to their relationship, plus an explicit sex scene. And I've yet to read a sex scene in a serious romance where the heroine gets naked with the hero and notices his thick, hard personality. So she'll have to at least be aware of his looks, otherwise it will probably seem odd that everyone else gets a description, but he doesn't.
 

Marian Perera

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Eyes, hair, and physique then?

Yes, everyone's going to get their eyes, hair and physique described. I feel as though I have to say what the hero's skin color is, because otherwise readers might see him as white despite his name. But I only ever describe his skin as brown.

There's another point at which I thought of mentioning skin color, and it's that of another man who's interested in the heroine. But I was hoping to show that this other man spent too much time indoors hitting the bottle, so it would have been something like "bloodshot eyes, puffy face, pallid skin".
 

Maryn

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You've already covered the things I'd advise you to watch out for. So maybe you're already avoiding fetishizing the guy.
 

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Marian, it sounds like you've got everything covered. Like your character, I'm brown and British - born here, parents are from India. I certainly don't see any red flags in anything you've described. To be honest, I'd love to read more brown heroes/heroines in the romance genre.

Edit: as for your 'foreign' example, that seems realistic in a historical context and not offensive at all.
 
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InkFinger

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Marian,

I am curious what you are most afraid of here. I've read your opening and everyone else's comments. However, I want to point out the obvious, it's unfathomable that a Victorian era romance set in England would not notice, comment on, or address the race of a man with Indian heritage. It would actually be exceptional to avoid race right up to the last 20 years. Are you asking how to address race without making it a fetish? As in, I want this guy because he's Indian versus I want this guy and he's Indian. I think you have to deal with it.

That's just me, maybe.

Ink.
 
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Marian Perera

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I am curious what you are most afraid of here.

This will be the first historical romance I've written with a biracial lead (in my mind, he looks like Sendhil Ramamurthy in the show Heroes). So I'm a bit nervous about getting this right.

I've read your opening and everyone else's comments. However, I want to point out the obvious, it's unfathomable that a Victorian era romance set in England would not notice, comment on, or address the race of a man with Indian heritage.

You're right, and this is a bit of a minefield.

I don't want all the good characters to accept him as an equal and treat him well while the bad characters are all racists. However, I do want the other main male lead (who's white, and who hopes to marry the heroine) to play the race card when he sees she's falling for the hero. This guy doesn't actually think that people with brown skin are lesser than him, but he really hates losing the woman he wants to a man like the hero, who's not rich or titled. So he hits back where he knows it will hurt.

Even before this rather charged moment, though, people will notice that the hero, well, looks different from them. He grew up in London, and I'm going to use his recollections to show that there was a thriving population of people of different races and ethniticies in Victorian England at that time. So until now, he never felt too noticeable on account of his Indian heritage. Unfortunately, he's now in a little village where people are mostly white (and have fairly provincial attitudes as well).

Are you asking how to address race without making it a fetish? As in, I want this guy because he's Indian versus I want this guy and he's Indian. I think you have to deal with it.

Maybe I should just address this in the story as well. As in, have someone question the heroine about whether she's attracted to the hero because he's Indian. That might be an interesting conversation, and a way to tackle the issue head-on.

Thanks very much. Lots of food for thought.
 

Marian Perera

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Marian, it sounds like you've got everything covered. Like your character, I'm brown and British - born here, parents are from India. I certainly don't see any red flags in anything you've described. To be honest, I'd love to read more brown heroes/heroines in the romance genre.

Thank you!

I'm also a bit nervous because the hero is...not entirely an honest or scrupulous person. He was previously an expert burglar and safecracker, and though he's been forced to give up those professions, he's going to resort to his old criminal skills during this story. Still, he comes down on the side of the angels, even if he does waver a bit during the descent.

I don't want this to seem like racism in any way, though. And one of his former partners in crime, who makes an appearance later in the story and who did far worse things, is white.

Edit: as for your 'foreign' example, that seems realistic in a historical context and not offensive at all.

That's good to hear. Thank you again.
 

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Marian,

I like that answer better. It will also make it feel more authentic, given that history is what is - warts and all.
 

