A middle aged, stupid, American white suburban old lady writing cultures and races not my own is presumptuous
Definitely not stupid, and I won't hear a word to the contrary. You're writing outstanding fic addressing a host of complex issues of race, culture, sexuality and finding one's path in life while dealing with it all. The thematic positions you're advancing (particularly with respect to sexuality) are both sophisticated and approachable (even if you lose a few folks along the way). You can't possibly be stupid and pull this off. In chapter 9 you wrote of Peter expressing relief at "show[ing] ourselves for what we are". This is what you are. Do not downplay it or hide it.
Perhaps it is presumptuous to attempt all of the foreign cultures, but if writers never stretched beyond their immediate experiences, we wouldn't have much to read. Can you imagine if men never wrote women characters and women never wrote men? (Actually, I doubt you have to imagine very hard, as there are certainly writers who are so constrained). You answer your own question in pointing out that you do not simply have the token secondary minority character. You've found a way to introduce minority characters in a society where they typically take on the roles of servants without making them subservient. You've taken advantage of a real gap in canon to add diversity to the canon cast. And you address the discomforting aspects of the whole arrangement (Polly's difficulty describing the Russell Household). I'm a not quite middle-aged white guy. I can't tell you whether you're doing the ethnic minority experience justice. But you are certainly raising a great many questions and points of interest in my mind, and creating characters that I respect and would wish to know.
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Definitely not stupid, and I won't hear a word to the contrary. You're writing outstanding fic addressing a host of complex issues of race, culture, sexuality and finding one's path in life while dealing with it all. The thematic positions you're advancing (particularly with respect to sexuality) are both sophisticated and approachable (even if you lose a few folks along the way). You can't possibly be stupid and pull this off. In chapter 9 you wrote of Peter expressing relief at "show[ing] ourselves for what we are". This is what you are. Do not downplay it or hide it.
Perhaps it is presumptuous to attempt all of the foreign cultures, but if writers never stretched beyond their immediate experiences, we wouldn't have much to read. Can you imagine if men never wrote women characters and women never wrote men? (Actually, I doubt you have to imagine very hard, as there are certainly writers who are so constrained). You answer your own question in pointing out that you do not simply have the token secondary minority character. You've found a way to introduce minority characters in a society where they typically take on the roles of servants without making them subservient. You've taken advantage of a real gap in canon to add diversity to the canon cast. And you address the discomforting aspects of the whole arrangement (Polly's difficulty describing the Russell Household). I'm a not quite middle-aged white guy. I can't tell you whether you're doing the ethnic minority experience justice. But you are certainly raising a great many questions and points of interest in my mind, and creating characters that I respect and would wish to know.