Why Can't We Just Read Books?
If you've been online in bookish spaces since the election, I know you've all seen that question being tossed around by a lot of people who want to vote for a president with the most damaging policies imaginable, yet suffer no consequences for their choice. They want to have their cake and eat it, too, by refusing to examine the way their decision has put other people's lives at risk and why those people would then, rightfully, not want to engage with relationships with them anymore.
Fortunately, others have already answered that question for them and many quality points have been made. From the refusal to protect marginalized individuals and communities, to putting the first amendment on the chopping block, to the likely chance of crashing the economy and making it harder for all of us to survive, the response has held nothing back when it comes to explaining how and why these votes have been hurtful to others in the writing community and beyond.
Since the question has been answered so well by others, there's not much I can say at this point that hasn't already been said, except to add, perhaps, that for many of those asking the question, the policies proposed by the incoming administration are viewed in abstract. Those hardships are problems that will be experienced by other people, far away from them. They have the privilege of believing (often incorrectly) that they cannot be touched by the misery they have voted for.
For many of those who are upset and cutting ties, these policies will affect us directly, either by impacting us personally or those we care about most. This is easily seen in author communities, where the hard right swing of political opinion is already resulting in changes to the publishing landscape. Publishers are dropping their commitments to prioritize marginalized authors and are instead opening entire imprints devoted to conservative ideology. This is a direct threat to queer authors. To disabled authors. To Black and POC authors.
Rising desire for censorship will further threaten authors of all backgrounds in the romance community as their livelihoods come under fire. First amendment protections for adult sexual content are at the center of conversations about pornography, persecution of librarians, and booksellers like Amazon restricting what can sold and purchased from their stores. As proposals like age ratings for books float around, it is important to remember that all forms of censorship come down hardest on queer and BIPOC writers.
It is impossible for authors affected by these policies to welcome the readership of those who have directly voted to harm them, whether personally or in their careers. Who you choose to vote for impacts us, often with devastating results. So, no, we cannot and will not pretend that fascist voters are welcome in our spaces.
As for the rest of the book community, remember that reading is a political act. The type of books you choose to read now matters. What you buy, what you talk about, what you promote, all matters more than ever. Publishing is a business, and businesses go where the money is. Buying and reading books by marginalized writers sends a strong message of support, and perhaps more importantly of buyer demand, to the companies that make decisions about whose voice will be heard going forward.
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