Sensitivity readers peruse novels in progress to check for harmful depictions of people whose identity differs from the author’s. Their authority is framed as coming from their own race, sexual orientation, disability, or other identity markers, leading to many specialized roles such as Taiwanese, Muslim, trans, wheelchair-using, and even white readers with specific ethnic experience. A hypothetical Greek American sensitivity reader is paid to assess a forthcoming novel for possible stereotypes about a Greek diner owner’s child. The reader focuses on the character’s limited pages, identifies stereotypical details, makes notes and change suggestions, and emails them to the editor. The process raises questions about how much insight different readers can provide.
"As a sensitivity reader, your job is to peruse novels in progress to ensure that they do not include any harmful depictions of people whose identity differs from that of the author. The source of your authority on the matter? Your own race, sexual orientation, disability, or other identity marker. There are Taiwanese sensitivity readers, Muslim sensitivity readers, trans sensitivity readers, wheelchair-using sensitivity readers, and even white ones whose expertise is the ethnic-Greek experience."
"Say you're a Greek American whom an editor has offered $500 to take a look at a forthcoming novel, since its cast of characters includes the child of a Greek-diner owner who, the editor fears, might seem a little stereotypical. The author is more of a Mayflower type, so how much insight could they really have into the generational trauma of food service in suburban Detroit?"
"Reading through the novel, you're repelled by the procedural prose, but since your role is limited to performing a sensitivity read, you laser in on the 20 or so pages where the Greek kid appears. You note the thinly veiled references to his father's "kalamata-stained fingertips" and his ultramasculine swagger. Your own parents were professors from Kolonaki (indeed, you're quite looking forward to your next family trip back to Athens), so you can't quite parse a reference to the character's great-grandfather emigrating to Michigan from a town you've never heard of in Thessaly."
"Still, you dutifully make your notes, suggest a few changes ("I've never met a Greek named Harper"), and e-mail them to the editor. You hope, when your own novel in progress is r"
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