Why Diversity in Our Writing is So Important - "The Danger of a Single Story"

[Steerpike]

Interesting thing about the Alien franchise is that the character Ripley, from the original movie, was originally male. Some have speculated that the reason they did such a good job of providing a strong female character is that they didn't originally write the character with a bunch of preconceived notions of how a female character would act. They were writing for the default, a male.

Horror movies and games do draw the viewer or player to identify with or experience powerlessness. I've also heard it theorized that at least for games, the idea is that mostly males play horror survival type games and they are tapping into a protective instinct. I have never seen any data to back up who plays those games, and I'm not sure whether there is anything to this. I can say, as an anecdote, that when I played Bioshock I always saved the little sisters because I didn't like the idea of hurting the little girls, even in a video game, and even if they were creepy.

For another survival game, but one that is not horror per se, I though the newest Tomb Raider release did a pretty good job with a female protagonist. And thankfully they scaled back Laura Croft's breast size a few orders of magnitude and gave her a reasonable waistline.

 

[Trick]

I get the feeling there's a few different discussions going on in this thread (and other threads we've had on the topic).
1. Who's responsibility is it to provide diverse stories?
2. How do you include diversity in your stories.
3. What is diversity anyway?
4. Why should we bother with it?

I think all four are interesting topics of discussion, and I tend to quite enjoy them. However, these threads can get a little heated, which in turn leads to confusion.
Basically, we're all rather different here, with different views on what's important. That's also something to consider.

5. Meta-discussion about the discussion.

I don't really know why but I want to address the four discussions you pointed out from my perspective. Maybe others do as well?

1. Who's responsibility is it to provide diverse stories?

Everyone's? Even if it's only for the sake of breaking from the norm and hopefully not just to appease people. All things employed should add to the story and diversity among the characters can make things much more interesting.

2. How do you include diversity in your stories.

By learning about as many cultures, modes of thought, beliefs, ideas, experiences, disabilities and, in general, people as we can so our idea pool comes from all over the world. If a white man writes a book about white men, that's obviously fine, but it seems a little too easy in some ways. If he, or anyone writing with a lack of diversity, had studied Africa, Asia and other places more in-depth or tried harder to understand the life experiences of women living in Russia, as a random example, or any other culture/person different from himself he, or anyone, might have been inspired to write characters from other walks of life, places and races. Basically, studying everything about humans we can get our hands on will majorly add to diversity in our writing.

3. What is diversity anyway?

In writing it seems to be the representation of as many kinds of people and places as is probable for a given story. Since there are still so many stories to be told and so many who can tell them, it might just be the direction that written stories need to go in the future for the sake of originality. If done well, diversity will only add to the value of a given story but it can seem hard to tackle as so many in this world are offended by what may or may not be a misrepresentation of their own unique experiences. If I make a character different from me in race/origin/religion/disability/gender/etc appear as evil, will that make people think that my belief is that "those kinds of people" are all evil? It wouldn't be true but some readers will believe it anyway. So, am I then pressured into only painting my own people as evil? That can't work either. Balance must be achieved and honesty must be present.

4. Why should we bother with it?

Because it's a challenge! A good one too. Of course I should only write what I want to write but I really want to write something that many different kinds of people want to read and diversity put to practical use in my work is a wide path to achieving that.

 

[Chessie]

There have been some very interesting points made in this thread. Diversity in fiction is always a good topic to discuss. I do agree with the points Mythopoet made about publishers rejecting works that they can't market, but how do we know if those manuscripts have diversity in them?

I read on the Kindle a lot, many of those books being self published. I have yet to come across a story that includes races other than Caucasians. But that doesn't really bother me since I'm used to it. And I think that's probably one of the reasons more diversity isn't included in literature--that we, as readers, have come to expect certain elements in stories and don't question it otherwise. In order for diversity to exist, then we as writers have to do something different.

White male characters have been the minority in my stories. I prefer to write from the female perspective for the very reason that many of the books I read are written from the male pov. One of my writing goals is to produce work that represents "the rest of the world". Although I love medieval fantasy and peasant boys turning into heroes, our genre really could benefit from diversity. Most of what I read isn't even fantasy anymore because there's so much of the same!

