In Touch with Her Sensitive Side – an Interview with Sensitivity Reader Anna Fence
A very real, definitely not made up, interview.
Interview conducted by Tabitha Wainwright (author of ‘A Day in the Life of a Successful Columnist’)
As we all know, the world of publishing is completely dominated by cis-hetero white men, so naturally I was delighted when Porpoise Publishing sent me the contact details for their all-female/non-binary led team of sensitivity readers and moral correctors. This vital service, so shockingly lacking throughout the dark ages (pre-2015), fascinates and thrills me. Naturally, I just had to arrange an in-depth and inspirational interview with at least one of them.
The only member of the team who was available was more than happy to oblige. The rest were currently on long-term sick leave or busy with Advanced Sensitivity Training, which of course must be followed up with three days of emotional recuperation. Either way, I’m delighted to share with you my interview with Anna Fence, top sensitivity reader and female champion of moral progression in literature.
Hi, Anna, it’s lovely to meet you.
Great to meet you too, Tabitha. I do just have to point out that I’m actually femxle, not female.
I pause for a moment, trying to remember when I had said anything about ‘female’ out loud.
Oh no, you didn’t say it out loud, you just thought it.
I must have looked shocked at this because she laughed and explained herself quickly.
When you’re as well-practiced a sensitivity reader as I am, you start to anticipate not just the wrong things that people will say, but also the wrong things they think. I’m actually a Level 5 psychic now. I’m hoping to pass Level 6 next week, in fact.
Uh...Congratulations. Right. Sorry about that. So, you’re femxle. Is that part of the trans umbrella?
Oh, not really. The ‘umbrella’ concept is pretty outdated now, really, we should be viewing the traditional “gender binary” as being the exception to the rule. That’s why I say ‘mxle’ and ‘femxle’. It shows that we’ve moved past the binary.
I’m shocked at the brilliance of this. I try to recover my train of thought, however, as I have many questions to ask, and so little time to ask them in.
Wow, thanks for explaining that. That’s really cool. So, I guess my first question to you is, what do you do as a sensitivity reader?
As a sensitivity reader, I make sure that any book being published is checked to within an inch of its life for any form of bigotry, prejudice, or otherwise unapproved humour. In order to make publishing more inclusive, my job is to gatekeep it. I have to keep any cruel and non-diverse writing at bay, and make sure that authors understand how to tell a story without being offensive.
That must be really difficult. I bet loads of writers – male ones, especially – can hide behind the excuse that “this is what the character would say and do, I can’t tell this story otherwise”, blah blah blah, right?
Oh no, definitely not. That won’t fly. It just won’t fly. If they can’t tell a story without racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, acephobia, racism, ableism, or transphobia – I’m not sure if I missed one, oh, Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism, that’s right, if they can’t tell it without any of that, well, it’s just not worth telling. We need to re-shape the world, and the way we do that is by starting with the media. If we can cleanse the literature that people consume, we can even wipe certain words out for good. If we wipe out the bad words, people can’t even think bad thoughts anymore. That way, we make the world good. But of course, it will never be completely good. There will always be work for people like me.
Her eyes shine with enthusiasm. I’ve never seen anyone with so much clear white around their irises before. She must have very big eyes. Not that big eyes are automatically good, obviously, all types of eyes are good. All of them. I think deeply for a second about what she has said.
That sounds great. You’re really working hard to improve the future, but what about the past? Should we just stop printing and selling books from offensive, by-gone eras, like the nineties?
She laughs, more loudly this time.
Oh no, not at all! We’re not trying to re-write history! We just want to make sure that it fits in with our current Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion policies, that’s all. As such, my latest project has been to revisit the works of famous Anti-Semite and generally horrible dead man Roald Dahl. I’ve been going through his nasty little stories, all full of terrible insults and casual stereotypes, of course, and I’ve been cutting those bits out and replacing them with passages from Robin DiAngelo’s “If I Think Racist Thoughts, All Whites Must Do” book series. That way, the children of today still get to enjoy “The BFG”, just without any of the unpleasantness, and a much better message about racism than Dahl had previously included.
Oh, I see. I didn’t think “The BFG” was about racism at all.
She nods, sagely.
Exactly. Nothing at all about it. That’s just not good enough.
So, where did you get this passion for promoting justice?
Well, as a neurodivergent, Queer woman who had to drag herself up from the streets of Chelsea, equity has long been deeply important to me. When I was the milk monitor at school, I used to make sure that everybody got their milk carton at exactly the same time, just to be fair. I’d spend ages lining the cartons up on each desk and make sure all the children waited until I clicked my fingers and shouted, “Milk!”, and then they could all enjoy it in an equal fashion. I never drank any, they used to keep it in the boiler room next to the rat’s nest, but the other children didn’t have that insight or the self-control to stop themselves drinking it. It was reassuring to me to be able to stand up at the front of the class and watch them hungrily tucking in, knowing that I knew better than them.
You must get a lot of pleasure from your work – is it very satisfying?
Oh yes, it is wonderful. It’s such hard work, and I do face a lot of abuse. Only last week, my supervisor asked me – twice – if I was sure that I wanted to change The Witches to include a paragraph about how the witches might just have been abuse survivors who were unfairly triggered by the children’s poor behaviour. She said it might have been ‘too far’ to start adding in whole paragraphs and changing the angle completely, but I stood firm and told her that it was no different to what I was doing anyway. If I can change one or two sentences, why can’t I change a paragraph? It still has Dahl’s stupid name under it. Besides, I have an English Literature and Creative Writing degree, I can probably write better than him anyway. So, yeah, it’s tough. But, as a neurodiverted woman, I’m used to life being tough. I’m just happy that I get to make such a massive difference in the world, and as long as writers keep accepting my changes, and as long as consumers keep purchasing my – I mean, the books I help to correct – well, long may it continue!
Long may it continue, indeed. I thank Anna for her time and offer her a piggyback on my unicycle to the tube station, but she declines. She explains that she needs to decompress in her favourite vegan bar for a few hours, and so bids me farewell, but not before inviting me to her weekly book club where we’ll be given the book to read, the discussion questions, and the answers before each session. I can’t wait!
Very funny, Georgia - your gift of satire and mimicry is much appreciated.