It's an interesting piece by a science fiction writer that talks about the ongoing trends to purge Science Fiction and Fantasy of its troublesome history and the main thrust of this article is about the obliteration of James Tiptree Jr which was the pseudonym of the writer Alice Sheldon and the namesake of the James Tiptree Award which recognizes works that explore and expand gender roles which seems pretty progressive. But now its being renamed because, well I'd prefer you read the article, but Alice Sheldon's personal history (seemingly independent of her writing or the awards criteria) is problematic. Or as the Board for which the Award is associated with states: "We value the disabled writers and readers and artists and fans who support this award. Many of them—many of you—have told us that the Award’s current name holds negative, painful, exclusionary associations. So we’re changing it.”
This was done against the general preference of many, including those who knew Alice Sheldon and biographers and other cited evidence to the contrary of the troubled feelings of these "writers, readers, artists and fans."
The article touches on other examples of iconoclasm and historical obliteration in the SF&F community such as the renaming of the John F. Campbell Award to the "Astounding Award" because it's 2019 prizewinner, Jeannette Ng decried John Campbell as a fascist white male. And of course the replacement of the bust of HP Lovecraft for the World Fantasy Award for his wrongthink in regards to things like race relations when he lived in the 1920's.
The essays last half is actually a very nice summation of the authors own thoughts on the issue and instead of rehashing them or copying or pasting them here, I do feel it'd be better to read it and bring it up for discussion here after it's been read. For me personally, it does seem to be another measure of general iconoclasm that seems generally propagated by left leaning individuals who want to give a baby and the bathwater treatment to everything before them. We've seen it in regards to history and historical monuments and the renaming of landmarks and schools and the like and now unsurprisingly it's also been happening concurrently in the world of fandom as well.
