Podfic and Accents

Accents in podfic fandom are a recurring topic of discussion, with much meta generated about it, both from the listeners' and creators' sides. 
Accent insecurity is rife in would-be and established podficcers. The questions around accents boil down to two concerns: "I want to podfic but I have an accent" and "I want to podfic in X fandom but I have the wrong accent." There was a lot of pushback from podficcers along both axes. 
It is possible the topic has cristallized so much anxiety because it touches on several core aspects of the medium, such as the relationship between podfic and podficcers' bodies, the question of gatekeeping in fandom, and the definition of what podfic itself is. 
==Discussion==
In a 2012 poll representative of attitudes around accents in podfic and the discourse around them, nikojen tried to collect reactions from podfic listeners.Poll: Accents by nikojen at amplificathon (2012)
To the question "As a listener, does the reader's accent matter to you?" people answered: 
* No, not at all: 23 (12.7%)
* No, as long as I can understand them: 126 (69.6%)
* Yes, I PREFER readers with accents: 5 (10.5%)
* Yes, I want the accent to match the character/fandom: 19 (10.5%)
* Yes, I try to AVOID readers with accents: 4 (2.2%)
* I don't listen to enough podfic to have an opinion: 4 (2.2%)
The poll inspired a meta post by Paraka which highlighted many limitations and blindspots of the conversation around accents. Amongst others, it highlighted the link between accents and bodies: 
Podficcers' diverse accents were praised as a visible (audible!) marker of the diversity of fandom: 
==='Can I Podfic With My Accent?'===
===='Having an Accent'====
To this day, anxieties about one's accent are one of the main barriers to entry in podfic: 
This elicited a lot of meta over the years: 
===='Having the Wrong Accent'====
In the early days of podfic fandom, this was not helped by sometimes vocal listeners, or fic authors who -- at a time when blanket permission to podfic was not a common occurence -- insisted on gatekeeping who was 'allowed' to podfic their stories. 
The prevalence of the accent issue was dispiriting to many in the podfic community: 
Even BNFs were affected: 
In the comments to the 2012 accent poll by Nikojen, podficcers underlined how limiting/impossible "matching the canon's accent" would be: 
===Commenting On Accents in Podfic===
===Should Podficcers 'Do' Accents?===
Many podficcers have experimented with accents other than their own -- whether for a whole podfic or for specific characters. 
As awareness of racism in fandom progressed, another line of questioning arose in podfic fandom around whether or not podficcers should attempt the accents of marginalized characters.
In 2021, the pod_together challenge mods scheduled a discussion around this theme on the challenge's discord server, which included strategies to differenciate characters without resorting to stereotypical or offensive accents, such as focusing on intention and intonation.
==Meta/Further Reading==
* Accents by lara_everlong at podfic_tips (2011)
* Pod Aware Day 4: Accents round-up post at pod_aware (2011)
* Poll: Accents by nikojen at amplificathon (2012)
* On Accents and Podfic written by paraka and read by anatsuno (2012)
===Non-Fandom Sources===
* “I Probably Modeled Him on Something I’d Heard on The Wire”: The audiobook industry is collectively squirming through the cultural debate on representation and casting. by Laura Miller, June 21, 2021 on Slate.com
==References==
Category:Podfic Fandom
Category:Discussion
Category:Race & Fandom