LonCon3 #5: Reimagining Families – where’s the diversity?
Panelists: Jed Hartman, David D Levine, Rosanne Rabinowitz,Laura Lam, Cherry Potts (moderator)
In a 2013 column for Tor.com, Alex Dally MacFarlane called for a greater diversity in the way SF and fantasy represent families, pointing out that in the real world, “People of all sexualities and genders join together in twos, threes, or more. Family-strong friendships, auntie networks, global families… The ways we live together are endless.” Which stories centre non-normative family structures? What are the challenges of doing this in an SF context, and what are the advantages? How does representing a wider range of family types change the stories that are told?