Let's Talk About Diversity In Fiction

 'Ello, friends. So, today's topic is something I've been wanting to talk about for a long, long time. And that is.....diversity in fiction. 

Back in March, I said that, in the future, I might make a post on diversity. And now, six months later, here I am.

Diversity is a controversial topic. 

Maybe you think we need not only more representation but better representation. Maybe you think fiction is diverse enough and people need to just stop complaining about it. Maybe you fall somewhere in the middle or aren't sure where you stand yet. All of those are valid opinions. Now, let's get into the actual post. 

Before we start, just know that I'm not trying to offend anyone. I'm simply stating my thoughts and my opinions. 

So, what is diversity in fiction anyways?

When people talk about diversity they usually are referring to the fact that at least one of the characters is:

-Female

-POC

-LGBTQ+

-Disabled

-Religious

-Or something similar or a combination of some of the above [usually a bookmovie/show/etc has to have a female-dominated cast or one with a significant amount of POC characters to count].

Diversity doesn't have to just refer to one of the above examples. It could mean diversity in characters' personalities, or diversity in life experiences. Usually when someone's referring to diversity, they are referring to one of the above, but I'm lumping the other examples in with them because, to me, it's a form of diversity. 

How important is diversity, though? 

Well, personality diversity is very, very important, and I would go so far to say as to say it's a necessity in storytelling. Think about it: if every character looked the same, acted the same, had the same amount of money, and the same life experiences it would be absurdly boring and unrealistic. So, personality diversity is an absolute must. 

But what about the other types of diversity? 

What about all the other examples you mentioned? Are those important? 

And I'm still saying yes. Is it crucial to having an interesting story? No. But it's still important. It's important for people to see themselves in characters. 

I'll give you an example.

I was really young when I read the first Harry Potter book, but I already knew that characters with glasses were usually stereotyped as ''boring nerds''. Needless to say, that isn't true for everyone [I mean, I am insanely nerdy, but I don't think I'm boring? And I don't really fit the ''serious, goody-two shoes'' stereotype. No offense if you do. I was just frustrated that that was all the representation that I got]. I spent a lot of time complaining about how the characters with glasses never got to do something interesting [never might have been a bit of an exaggeration, but, hey, I was six]. And then my dad read the first Harry Potter book out loud to me. And I was absolutely ecstatic that Harry Potter wore glasses. Because Harry Potter was cool. He survived the killing curse! He played Quidditch! He stopped Voldemort! He was the hero of the series, and he wore glasses.

"But can't you relate to characters who aren't like you?'' You may be asking. 

And, again, the answer is yes. If you write characters well, anyone can relate to them, no matter how different you are from them. And, even if you can't relate to them, you can still like and appreciate them as a character. 

Let me repeat that: ''Can't you relate to characters who aren't like you?'' 

If someone who's black can relate to a well-written white character, can't someone who's white relate to a well-written black character? Can't someone who's as straight as an arrow relate to someone who's as gay as, er, something that's really not-straight?  

And that may not be the case for everybody with every character. A big part of an LGBTQ+ character (just using that as an example) may be them coming to terms with being gay and dealing with homophobia, and that might not be relatable to you. 

But that doesn't mean it's not a valid choice for an author. Because it might be super relatable to someone who is going through that. Even if they have nothing else in common with that character (example: myself and Santana Lopez. I have a post on that, actually, but it's been in the draft box for forever, and I still need to edit it). 

It can also be a really good learning experience for a reader/viewer/whatever.

For example, I don't have to use a wheelchair. Or crutches. I have lived my life as an able-bodied person.My life experiences will be different than someone who has lived their entire life in a wheelchair. So, it could end up being very informative for me to read about a wheelchair-bound character (as long as it's written well). 

And, come to think of it, even if you can't relate to a character in one specific aspect, even one that's a huuuuge part of their character, you can still relate to them in other ways. 

Example [again]: myself and Claudia Donovan. Her parents and sister died when she was very young, her brother was sucked into an alternate dimension, and she kept telling people she could still see him, which resulted in her getting sent to a mental hospital. None of that has happened to me. And, yet, I can still relate to her snarky sense of humor, her nerdiness, and her energetic-yet-awkward personality. 

So, this far in this post, I have been talking about how diversity in general is a very good thing. 

