Diversity in SF and Fantasy

[Feo Takahari]

Then I guess the question for me is, what do I do when my story requires a depiction of a society I don't live in? How do I portray that society fairly and accurately?

If I may give a tentative answer, I believe that you can understand a society insofar as you can relate it to ones you understand. For instance, if one society burns its dead to free them from this world, one buries its dead until the day they will wake, and one eats its dead so that their power will be passed on, all three have a tradition that involves honoring and respecting the dead. If you have any connection with honoring the dead, you can tap into those emotions when depicting another society's funerary customs. (When you pull away the false exoticism, I think any societal trait can be understood in this way--I once read a book that revolved around the morality of ancient China, and realized halfway through it that I'd seen all this before in books about the American South.)

P.S. I should note that I've written and published a story that takes place in a society I don't come from. I'm not holding it up as an example of anything, just admitting that I have a dog in this fight. (I didn't do anything in particular with local traditions, instead relying on obvious universals like shame and loneliness.)

 

[Ophiucha]

For me, the answer is research. Just not always the sort of research people think of. Since we're talking fantasy, I'll use medieval Europe as a base example since none of us lived in medieval Europe, but this applies to everywhere I've built worlds based around. Read original texts. Yes, you can read the Wikipedia articles and scholarly text books and modern medieval fantasy, but also read Historia Regum Britanniae, read Beowulf, read Chaucer. If you're writing about women, read Christine de Pizan. Read from the sources to see through their eyes, and use the modern and secondary sources to help parse out all of the little details like what their garments were made of and what crops they grew. But the sources, that's where you can find the social aspects of a culture that just don't translate as easily into academic writing.

It's not perfect. The writers of many cultures were often exclusively male, exclusively wealthy. But you can get a sense for the voice of the time and place, which I think is a crucial aspect of writing a different culture.

Empathy and commonalities are excellent, as well, when it comes to writing the personal aspects. My only concern with those things is the risk of generalization. Say, for instance, that I believed we should 'burn the dead to free them from this world', but was writing a story where they eat their dead. On a personal level, while writing the character whose mother just died, I could place my own feelings of mortality and the soul into my character, but I run the risk of blurring the lines between passing onto another place and passing on their power into the character. I often see writers mix their metaphors, trying to - if you will - explain away that the body of their child is 'a better place', another realm of sorts, for their soul - that their power is their soul. And while that may reconcile this practice with the author, it also misrepresents the beliefs of the people who practice it.

It depends on the setting how that comes across, inevitably, but certainly in the context of your standard 'pseudo!Japan' or 'pseudo!Italy'-style fantasy worlds, it can come across as lazy, or even ignorant.

 

[The Dark One]

Then I guess the question for me is, what do I do when my story requires a depiction of a society I don't live in? How do I portray that society fairly and accurately?

Jeeez...isn't this a fantasy site?

Sorry Feo...cheap shot, but my this is an interesting conversation. Some very thoughtful points nicely articulated.

I'm about half way through an historical novel, set in the C11, with some fantastical undertones. I want the world of the book to be as authentic as I can reasonably make it, but I'm not losing sleep over it...not least as I am deliberately giving both the MC and his love interest some quite modern ideas (which get them both into a bit of trouble).

I do, I suppose, already know a fair bit about the milieu but it's the minds you need to get into to truly convey an alien world. Accordingly, it can only be educated guesswork, even for a culture from which our own sprang, which means I may as well just try to be consistent in my portrayals.

My strategy is to just write the story, relying on certain aspects of the human condition to be as axiomatic today as they ever were (like fear, hunger, avarice, treachery, lust, vengeance etc) and then go back through filling the story with heaps of high medieval character.

But it's the story that matters.

 

[Ghost]

So when I read about this, I thought we as a community at Mythic Scribes should be discussing these things. In order for our fantasy horizons to be broadened (both as readers and writers) shouldn't we explore more outside our comfort zones? Shouldn't we seek out translations of writing from authors that represent a whole new approach to fantasy story-telling? Shouldn't we try to read more fiction about characters that don't look and act exactly like us? Isn't that how the genre grows and expands?

I enjoy reading fantasy, horror, and weird fiction translated into English. There are themes and approaches that I'd never think to use, so I learn a lot from good books that weren't originally in English. They're difficult to come across by chance, I think. Usually, you have to be looking for them.

I'd recommend googling a region that fascinates you and seeing what fantasy novels it has produced. So if you want to Russian fantasy authors, see who comes up and use after you read that person, use them as a springboard into more Russian authors who write in a similar vein.

Here are some things I've found.

Goodreads Non-English Fantasy shelf: some of this is obviously not in English, but it seems like a good place to start.
Favorite Science Fiction & Fantasy in Translation: a Tor.com article
Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards: this site is difficult to navigate, but if you're willing to slog through it, it information about current translations.
Golden Days for Indian Fantasy: a blog post just to show if you look up fantasy authors by a specific country, like India, you can find some leads that way.
The Dedalus Book of Austrian Fantasy or The Weird: Dedalus Books does anthologies of fantasy in a country. I've read some of the Finnish one and thought it was very cool. The Weird has a mix of authors from the world over. Most are English-speaking, but many aren't. I'd really recommend it.
International Speculative Fiction: I was reading an article which had this relevant and timely link. I can't vouch for the quality of this zine, but it's nice to know it exists. They have a free issue up.

