Acknowledging Marginalized-Group Membership in QB Questions

[J. Young]

There shouldn't be more emphasis on sexuality of writers because it would be unnecessary. The sexuality of writers who were homosexual and not from the modern period like Henry James wasn't known then and isn't well known now. Adding sexuality into tossups would also be making tossups at, for example, middle school level harder. Also, I don't believe that people know the sexuality of writers very well at at least MS level, so that would be an unnecessary clue which wouldn't be buzzed on.

[The Atom Strikes!]

I suspect that from a representation standpoint, we might actually do better by focusing on queer representation within the quizbowl community. As I grew up, I remember being struck by 1: Just how many quizbowl players, and especially good quizbowl players were queer (in fact, it seems like we're disproportionately present in quizbowl), and 2: How except in a few cases, it felt like it was rarely discussed, almost as if there was some kind of taboo on it or something.

Maybe we should just do a little more to acknowledge it, sometimes? I guess I could start-- I'm a quizbowl player, retired after a glorious high school career and a respectable collegiate one. And I'm bisexual.

[at your pleasure]

I suspect that from a representation standpoint, we might actually do better by focusing on queer representation within the quizbowl community. As I grew up, I remember being struck by 1: Just how many quizbowl players, and especially good quizbowl players were queer (in fact, it seems like we're disproportionately present in quizbowl), and 2: How except in a few cases, it felt like it was rarely discussed, almost as if there was some kind of taboo on it or something.

Maybe we should just do a little more to acknowledge it, sometimes? I guess I could start-- I'm a quizbowl player, retired after a glorious high school career and a respectable collegiate one. And I'm bisexual.

Ancedotally, it seems like younger players tend to be more open about their sexuality than upper-level/older collegiate and retired players. Maybe it's to do with having basically come of age never having known a time when it was necessary or at least advisable to be closeted. Or maybe because quizbowl has done a pretty good job over the last few years cleaning out any latent homophobia.

[blizzard]

I suspect that from a representation standpoint, we might actually do better by focusing on queer representation within the quizbowl community. As I grew up, I remember being struck by 1: Just how many quizbowl players, and especially good quizbowl players were queer (in fact, it seems like we're disproportionately present in quizbowl)

I was the opposite. When I read Andrew Hart's article about quiz bowl and it mentioned Young's Law (http://www.qbwiki.com/wiki/view/Young%27s_Law), I remember thinking "how is this true, I don't know any gay quiz bowl players!*" My perspective/awareness has changed over the last couple months since then, but for a while it didn't seem like there were very many LGBTQ players.


*not really none, but only like three or so

[Ike]

This is getting far afield from the original post and maybe deserves to be put into an off-topic thread but, the reason why I never pushed the envelope about my sexuality as a player is that I only wanted to be respected as a player. I don't want my race, gender, or sexuality to impact how people viewed me as a player - I'll let the buzzer do the talking. However, if it's empowering to aspiring players to discuss it - I'm more than willing to talk about it.

But this isn't a free pass to write preachy questions.

Ike