Here we go, this is an interesting topic:
I'm one of those people who never worried about this; indeed, it seems that until recently nobody else did either. I can't help feeling that this is a fad, like space movies, kung fu, and westerns, and like all fads, it nails the story to our times. When someone picks up the book ten years from now, social niceties and opinions will have changed again, and not necessarily for the better.
But right now everyone's doing it, plopping all sorts of colours and types of people into a story because they allegedly should be there. And with no bearing on the story, when there could at least be a plot where green people who eat rabbits are mocked or persecuted. Worse still is this oft-repeated line that people wish to see themselves depicted on screen or in a book. I have never come across any research results or opinion polls that support this assertion; if someone knows where to find it, it would be illuminating. To me the concept is faintly ridiculous: am I really supposed to be unable to connect with a character who has a different taste in music than me, or has a different shoe size? There's plenty of people with size 8.5 feet and like classical music - are they so easily put off? I've happily watched movies and read books where the main protagonist is nothing like me, and I suspect I'm not the only one.
Also, this sort of thing seems to exclude certain types of story. For instance, if you wish to tell a story about six straight white men climbing up a hill, now it seems that one of the white men must be replaced by a woman or a black man or some other variety of person. But then it's no longer the story of six straight white men climbing a hill anymore. The story might be amazing, but no-one will ever get to see or read it.
The most interesting (and worrisome) aspect is that there seems to be a considerable and growing backlash to all this. (And that many people are complaining that now only straight white men can be villains). I suppose it bears some relation to the market and/or is a generational thing. So what to do, pile in with the diversity or sit back and see what happens?
btw, for those who are wondering what might be coming next: what happens when we start granting rights to artificial intelligences and autonomous robots? Now there's a can of worms we need to be prepared for.
I'm one of those people who never worried about this; indeed, it seems that until recently nobody else did either. I can't help feeling that this is a fad, like space movies, kung fu, and westerns, and like all fads, it nails the story to our times. When someone picks up the book ten years from now, social niceties and opinions will have changed again, and not necessarily for the better.
But right now everyone's doing it, plopping all sorts of colours and types of people into a story because they allegedly should be there. And with no bearing on the story, when there could at least be a plot where green people who eat rabbits are mocked or persecuted. Worse still is this oft-repeated line that people wish to see themselves depicted on screen or in a book. I have never come across any research results or opinion polls that support this assertion; if someone knows where to find it, it would be illuminating. To me the concept is faintly ridiculous: am I really supposed to be unable to connect with a character who has a different taste in music than me, or has a different shoe size? There's plenty of people with size 8.5 feet and like classical music - are they so easily put off? I've happily watched movies and read books where the main protagonist is nothing like me, and I suspect I'm not the only one.
Also, this sort of thing seems to exclude certain types of story. For instance, if you wish to tell a story about six straight white men climbing up a hill, now it seems that one of the white men must be replaced by a woman or a black man or some other variety of person. But then it's no longer the story of six straight white men climbing a hill anymore. The story might be amazing, but no-one will ever get to see or read it.
The most interesting (and worrisome) aspect is that there seems to be a considerable and growing backlash to all this. (And that many people are complaining that now only straight white men can be villains). I suppose it bears some relation to the market and/or is a generational thing. So what to do, pile in with the diversity or sit back and see what happens?
btw, for those who are wondering what might be coming next: what happens when we start granting rights to artificial intelligences and autonomous robots? Now there's a can of worms we need to be prepared for.
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