People are going to write what they want to write and that's fine. Maybe my work will be liked because there's Native Americans in it, girls with curly kinky hair and brown skin like mine all mixed in. Humanity is beautiful in its diversity and the more that its brought into literature, the more enriched stories will be. And also I don't think anyone needs a reason to write about characters that are brown, gay, whatever. Just throw them in there! Why does there need to be a reason for the rest of the world to exist in literature? One thing I have always thought about too in the fantasy genre is that instead of writing about elves, orcs, dwarves, and whatever other tropes have been beaten into the ground why not write about a race other than your own? It is totally possible to have a kick ass fantasy story with something other than that.

 

[Devor]

Maybe my work will be liked because there's Native Americans in it, girls with curly kinky hair and brown skin like mine all mixed in.

Chesterama, sorry for the aside, but I was just wondering if your story is set in the real world or a fantasy world? I was just wondering because you mention Native Americans, and I was kind of curious to hear more about how you were handling them.

I ran a D&D game once back in High School about Native American cultures being invaded by Japanese cultures - a battle of the mythologies - but just the thought of doing it justice in a book sounded overwhelming.

 

[Chessie]

Hi Devor, thanks for asking. No, the story isn't set in the real world but it is an all human world. Basically, I am imitating the point in history after Alaska Natives were taken over by the Russians so there is a mixture in the cultures. There are Russian and Native American elements in the names of characters, places, foods, etc. The execution has been pretty easy--there is no real explanation for the readers except that this land has been invaded and there is racial tension. I'm trying to showcase what happens to indigenous populations when something that drastic happens. Why? Because I love history and I love Native peoples and damn straight I'm going to jump at the chance to write about them.

 

[Steerpike]

Sounds like a cool story, Chesterama. My WiP features a protagonist of native American descent, which figures heavily into the story.

 

[Devor]

The execution has been pretty easy--there is no real explanation for the readers except that this land has been invaded and there is racial tension. I'm trying to showcase what happens to indigenous populations when something that drastic happens.

Thanks Chesterama. I appreciate that you answered, especially because it sounds like it could be a good read. I guess what I was really curious to know was what kind of fantasy elements you're using.

But back to the topic:

One of the things I am interested to see is what a high fantasy story looks like from the perspective of a non-western tradition. How does a modern fantasy reader, who is Native American or African or Asian or so on, choose to portray their own heritage in a big wallapooza of a high fantasy setting?

 

[Chessie]

Not to hijack this thread but...

Devor, to answer your question (which is somewhat on topic), the fantasy elements I'm using are the same as any other story: magic. The indigenous population uses light based magic (the aurora lights being the main source) derived from my research of Native American mythology along with Shamanic traditions and magical totem poles. Also talking animals, which appears a lot in Native stories. I think when creating a fantasy setting for a culture that isn't our own, using that culture's mythology is what adds the zing and makes it different from other types of fantasy.

Writing about other world cultures is fun and totally doable as a way to add in diversity.

 

[Tom]

I am as white as the newfallen snow. This used to make me afraid to write a person of color. What if I do it wrong? What if someone's offended by my portrayal of this character?

Then I realized that people are just people. Plus, diversity isn't just between shades of skin color. Even within a single group (like Europeans) there's a huge spectrum of culture. Spain is nothing like Norway, and Eastern Europe is definitely very different from Western. I may become very unpopular for saying this, but you also have to be careful not to lump "white people" into one big group just because they share a light skin tone. I'm not just "white", I'm Irish, German, Welsh, Polish, and Scottish, and every aspect of my heritage brings with it a unique culture and history. Assuming that because I'm white, I must be like every other white person on the planet is like assuming that because someone is a POC, they must be like every other POC on the planet.

Fantasy is a nice genre to write in, because a fantasy world may not have the same issues as ours.

For instance, my MC is what most people would consider Native American, but I chose to give his culture a Celtic base, and make them the dominant society in their little corner of the world. Therefore his brownish skin and black hair is normal. However, when he heads north on the obligatory quest, he's suddenly and acutely in the minority among the northern people, who have fair skin and black or red hair.

Another character comes from a culture originally from the far north, who are now a minority living in the same country as the dominant culture. This guy has blond hair and pale skin, and because of that he's obviously an outsider. Even as they go further north, he's still a minority, because his culture is from a different continent entirely and has no relation to the northern people they're now traveling among.

