Experience
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Experience
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Earlier this week, I received some very helpful constructive criticism from a fan who has been gracious enough to allow me to share both her first name and her email to me.
Although this episode summarizes her email and my response to her, I wanted to share them verbatim here as well: "Hi, I discovered your podcast last week and I'm already more than halfway through the current episodes. I really appreciate you showing different genders and sexualities, and ethnicity. However, I feel you haven't been fully inclusive as you have no disabled or chronically ill characters (sorry if they are coming and I'm jumping the gun - obviously ignore this comment if that's the case). Of course any of your characters could have an invisible disability, and are only mildly affected so it's not noticeable to anyone,but the group is so close to one another I feel they would have mentioned it at some point (and if not I think that says a lot about how our society perceives disability, rather than the character to be blamed). Personally I'm hoping for someone who uses mobility aids, though not necessarily all the time (as many of us are ambulatory wheelchair users), either due to disability or chronic illness - if you aren't sure about this then please email me. I think it bothers me more than usual because you've made such an effort to be inclusive,and yet the 20% of us who do live with some form of disability are still out of sight/ out of mind. However I don't want you to feel guilty for forgetting us (as a white cis woman I understand how our privilege can make us forget or be unaware of certain things), but simply to be mindful of this in the future. Thank you for certain such a great story in this incredible format of being able to talk to you with the knowledge you are open to constructive feedback, I'm definitely looking forward to following your work and seeing where it goes." Here is my initial response to Tamara's feedback: "Tamara, First of all, I want to thank you very much both for listening to the podcast, and for your important and thoughtful feedback. Inclusivity is a very wide and complex topic, and one that I am always interested in addressing through my creative endeavors. I want to be clear that nothing about this response to your feedback is an attempt to excuse my failure to better represent and include a variety of identities. I do feel I have a duty to address your constructive criticism, and that is what I will try to do here. I have not included chronically ill or physically disabled characters in Blood that Binds. This was not because I have forgotten the existence of people with disabilities, nor have I made a decision not to include characters with disabilities in my writing. The honest reason there are no characters with physical disabilities in this particular story is that when I do include those characters, I want very much to do my due diligence and represent that experience accurately and without stereotypes. In Blood That Binds, as you said, I have included a wide variety of identities, sexualities, ethnicities, and mental health conditions. Even though most of them are not identical to my own experience as a person, they are communities I am either part of or have spent a great deal of time with. The hardships they face are ones I have a greater understanding of and am more confident I can represent accurately. Even with that being the case, starting my podcast and writing this first story with that intention has been a lot to tackle. I do not say that as an excuse, or as a claim that not including physically disabled characters was an acceptable thing for me to do with this story. I only want to say from the bottom of my heart that I have not forgotten disabled people, and that representation of their experiences is important. When not including disabled characters in this particular story, it was because I felt it was better not to misrepresent a community that I am not part of, since I did not have the mental resources to do the amount of research necessary for proper representation at that time. As Blood That Binds season one is currently released, I do not know if I can promise introducing a mobility-related physical disability to any of the existing characters at this late point in the story. I will, however, research and consider a different type of physical disability and see if there is an existing character that it would be appropriate to write that into. I will not be introducing new major characters at this stage in the story, and do not want to fall into the trap of including a "token" minor character whose major trait is their disability. I will promise that in future stories I will strive to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. I apologize for my failure as a creator to do so thus far. And that is the best I can offer at this point: a sincere apology, an explanation of the thought process which led to my error, and a promise to do better in the future. I would like to address your feedback both on the podcast and on the blog on the website. If you would like me to mention your name and share your email, I am happy to do that. If not I will respect your anonymity and simply say I received a letter from a listener regarding this topic. Thank you again for listening, and for writing in with such grace towards my mistake. Mariah Powell Writer and Creator Hobbies Include: Writing the creative fiction podcast" Links & Credits
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Spotify Spreaker Google Podcasts YouTube Amazon iHeart Radio Castbox Podcast Addict Podchaser Deezer AuthorMariah is the author of "Blood that Binds" and sole creator of the HI:W podcast. Categories
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March 2021
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