self publishing - Would there be any problems with choosing a pseudonym of another ethnicity and sex?

Taking some advice here

You might notice that pen names usually sound like names a real person would have. So when you want to make a writing career under a pen name, you might want to pick a less obvious pseudonym than Memor-X.

I was thinking up names I could use currently coming up with a lot of female Japanese names, the latter probably influenced by all the anime/manga/light novels/games I have.

Being male and not of any sort of Japanese descent, could I run into any problems down the track particularly if people find out who I really am?

Note: This question is in the context of self-publishing.

Answer

Using a deliberately deceptive pen name is essentially a marker of fake authenticity. It can lead to success, but also criticism on the grounds of cultural appropriation. I would personally recommend against it. While not illegal, or even particularly uncommon, it strikes me as a little ethically suspect.

There are two cases I would exempt from this blanket ban:

• Case 1: If the name change is unlikely to make any difference in how the work is received.


• Case 2: If you have very good reason to believe the name change would make the intended audience more likely to judge the work solely on its own merits, not less.

The first case is fairly straightforward, the second might be more difficult to judge. In general, if you are disguising the fact that you are a member of a generally disfavored minority solely in order to escape prejudice attached to that minority, I would personally find that acceptable --for instance a female author taking on a male or androgynous pseudonym because of writing in a time and place where only male authors get read and published.

If you were writing in Japanese for a Japanese audience, I might place you in that second category (you would be seeking to escape the negative prejudice attached to foreigners), but if you are writing in English for an English-speaking audience, I would not (you'd be attempting to cash in on a positive assumption of authenticity as attached to a Japanese name). In other words, people would give your writing a presumption of authority and legitimacy it really isn't entitled to. Whether or not you personally agree with it, you need to be aware, as a writer, that we are in a cultural moment that prizes authenticity. Today's literary audience harshly judges those who are considered to be claiming false legitimacy.