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I used to do book reviews for a certain publication, and would frequently get stuck with romance novels. There were definitely times when I was appalled by, for example, a historical fiction where native Americans were eroticized as primal, somewhat non-human beast-men. What occurred to me, though, is that regardless of race, these books almost invariably operate on themes that make the man somewhat bestial. The readers are looking for a fantasy about someone with a sense of danger about them, after all, and you don't get that with someone who can't be mistaken for the kind of ravaging caricature that racist propaganda posters warn us about. Even books like Twilight, where the love interest is a painfully poised and civilized white-wedding traditionalist, only achieve this by selling the idea that he's constantly struggling to suppress the animal within (and by contrasting him with the native American werewolves, unfortunately).
 

frimble3

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I don't want all the good characters to accept him as an equal and treat him well while the bad characters are all racists.

Then mix it up a bit! This is a provincial little village, not a hive-mind. Perhaps some of the older people are merely astonished at a stranger in the village - his being dark is just an easy way to spot a stranger ('He ain't one of our folk, clear enough!') Maybe another villager is a veteran of the British army in India, and reckons that Indians are no better or worse than anyone else, (and the food and the colours make England seem drab and bland). Perhaps he persists in trying to speak the Indian of whatever area he was posted in, and the MMC has to gently explain that he doesn't know it, or knows a different language.
And, some perfectly nice people will be prejudiced against him because of what they've read in the papers, or, just because he's a stranger.
Pretty much the same with the 'bad' characters - some will see him as a useful person to take the blame, maybe some will recognize his dubious skills and hope to lure him into some scheme.
 

Marian Perera

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Then mix it up a bit! This is a provincial little village, not a hive-mind. Perhaps some of the older people are merely astonished at a stranger in the village - his being dark is just an easy way to spot a stranger ('He ain't one of our folk, clear enough!') Maybe another villager is a veteran of the British army in India, and reckons that Indians are no better or worse than anyone else, (and the food and the colours make England seem drab and bland). Perhaps he persists in trying to speak the Indian of whatever area he was posted in, and the MMC has to gently explain that he doesn't know it, or knows a different language.

Oh, I like this.

The hero won't have much opportunity to interact with many of the villagers except for the heroine's maid, and possibly one of the servants of the other man (said servant could also be a PoC), but it would be very realistic for the other man to have had a relative or two who was stationed in India as a chief commissioner, or even lieutenant-governor. Maybe he even spent time there himself, so he'd be able to make rudimentary conversation in an Indian language (which, naturally, the hero doesn't speak).

It would be a great way to show that there's some depth to the other man. Despite his time in India, he doesn't automatically treat the hero as an equal, but at the same time, he isn't ignorant of other cultures, and he likes some aspects of those.

And, some perfectly nice people will be prejudiced against him because of what they've read in the papers, or, just because he's a stranger.

Yes, he's not only a stranger, but because of his backstory, he's unable to provide a convincing explanation of how he got to this village or what he's doing there. So he looks somewhat shady from the start.

Thanks for the suggestions, frimble, they were great!
 

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Glad I could help in some small way! If it's a provincial village, and he hasn't met anyone, all they'll be basing their judgement on stories and pictures, not on actual interaction. Which, for most people, may mean suspicion at first, but some will more willing to accept the actual person once they see past the image.
(I was raised in a small, provincial village. Pretty much all Europeans, except for the one Chinese family. One time a black guy got off the boat, and people actually gathered to stare. Not my family: My mother was horrified- you don't stare at people for the way they look! You don't make the poor guy feel like a zoo exhibit! If you're not inviting him for dinner, leave him to go about his business. And, just as important, don't act like a yokel!)
 

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I'm also a bit nervous because the hero is...not entirely an honest or scrupulous person. He was previously an expert burglar and safecracker, and though he's been forced to give up those professions, he's going to resort to his old criminal skills during this story. Still, he comes down on the side of the angels, even if he does waver a bit during the descent.

I don't want this to seem like racism in any way, though. And one of his former partners in crime, who makes an appearance later in the story and who did far worse things, is white.

That's a very legitimate concern; when the character is either the only one from a minority background in the cast, or one of just a few, you don't want to seem like you're demonising them for their colour. However, from your mention of the other characters, there seems to be a lot of moral ambiguity in your set-up. It doesn't seem like things are black and white, or that all your characters are all simply split into 'good' or 'bad'.

