Status Quo & World Building
2017-04-28 15:10:06.744996+00 by Dan Lyke 0 comments
Charlene and I have been mulling around the idea of starting a square dancing group in Petaluma. And, of course, I'm working with the Vallejo Pioneers to try to re-vitalize their club, make it grow again. One of the challenges in square dancing is that it's got this image of old stuffy white people with big floofy skirts or embroidered western shirts, very staid and traditional. It is, or can be, but it can also be so much more.
So I've been thinking a lot about how to market it so we get the vibrant growing bits of comunity.
A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast, I think it was Life on the Swingset #281: Finding and Being Community Role Models, and the non-white cis male contingent went off on a rant about how they were constantly going into spaces and feeling not included. How grateful they were to find other people of color, and how the micro-aggressions of the space meant there was a lot of clustering. And as I was listening to it I kept thinking "okay, I hear your frustration, but tell me what I can do..."
And then the fog cleared and I realized that not making special effort is making a special effort. It's just making a special effort to make the default feel welcome. That if we were going to seek out alternate communities and draw them into square dancing we had to individually market directly to them. It isn't enough to say "this is an inclusive space", we have to be pointing at individuals and say "you, yes, you, and your peers: we want you here."
Another example of that message.
The Status Quo Does Not Need World Building:
It is implied in every detail that is left out as “understood by everyone,” in every action or reaction considered unimportant for whatever reason, in every activity or description ignored because it is seen as not worthy of the doughty thews of real literature.
There are many ways to discuss elaborated world building. This post will focus on material culture and social space.