Oh dear!
Ouch! I have deeply offended a reader of Future Imperfect who now refuses to read the story and I am seriously worried that I have offended other readers without meaning to do so.
Joyce - Buffy's 9 year old grand-daughter is a witch. The First Slayer wants her and when she appears to Joyce, the child refers to her as "an old, ugly, coloured woman". No one has ever picked me up about "coloured" before, but I am willing to stand corrected and am really sorry to be offensive. This is quite an interesting slant on how your own vocabulary and age can effect your work. I would have found it very hard to write "black" or "Somali" or "African". But should I have done?
But, that aside, how would a 9 year old American girl describe the First Slayer when she is talking to her twin brother? I still think old and ugly are right, but where do I go from there?
The reader went on to say I was being disrespectful to the First Slayer who had been used by the men who turned her into a Slayer. Comments, please!
Joyce - Buffy's 9 year old grand-daughter is a witch. The First Slayer wants her and when she appears to Joyce, the child refers to her as "an old, ugly, coloured woman". No one has ever picked me up about "coloured" before, but I am willing to stand corrected and am really sorry to be offensive. This is quite an interesting slant on how your own vocabulary and age can effect your work. I would have found it very hard to write "black" or "Somali" or "African". But should I have done?
But, that aside, how would a 9 year old American girl describe the First Slayer when she is talking to her twin brother? I still think old and ugly are right, but where do I go from there?
The reader went on to say I was being disrespectful to the First Slayer who had been used by the men who turned her into a Slayer. Comments, please!