Feo Takahari
Auror
I've been thinking about this in relationship to one of my short stories, a rather twisted tale about a slaveowner's one-sided attraction for his slave. I'm aware that no matter how I approach this, it's going to be difficult to read, but I want to keep the slaveowner pathetic rather than repulsive, and I want to minimize audience discomfort as much as possible. This is why I gave the slaveowner a wimpy name (Gilbert), why I had him buy the slave in a moment of weakness and despair, and why I had the slaveowner and the slave both be male. It's this last I want to address, in the larger context of double standards.
It's not that I personally think there's any meaningful difference between a man owning a man and a man owning a woman, but rather that I think the idea of a man owning a woman has so much cultural baggage I might be judged sexist for attempting it. The sex of the characters makes no difference to the story, and I say absolutely nothing regarding sex in the story, so I'm not directly reinforcing a double standard. Still, I'm not challenging one, either, and I'm not entirely sure that it's okay to be so casual about this.
What are your thoughts, either about this specific case, or about the use of double standards in general?
P.S. I should note that I was in fact called mysogynistic for an earlier story in which a man owned a female nonhuman. This story is in part a reconsideration of that story's ideas.
It's not that I personally think there's any meaningful difference between a man owning a man and a man owning a woman, but rather that I think the idea of a man owning a woman has so much cultural baggage I might be judged sexist for attempting it. The sex of the characters makes no difference to the story, and I say absolutely nothing regarding sex in the story, so I'm not directly reinforcing a double standard. Still, I'm not challenging one, either, and I'm not entirely sure that it's okay to be so casual about this.
What are your thoughts, either about this specific case, or about the use of double standards in general?
P.S. I should note that I was in fact called mysogynistic for an earlier story in which a man owned a female nonhuman. This story is in part a reconsideration of that story's ideas.