I drew on my own experiences to write about the situations of both characters, and how they relate to them. I know what it's like to be the outsider (there is nothing like being an Irishman or Polska surrounded by a group of friends cracking Irish or Polish jokes...it's just...awful). And I know what it's like to be in the majority (Irishman/Polska's revenge: Buffalo's Celtic Fair or Dingus Day parade!). The emotions and thoughts are all there, they just need to be reinterpreted and written down.

I enjoy really mixing things up, needless to say.

 

[Jabrosky]

For what it's worth, my favorite cultural influences to work with are ancient Egyptian and sub-Saharan African. Actually, I love weaving these elements together into the same culture. I always found Egypt especially appealing because it was this very ancient and mighty empire that developed within the so-called "Dark Continent" of Africa, never mind the pop-culture tendency to conflate it with the later Islamic Arab culture. Of course Africa has produced other civilizations like Kush, Aksum, Mali, and Zimbabwe, but Egypt was the first I learned about and so holds a special place in my heart.

Ironically, the very fact that I mix my Egyptian elements with sub-Saharan rather than Arab ones has made me the target of racism charges. But these never come from African people themselves.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I'll just step aside from everything I've previously posted in this thread, because I don't think I'd be able to get any of it to go anywhere and not waste everyone's time.

Building on what Svrtnsse said about personality, let me reconstruct my chain of thought when writing one of my earlier stories. I'd like to state in advance that this was a failed story--I'll explain why in a moment.

I need someone who supports the villain and someone who opposes her. *Two basic characters are created* So the orderly one supports the villain, and the chaotic one opposes her. But she's not really an order-based character, so I need two more. Organized religion would be an orderly reason to oppose her. Chaotic supporting . . . Well, she's all about liberation. Maybe a hunter who becomes a wild beast? *Two more characters* Hmm, the orderly opposer needs a bit more conflict. I could make him gay, I guess. And he clings to his anti-gay religion, while she's totally okay with gay people . . . Oh, and this plot point would work well if the main characters share a language that the other two don't speak. I know a little Spanish, so how about making them Spanish-speakers?

As you might have guessed, this was incredibly tokenistic. Characters didn't have organic wants and needs, they just stood as obvious archetypes. But in the book I published, my method wasn't all that different.

A nature hero, a magic hero, and a science hero . . . How about a werewolf, a necromancer, and a member of a monster-hunting society? The hunter loves the necromancer, but is off-put by his beliefs, and so on down the chain . . . *Three characters created* No, the necromancer isn't working as a character. I'll replace him with a magical girl, and I'll change the monster hunter to a superhero as well--three genres in one! A gay magical girl is way too cliche, so I'll change the werewolf to male. That means either a gay werewolf or a lesbian superhero . . . But does it need to be sexual love? Nah, I'll make these characters think of themselves as straight, so the superhero doesn't know what to make of feeling love towards another girl. But now I've got all these characters who're wrong about what they think they are, and I don't want the story to come off as a sermon on conformity. I'll make one who's actually right when she says she's not what everyone categorizes her as . . . Okay, the magical girl is biologically male! *More scribbling ensues*

The process was the same, but I didn't try for any specific tokens, even moving away from some minorities when they didn't work for the story I wanted to tell. This had pitfalls of its own (I needed to be very careful to frame the magical girl as a girl in a boy's body, not a boy who dresses like a girl), but it resulted in a story that I'm quite proud of, and that happens to represent multiple minorities.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I did some thinking...

I think we can probably all agree that diversity IS important, right? Let's assume we do.

Thing is. There are a lot of things that are important and even then we don't really pay heed to them. Things like exercising regularly and eating well, or maybe the environment or the economy, or perhaps politics or charity.
There's tons of things that are important and there's only so much time and energy we have to devote to them.

I just want to write my stupid story and be done with. I wish I didn't have to bother worrying about whether I'm diverse enough or if I'm including enough characters of various ethnicities or genders.

Yes, I'm exaggerating, but I'm sure you can see the point I'm making: When you're fueling your work with passion it can be difficult to include things you're less than passionate about.
So while I care about diversity and know that it's important, I care more about writing the story I want to write.

