my thoughts.. stemming from kink bingo’s newest changes
So, Kink Bingo has added "achievements" like the ones in video games. Included are a group called "underrepresented characters;" Asexual, Chromatic, Trans and/or Genderqueer, Characters with Disabilities, Fat, and Older characters.
I think it’s a very wonderful idea, but not everyone does.
Among the complaints I’ve heard are that KB will be handing out cookies to reward efforts that should be made anyway,
that these achievements may lead to poor representations because someone just wants the award and doesn’t care about the minority,
that we must promote high quality representations rather than encourage quantity.
Some people have talked about boycotting KB for this new idea. I hope they don’t. It seems like a lot of baby to throw out with the bathwater, or conversely, a mighty big nose to bite off of a face. I mean, I can tell that some folk don’t care at all about some kink they’ve written about and only done so to make their score. I have said so in comments, and not bothered to read more from that author– on the other hand, there have been astonishing stories written by people who are passionate about that kink. There has been a ton of dross to each ounce of brilliance, in KB, but when has it ever been otherwise, in any fest of any sort?
The anger I’m seeing about the potential to write a character badly, the sense of horror over having to read a badly written character– i don’t like it. It reminds me far too much of the Mary Sue Crusade. As readers, we try to protect ourselves from reading writer’s mistakes by shaming them before the fact. I’m not real good with that.
Quality is always better than quantity, of course, but learning to write characters of any sort comes with practice, and practice means quantity.
"Try, fail, try again, fail better." It’s a good motto. But you have to let people try, and you can encourage them to try again. Me, I believe in handing out cookies. Kink Bingo is for the writers as much as the readers.
And by the way, if anyone still has need or desire for a dw invite, I’ve got loads…
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