Every character should be flawed after all, and a PoC character is not an exception. The opposite can be pretty damaging actually - where a PoC character is thrown into a narrative but they're utterly saintly with no flaws because the author doesn't feel uncomfortable writing about them the way they would a white character.

From everything you've written in this thread, you're evidently approaching it in a sensitive and nuanced way.

I like the lively discussion that's started here!

Edit: I feel like I'm struggling to articulate this, but the point is that in your example the character is not a dishonest or unscrupulous person because of his colour. That would be a problem, but it's not the case here.
 
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frimble3

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You said somewhere else that this is set around Christmas? I'm just assuming that your bi-racial MMC is Christian, at least in name? This could be another chance to show the locals that he's not all that different. He knows how to behave in church and sings the hymns. Or, he's actually Hindu or Muslim, and they wonder what he actually does for the holiday, not really getting that it's not a holiday to him, at all.
If you've got a big-deal event happening, make use of it.
 

Marian Perera

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You said somewhere else that this is set around Christmas? I'm just assuming that your bi-racial MMC is Christian, at least in name?

Well, the premise of the trilogy (this is Book 2) is that the three ghosts from A Christmas Carol come to life. Each of them has to confront not only the person they were sent to save, but also their own mortality and the mistakes they once made that caused them to die and become ghosts in the first place.

So the hero of this book, who's the Spirit of Christmas Present, does know quite a bit about Christianity, though he's just as aware of Hindu customs. I'll have him discuss those when he's helping the heroine decorate her house for the season. He doesn't get much opportunity to interact with the locals on-page, though, just the heroine, her young son, the other man and the villain, because the romance is compressed into such a short span of time that I can't introduce too many characters. But the mention of other customs is a good idea.
 

Marian Perera

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That's a very legitimate concern; when the character is either the only one from a minority background in the cast, or one of just a few, you don't want to seem like you're demonising them for their colour.

Exactly. With a large cast, I could have more characters of color, but here, all I've really got besides him are the heroine, her son, the other man and the villain. I don't want to make either the other man (who's a depressed alcoholic) or the villain a PoC.

Even racebending the heroine would be difficult, because at the start of the story, she is determined to marry an aristocrat, something she acknowledges will be difficult because she's an impoverished widow with no distinguished bloodline. If she's a PoC on top of that...

However, from your mention of the other characters, there seems to be a lot of moral ambiguity in your set-up. It doesn't seem like things are black and white, or that all your characters are all simply split into 'good' or 'bad'.

That's what I'm aiming for. Each character is the hero of his or her own story, after all.

Every character should be flawed after all, and a PoC character is not an exception. The opposite can be pretty damaging actually - where a PoC character is thrown into a narrative but they're utterly saintly with no flaws because the author doesn't feel uncomfortable writing about them the way they would a white character.

I agree. And this just wouldn't work for the story I want to tell, because the whole point of it is that the hero has been returned to life partly to atone for what he did when he was previously alive. If he didn't commit crimes like grand larceny, then he's an innocent person being jerked around, and he doesn't really need to change or grow.

But if he was previously a criminal, then he has much more agency, he played a role in his own downfall, and the story is about two people who overcome their flaws as a result of knowing each other. I find that much more interesting.
 

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Marian,

I am curious what you are most afraid of here. I've read your opening and everyone else's comments. However, I want to point out the obvious, it's unfathomable that a Victorian era romance set in England would not notice, comment on, or address the race of a man with Indian heritage. It would actually be exceptional to avoid race right up to the last 20 years. Are you asking how to address race without making it a fetish? As in, I want this guy because he's Indian versus I want this guy and he's Indian. I think you have to deal with it.

That's just me, maybe.

Ink.

Personally, I think this is a massive issue. Think about the historical context of the British Raj and British attitudes to 'colonials'. An Indian walking around London (or a small village) in the late 19th century would stick out like a sore thumb. A good novel series by Abir Mukherjee (starting with) A Rising Man looks at these issues in 1919. The author is Glaswegian and of Indian heritage.