Perhaps the focus on these discussions shouldn't be on the importance of diversity, but on its benefits. What benefits do I gain by diversifying my characters and my setting? What does my story gain from it?
For me, the answer is quite easy: it adds depth to my setting. Depth of setting is something that's important to me and that I'm passionate about.

I'm sure there are other answers and other benefits, but the above is what first came to mind. How about you guys?

 

[Devor]

Perhaps the focus on these discussions shouldn't be on the importance of diversity, but on its benefits. What benefits do I gain by diversifying my characters and my setting? What does my story gain from it?

I worked with a guy. Blue collar job, one summer, mostly cutting grass. Used to dote about how great his girlfriend was, how she made the best tuna in her job at Quiznos. He was a smart guy, big on conspiracies, up for a promotion at work. He and his girlfriend lived together and had a kid together. Great guy.

Until he ditched them. He talked some girl into . . . . at work. And a few weeks later he moved out, and was complaining that he should've done it months earlier, before he spent money on them.

My last day on the job, the boss was out, and he brought his computer to work, so he could bring it to multiple work sites and show a dozen guys his favorite porn. It was one of the most awkward days ever.

I don't know too much more than that about his life. But when I was a boy I read Lewis, and Tolkein, and Wrede. In college I read G.K. Chesterton, the guy in my signature below, who has written about the morality he learned from fairy tales. Morals. From fairy tales.

I've never seen a fantasy book I thought the guy I knew would ever have wanted to read, even as a kid. It's that simple.

 

[Svrtnsse]

By your description it sounds like the kind of guy who'd rather not read at all.

I think I'm missing your point though. I don't quite see how it relates to the part of what I wrote that you quoted.

 

[Devor]

By your description it sounds like the kind of guy who'd rather not read at all.

No, that's not at all what I was suggesting. He was pretty smart and read quite a bit, and brought books in one day to try and show me all the ways I was wrong about this or that. He read the sort of books that I would call nonsense, but sat in some kind of new age aisle.

I think I'm missing your point though. I don't quite see how it relates to the part of what I wrote that you quoted.

Diversity in fantasy helps you to reach more people, possibly at an age when they're still making decisions that shape what kind of person they want to be, who might need to be reached.

I have a friend who told me she took refuge in reading her fantasy books when she was growing up. But there are people to whom that refuge simply doesn't appeal to, for no reason other than that they aren't included.

It's not an academic question. It's not a fairness question. It's not a question about depth. It's a question about how books can affect real people.

Imagine your life if all the fantasy books you've read weren't there. Box them up, give them to your neighbor, they're for red-headed kids only, go do something else. For some groups of people that's what it's like.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Thanks for the clarification. I see what you mean and I have no objections to it (at this time). I think you were just coming in from a different angle and that threw me off a little bit.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I just want to write my stupid story and be done with.

This is where I am.

Seeing how I have an Asian wife and mixed-race kids, diversity can come naturally for me. But I think that's the key: it has to naturally fall into your story.

The first novel I wrote had a black man. It wasn't because I wanted a diverse cast. I was into Cowboy Bebop and I thought this character of mine would talk like Jet Black (who's English dubbing is voiced by a black man. With a great voice).

A story I'm working on now will probably have a Mexican character. Again, it's just how I picture the guy. I don't plan to have him speak Spanglish or anything, just like there's no fanfare whenever I introduce a white guy.

 

[Spider]

*rookie steps in* I have a few questions.

I get that diversity is important in writing to reflect different cultures and beliefs. However, one of the things that Adichie mentioned in the TED talk was how her professor claimed that her book did not have “African authenticity” because it portrayed Africans as “normal,” people who drove cars and had lives that were, in ways, similar to the lives of Americans. (I watched the video last night & I’m writing this out of memory, so correct me if I’m wrong.) One of the things that I got out of the video was that an important aspect of diversity is about showing that people of all genders, races, etc. all have multiple stories and shouldn’t be stereotyped into one story that defines an entire group of people.

I guess my question is how do you have diversity in your writing without isolating a group of people from everyone else? Shouldn’t diversity be about connecting people? (If you portrayed, say, a colored person as someone who is similar to a non-colored person, is that any different from simply slapping color onto the person for the sake of making him/her diverse? I assume that the intention would be to appeal to another audience.)

