Link of the Week: “The Problem of Toni Weisskopf” by Foz Meadows

Foz Meadows has some things to say about a recent post by Toni Weisskopf on all the debates going on in sf right now.  It is what I’d call essentially reading at this point.

Here’s one of my favorite parts:

“…intentionally or not, Weisskopf has begun by framing both SFF itself and the current tensions within the community as being a purely American concern, grown from American politics and American culture. The fact that much of what she’s observing stems rather from a deliberate rejection of this attitude – from the idea that SFF is a global community – seems completely to have escaped her…But in the age of international blogging and social media platforms, where it’s possible to communicate daily with fans and authors from all over the world; where Tor Books is about to publish Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem, the first Chinese SF novel ever translated into English; where Japanese anime and manga have so long been staples of global fandom that it’s impossible to try and deny their relevance; where award-winning authors like Nnedi Okorafor, Aliette de Bodard and Helen Oyeyemi are writing (among other things) about cross-cultural politics through an SFFnal lens; where there are whole conventions dedicated to diversity and inclusivity, like WisCon and Nine Worlds; and where many of the field’s best writers are anything but straight, white and male, then acting as though every conversation and argument surrounding these issues is simply the result of Americans misunderstanding each other is, to put it bluntly, utterly wrongheaded.”

Go on.  Read the whole thing.