SFWA Explodes IV: The Revenge of SFWA

[annathepiper]

Got up this morning to see there’s yet another SFWA explosion. How many are we up to now, then?

There’s a petition going around, it seems. A petition protesting that the SFWA Bulletin is instituting procedures to try to avoid things like what happened this past summer, during the LAST round of SFWA explosions. Apparently, some people out there are still upset that people might, just might, be justifiably cranky about sexism in the genre.

I first spotted the news when James Nicoll posted about a Twitter thread on it, here. Then I went out to run some morning errands, and when I came back, Dara reported that the petition alluded to in that post had in fact surfaced. James talks about it here, linking in turn to Radish Reviews’ in-depth post.

Radish Reviews has reported that there are in fact two versions of this thing floating around, and addresses both of them here. I read them. And I knew I was in for some hurting the instant I saw the phrase “politically correct” bandied about right out of the gate. In the petition TITLE, even, as well the first paragraph.

Oh, and it gets more fun from there. I particularly like how scare quotes are thrown around “sexism” and “offensive”. And by like, I actually mean, if I facepalm any harder I’ll give myself a concussion.

I’d rant further on this if I could think of anything to say that I haven’t posted about a dozen times already–about how, if the first words out of your mouth are to cry “political correctness!”, that chances are very, very high that you are in fact part of the problem. But then, people who are inclined to cry “political correctness!” aren’t going to put much credence in what I have to say anyway.

So I’m going to simply stick with noting that yeah, I’m still feeling pretty much at peace with my having decided that I’d just as soon stay out of any organization that continues to be this toxic.

Further commentary on the matter:

• C.C. Finlay points out that editing in a private organization’s bulletin is NOT censorship
• Sunny Moraine further clarifies what is and is not censorship
• ETA: Dara is appalled not only by the petition, but by the general lack of actual ability to punctuate
• ETA: Cora Buhlert is, like the rest of us, pretty much boggling
• ETA: And just in case C.C. and Sunny didn’t make it clear enough, Elizabeth Barrette also makes the difference between editing and censorship very, very clear
• ETA: As per usual, Mr. Scalzi’s commentary on the matter is pithy and succinct

Mirrored from angelahighland.com.

Comments

[annathepiper]

I ain't going anywhere near their punctuation problems! I know what kind of can of worms you can open just by arguing how many spaces go after a period. And let us not even BEGIN to talk about serial commas. :D

And yeah, I saw Scalzi's very pithy commentary! I can only think that Mr. Scalzi is quietly grateful this is no longer his problem, and is possibly surreptitiously passing Mr. Gould as many drinks as is necessary.