3 years ago, I wrote Rayguns In The Time Of Cholera, about the lack of historical resonance I see in the current steampunk culture. The 19th century was a very difficult and complex time, and it’s very easy to whitewash it. I’ve heard people defend the 19th century as a “better” time for people, when compared to the 18th or 17th centuries. While that may in fact be true, the reality of slavery and the lack of rights for anyone other than white men makes the “better” an uncomfortable supposition at best.
Steampunk exists in a weird place. There is a lot to recommend it. The outfits are sexy, the DIY underpinning is marvelous, and the 19th century itself was a time of exploration and discovery the world over, which makes for a fantastic fictional setting. But it also takes an overwhelming amount of inspiration from an increasingly narrow cultural conceit. The use of “Victorian” and “Edwardian” to describe steampunk is especially problematic. Not only because countries other than Great Brittan had a 19th century, but because tying the subculture to white European royalty is exclusionary on both a racial and class level. While I’m sure people who refer to steampunk as “Victorian Science-Fiction,” don’t mean to exclude people, the language does it for them (Jaymee Goh goes into this at some length in an essay about aversive racisim on her fantastic blog, Silver Goggles). This is what you get when you evoke history without being aware of historical context.
Perhaps the biggest issue is that the exclusionary element IS part of the appeal of steampunk. I’m not saying that people get into steampunk because they want to be exclusionary. But the current nature of the costuming and roleplaying part of steampunk carries with it a focus on the upper class. The dress and mannerisms of a wealthy Victorian are celebrated, sought after, practiced. Even the scientists and explorer characters fit with in this umbrella, as those were the occupations of people of privilege.
Which is understandable. Who doesn’t want to be part of a ruling class, even if only for afternoon? Or in time it takes to read a novel or short story? And when the realities of history are so horrible, it’s nice to have an alternate history free from all of that. After all, it’s just pretend, isn’t it?
But as Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
The beauty of steampunk is that it’s not history. We are not tied down to what has happened. We can make new identities out of whole cloth, and have adventures that never were. But if we ignore the history, we are, in a very literal way, doomed to repeat it. By focusing on a narrow segment of the population, we are excluding those who don’t match up. And in very real ways we do not intend, we are being who we pretend to be.
The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of Flying City
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I’ll never forget the time you stood up wearing that outfit on the steampunk panel, turned around to show the back, and how a small, but clearly enthusiastic portion of the audience cheered to see it. I think this resonates strongly with some people.
It was a good moment.
I’ve felt weird about wearing that vest before, because it’s clearly a buzz-killer. But I think it needs to be acknowledged. I think if we’re going to splash in historical waters, we should be aware what those waters contain.