Does this mean that a story is bad because it's not diverse? 

Nope! There are plenty of good movies where the majority of the characters are white/cisgender/straight/middle-class men. And it doesn't make something bad just because it's not diverse. Nor does something being diverse automatically make it good. 

In fact, you can still enjoy things that have outright problematic themes. I enjoy a few of these stories myself. The problem is insisting that there is absolutely nothing problematic about it if there is. You can admit that there are things about something that haven't aged well, and still enjoy the good parts. 

"But isn't it possible for diversity to be done badly?" You might ask. 

The answer to that is also yes. There are plenty of times where diversity has been done in a really horrible way. That can  The most obvious one is the Diversity Done For Brownie Points.

And I'm not talking about LGBTQ/POC characters merely existing in a story. I'm talking where the creator(s) introduce new characters solely for the point of being "diverse", bring it up constantly (both in interviews and in the story itself), and expect to get points.....simply for including a character from a group that has traditionally been excluded from mainstream media. 

And, just to be clear, introducing a new character who's POC/LGBTQ/disabled/anything else like that does not necessarily mean that the creator is doing a bad job of including diversity. Doing a bad job of diversity is shoving characters in awkwardly when the show (it can be something else like a book/movie series), usually doesn't introduce new characters. It's giving them no personality/interests/anything outside of being from a minority group (which is.....actually kinda offensive if you think about it. Like, you're the gay one, so therefore all you have to offer is your sexuality so that I can say my story is diverse). 

For example, Robin from Stranger Things absolutely does not fall into this category. It's not unusual for Stranger Things to add a new character, she had great chemistry with Steve, had a purpose in the story and a pretty strong personality. In short, I would have loved Robin just as much if she wasn't gay (although that coming-out scene was a freakin' work of art, not gonna lie).

I mean, let's be honest, Robin is just absolutely the best.

Of course, including a diverse character (look, we're just going to say it like that because I'm lazy and don't want to type out every possible way a character can be diverse) can offend someone even if you do everything right. 

If you include a religious character, you can anger some people. If you include an LGBTQ+ character, you can anger some people. Heck, you can anger people for including a black character. 

In short, no matter what you choose to do, you're gonna anger some people. There's no way to please everyone. Embrace the controversary, peeps. 

There will always be people who still think including a character in a very natural way is ''shoving it down our throats''. Of course, this can happen in fiction, and this can be a very accurate description of what's happening. I just think it gets misused a lot. Sort of like how often "Mary Sue" is used to describe a female character who's simply talented and competent and who you personally don't like.

Like I said, sometimes those claims really are justified. This whole thing is just.....really, really complicated. 

However, it is also kind of problematic to say that a character [and this is usually used with LGBTQ+ characters, but it can come up with disabled or religious characters, too] is to say that they only matter in stories about their struggles with their sexuality or their disability or whatever. So, again, you can be part of a story about how hard your life will be, but you can't exist in stories about catching murderers and fighting aliens or something? Yeah, that seems fair. 

And then there are the people who act like being white/straight/cis/male/etc is a crime. And I definitely don't agree with or promote that. Creating more hate is not going to promote acceptance. 

Am I saying that if you've made mistakes with handling diversity in the past, it makes you a bad person? 

No! Absolutely not. I've made plenty of mistakes myself. Nobody's perfect. And, guys, writing diversity can be hard. And it can be complicated. It takes research, it takes hard work, and, even then, that's not a guarantee that it will work. 

But that doesn't mean we should stop doing it. If we stopped doing things just because they got hard, then nothing would ever happen. If Edison gave up the first time he tried to make a lightbulb, then we wouldn't have them at all.

I'm not going to be giving tips in this post, because it's a pretty broad topic, and I am not a member of most of these communities. 

I can however give you one tip: Write characters as people first. And that goes for any character. White, black, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, Christian [either Catholic or Protestant], atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or anything else. People should not be exclusively defined by their skin color, their sexuality, their gender, their religion.....anything. 

Some things [like religion] are a big part of who you are, but it's not the only thing about you. So it shouldn't be the only thing of importance about your character.

And, on that note, I'll end this post. 

So, what are your thoughts on diversity in fiction? What are some good examples of diversity, in your opinion? And what are some bad examples? Just tell me your thoughts on this. I'd love to hear them [and I mean that genuinely].