The first company I worked for after college wanted to know the SAT scores of all its hires.

I can give you my SATs more easily than GPAs, for whatever reason.

When I left the Rite Aid this morning, a white dove and some black crows flew right past me. I felt as if I was in a 70's rock song.

So I just realized that all this time, I thought Stevie Nicks was singing about a white-winged gull.

Help me, hivemind. I need a sanity check before I go tell someone their idea is Not Good and start drama.

Having a "safari" theme for anything, especially, oh, a steampunk event, is kind of fail-y, yes? That the whole concept of "safari" is loaded with imperialistic, colonialist baggage, and there's no way to lessen that?

And for the record, "safari" is the theme these people settled on AFTER realizing that their first choice of "Darkest Africa" was maybe not a good idea.

facepalm

I don't expect that I'll be able to get them to change their minds. But I feel I need to try, especially in light of the RaceFail that's already happening in steampunk. (Robert of Abney Park being an insensitive ass? I'm completely shocked. Really.)

That the whole concept of "safari" is loaded with imperialistic, colonialist baggage, and there's no way to lessen that?

I would say yes, especially as a "theme," ESPECIALLY as a theme that's being implemented by white people in the US looking to a fictional past.

Yeah, I agree with Jesse. If you're creating an event that's supposed to be celebrating/reliving the Victorian era, especially the Victorian era of the British Empire (which seems to be what steampunk is most often referencing), then the whole "safari" concept is, uh, really problematic.

And for the record, "safari" is the theme these people settled on AFTER realizing that their first choice of "Darkest Africa" was maybe not a good idea.

WHAT

but the imperialistic/colonialist stuff is kinda twisted in the steampunk oevre isn't it. All the 18th century Britishness of it all. The Disney Tarzan area has stuff that oozed of steampunk, if I remember correctly. Not that it should be party theme.

but the imperialistic/colonialist stuff is kinda twisted in the steampunk oevre isn't it. All the 18th century Britishness of it all.

Sadly, it is. There are people trying to change that, but I'm not sure how much luck we'll have. It's one of the reasons I don't participate in the steampunk culture as much as I could; there are parts of it that I find inherently problematic. Sure, I like Victorian-styled fashions, and the mourning customs and occult movements are fascinating, but on the whole? Not actually an era I want to recreate.

Jilli,

stay strong girl. stay strong. not a good look.

send them the colonial Africa wedding pics with comments as context.

Of course the Difference Engine, one of the early Steampunk novels took on those aspects head on, quite successfully I thought, so being soft on imperialism is not inherent in the genre. For that matter before the term was invented Moorecock's Oswald Bastable novels were hardcore steampunk, and and managed to both capture the appeal, while deconstructing and sentimentalization of empire. I could almost hear Moorecock muttering "fucking Kipling", all through the books, even though the characters and technology were full of nods not to Kipling but to Jules Verne.

One of the underlying problems is that steampunk has turned into mostly a cosplay/SCA: Victorianana movement. People feel they need to create a persona to take part in steampunk, and everyone wants to be a lord/lady/airship pirate. So when other people point out that incorporating "Wild West Indian", "Great White Hunter", or "Gypsy" into their personas & costumes is at the least uninformed and clueless, and at the worst offensive and racist, the usual response has been "But it's just a costume! We're just playing! It looks awesome! Why are you being so meeeeean?"

I was much more excited about steampunk when it looked like there was going to be a stronger focus on the Maker Movement, and less about pretending to be someone else. If I wanted to LARP, I'd go back to the Camarilla.