“Political correctness.” A simple, two-word phrase that is sure to elicit frothing anger from anyone who hears it, in either direction. I don’t much care for the term because it’s almost always being used as an angry code word for “someone got mad at me for saying awful things,” but it seems inescapable, what with countless articles raging about our “outrage culture,” GamerGate screaming at everyone to shut up and even opinion columns in The Diamondback implying misogyny isn’t real. Nearly everyone has an opinion on political correctness and no matter what, you will hear about it. Including from me.
The railing against political correctness has now found its way into the Hugo Awards, a prestigious award for science fiction and fantasy. After an increasing number of women and people of color were awarded for their work, this year a group calling themselves Sad Puppies decided to do something about that. That something turned out to be getting a bunch of other white men nominated by mobilizing their white male followers to vote for the white men of their choice. I can almost hear the collective seething of white men around the campus reading this right now, champing at the bit to label me a “white knight” or a “social justice warrior” or whatever other term makes them giggle nowadays.
Essentially, Sad Puppies believe the Hugo Awards have been taken over by the leftist elite intent on oppressing the white male minority and doling out awards to whatever liberal feminist propaganda they deem worthy of their socially just favor. Don’t believe me? Here’s one of the Sad Puppies himself, Brad Torgersen, about his perception of the situation:
“A few decades ago, if you saw a lovely spaceship on a book cover, with a gorgeous planet in the background, you could be pretty sure you were going to get a rousing space adventure featuring starships and distant, amazing worlds. If you saw a barbarian swinging an axe? You were going to get a rousing fantasy epic with broad-chested heroes who slay monsters, and run off with beautiful women.
[Now,] the book has a spaceship on the cover, but is it really going to be a story about space exploration and pioneering derring-do? Or is the story merely about racial prejudice and exploitation?… A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop: Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women. Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues.”
That’s right. He actually wants to be able to judge a book by its cover. The sheer stupidity of this passage is painful to behold. What’s this? Science fiction lets us look at the realities of our own society through a lens of unfamiliarity? It’s as though this guy has never read a science fiction book in his life. If Sad Puppies was actually against political messages beneath their science fiction or fantasy, its supporters would have to discount pretty much every great author of those genres who has ever existed. He probably thinks Fahrenheit 451 is just about the wacky adventures of a handsome firefighter.
In fact, the idea is so ludicrous that I suspect a bit of intellectual dishonesty with this claim. After all, if Sad Puppies were so opposed to nominating anyone with a political subtext, they surely wouldn’t have nominated John C. Wright, a man whose outspoken right-wing and anti-gay politics is overshadowed only by the brim of his ever-present fedora, right? Of course not. Because a woman writing about women’s issues is political nonsense that’s ruining the genre, but a man (who, again, I emphasize wears a fedora) writing disgusting statements equating homosexuality with necrophilia? Well, that’s just a classic sci-fi adventure!
That’s where Sad Puppies is wrong about this whole situation. They have the luxury of not needing to write about things like equality or social justice. They are too blissfully ignorant to understand that the act of telling people to stop bringing their politics into the genre is political in itself. Politics has always been a huge part of science fiction and to argue against it is idiotic and an equally political move. In fact, both “sides,” though I hesitate to use the word, have a political agenda. It’s just that one is about broadening horizons by asking people to imagine their life in the shoes of people whose experiences are wildly different than their own, and the other wants more “broad-chested heroes who run off with beautiful women” and less introspection. I think it’s clear which one is more award-worthy.