I liked Svrtnsse’s comment earlier about how the world can treat and influence a person based on their visual appearance. But if the story focuses on a group of people (without any outside influences), then how to depict their diversity even when representing them as a people with similar lifestyles as that of others?

 

[Feo Takahari]

I guess my question is how do you have diversity in your writing without isolating a group of people from everyone else? Shouldn’t diversity be about connecting people? (If you portrayed, say, a colored person as someone who is similar to a non-colored person, is that any different from simply slapping color onto the person for the sake of making him/her diverse? I assume that the intention would be to appeal to another audience.)

I liked Svrtnsse’s comment earlier about how the world can treat and influence a person based on their visual appearance. But if the story focuses on a group of people (without any outside influences), then how to depict their diversity even when representing them as a people with similar lifestyles as that of others?

On the former paragraph: I mentioned a few posts up that I have a character I wrote as trans because I wanted to have someone who was right about her identity. The thing is, she's a girl, and I never try to portray her as anything else. I'm generally pretty lax about gender in my stories, but for this one specific character, I'm very specific about always referring to her as a girl. I think that's still representation.

On the latter paragraph: I think what happens then is that you put in half the equation. You write about the group of people, portraying how they act and think, and then readers fill in any differences that may exist between themselves and the characters.

 

[Mythopoet]

I get the feeling there's a few different discussions going on in this thread (and other threads we've had on the topic).
1. Who's responsibility is it to provide diverse stories?
2. How do you include diversity in your stories.
3. What is diversity anyway?
4. Why should we bother with it?

These are really excellent questions and exactly how the discussion should be framed. But I think it's best to start with your number 3.

What is diversity?

This is an oft overlooked question. Everyone thinks they know what diversity is, but then the conversation devolves because they're actually talking about different things.

My concern is this: whenever I come across these discussions about diversity on forums or blogs it tends to revolve around a very specific kind of diversity: representative demographic diversity. In other words, you need to have a carefully selected smattering of every skin color, every ethnicity, every gender and non-gender, and every sexual orientation. And if you just don't want to write stories containing representations of all those things then you're generally viewed as a racist/sexist/whatever-ist.

I'll be direct here: in my opinion, this is not diversity. Certainly not the kind of diversity that matters, anyway.

By pressuring authors to include people of all types of skin color, while at the same time stressing that the skin color shouldn't make any difference to their character, aren't we basically saying that what's important is skin color? Isn't that racist?

Another example that confuses me is when people talk about great female characters who are great because they are basically indistinguishable from a man, except that they have breasts. If male and female characters are supposed to be essentially the same, then why does it matter whether the character is a man or a woman? Aren't we then basically saying that the only important characteristic of a woman is her reproductive system? Isn't that sexist?

For these inconsistencies and for other reasons, I just can't get behind the "representative demographic" type of diversity.

So what kind of diversity do I think is important?

Representative diversity seems to generally revolve around physical and biological characteristics. Whereas I believe that diversity of thought, worldview, values and beliefs is much more important.

One of the major functions of storytelling is to teach people empathy, something that no one is born with. (Believe me, I've got 5 kids, none of them were born with it.) Many people seem to think that empathy can be taught by saying, "See all of these physically different people? They're really all the same inside, and so are you." I disagree. I think empathy is taught by saying, "This is how this person, who is very different from you, thinks and feels and believes. Learn to understand them as they are and learn to be able to think and feel and believe as they do." This is how both empathy and critical thinking are fostered, by learning to look at the world from many points of view that are different from your own.

For this type of diversity, physical differences are mostly irrelevant and can actually be distracting.

Back to Svrt's questions...

Who's responsibility is it to provide diverse stories?


Every storyteller's, to a certain extent. And by that I mean that since one of the major functions of storytelling is to help people learn empathy, all stories should partake in that function at least a little.

However, I do not think it is something an author should be pressured into doing. It's not something that you can do well just by trying. The author needs to be able to naturally portray many worldviews for diverse stories to be beneficial.

Nor do I think that every story that every author writes needs to be written in order to promote diversity. Stories are entertainment, after all.

It's fine for authors who are concerned about diversity to work at it, but I do not think it is ok to pressure other writers who are just trying to have fun and improve their craft.

How do you include diversity in your stories.

This is the hardest question because it has an infinity of answers. Every author and every story will require a different answer. I wouldn't even attempt to answer it without a specific example to use.