I don't think this discussion has to be limited to gender and race. One thing Saladin Ahmed tweeted made a lot of sense as well:

Class diversity also needs to be part of #DiversityInSFF. I want fewer kings and starship captains, more coach drivers and space waitresses.

Yes, once people bring up diversity, the conversation seems to turn to ethnicity, culture (in a broad sense), gender, and sexuality. I feel like I've already talked about those things at Mythic Scribes. I'm far more interested in diversity of class, age, and mental health.

I think if your setting is brilliant, a door-to-door salesman could be more fun than a king. Tax collectors could have short life-expectancies due to dissatisfied citizens casting hexes on them. Settlers on a frontier could be harassed by mythological creatures. A story about the dangers of dragon-slaying told from the prospective of an armorer would be intriguing. Having characters who aren't in power provides a different view of a fantasy setting.

Some fantasy authors love young characters. Sometimes, there's little difference between adult fantasy and YA fantasy because of the tone and content. I've noticed fantasy with a darker tone is more likely to have older characters. There's even a type: jaded or grizzled men who have some sort of leadership position. I'd like to see more older people with a wider variety of personalities, especially women.

 

[Ghost]

My two questions are these:

1. What are some examples that you've seen recently that seem to show a positive shift toward more diversity in SF and fantasy (meaning authors, characters, worlds, etc.)?

2. What do you think could be done to improve diversity in SF and fantasy? (more translations from non-English speaking countries, more diverse characters when it comes to gender, race, or other backgrounds)

There's more of everything due to the proliferation of avenues for writers to publish their work and talk to each other, whether that's blogs, zines, POD presses, e-books, forums, etc. Some interesting things I've come across are the Carl Brandon Society (which aims to "increase racial and ethnic diversity in the production of and audience for speculative fiction"), Expanded Horizons, Icarus Magazine (Magazine of Gay Speculative Fiction), Femspec, Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Marcher Lord Press (Christian Fantasy and Science Fiction publisher).

I definitely see plenty of conversations about diversity in blogs, articles, and publications' websites—ranging from discussions about the genders of book reviewers to the ethnic make-up of a segment's readership. I think the willingness to have these conversations is a positive shift. My perspective is skewed since I don't do novels, but I see plenty of submissions guidelines calling for diverse voices. They accept work "from neuroatypical writers and writers with disabilities." They want writers to "[c]hallenge what we might consider normal." It's not like people aren't trying to adapt.

Some areas seem resistant to change. A few places like the New Yorker have too much content from one demographic. Marketing departments and companies relying on screenings and consumer polls probably weed out or misrepresent content for the sake of "mass appeal." This is where people whitewash covers or market video games with sex. I think that's what happens when book publishers get absorbed into corporations that focus on "proven results" and the bottom line. On the whole, however, I believe most publishers and editors are doing what they can to find new voices.

Here's an interesting this blog post from Tor UK. I bet it's the same—but with more dismal numbers—for groups besides women. I've come across the sentiment before that underrepresented groups don't submit enough. Even if publishers want diversity, there are only so submissions by writers of a certain ethnicity, followers of a certain religion, or people of whatever other category. I'm assuming 90% of what's sent isn't any good, so that further reduces what can be published. Given that, introducing diverse voices sounds like a difficult task.

If people aren't submitting, it probably means they aren't reading. I've seen agents complain about the lack of male YA authors, which makes me wonder what the male readership of YA looks like. I've seen authors on the forum complain that their countrymen don't read much fantasy. Lack of readership contributes to the lack of authors. Then you have a problem of getting those novels translated and read in other languages...In the US, I'm not sure if readers are unwilling to read foreign authors or if it's that publishers don't like taking risks unless they think an author has traction in some way.

Word-of-mouth is an important tool, and I've got to say, most of the authors people recommended are white, male Anglophones. There's nothing wrong with that—it's just something worth considering. I know I do it myself. People recommend Martin, Abercrombie, Gaiman, Rothfuss, Kay, Pratchett, Sanderson, etc. I'm not saying we unrecommend those guys , but I don't see why we'd then complain that people aren't reading Cornelia Funke, Andrzej Sapkowski, Nnedi Okorafor, etc.

The best you can do is read diverse works and recommend the good ones. No one wants to be preached to, but people do want good books. If enough people recommend a book or list it as a favorite, people will naturally become interested. Awareness goes a long way.

I decided to split up my post because it was so long. Sorry about that.

 

[Philip Overby]

Wow, thanks for the links, Ghost. This is exactly the kind of things I'm looking for. You're right in saying not to "unrecommend" writers who are doing great things. The names you mentioned above are some of my favorite writers. But for me, I'd personally like to find some things that may be buried or just inaccessible due to there not being much exposure for non-English speaking authors at times.

I do like your mentioning of class, age, and mental health. Those kind of topics bring up a wealth of possible story ideas to be considered. I'm especially interested in what you mean by mental health. Could you elaborate on that more?

I don't personally complain if people aren't reading what I'm reading. I find a sort of pride in finding undiscovered authors that I think are really awesome and getting to share them with other people. So my hope is I can discover more of these non-English speaking fantasy writers and just share my opinions on them. It's up to each individual person to decide what they want to read or write.

I'm a white, male, English-speaking fantasy writer/reader. I do like other white, male English-speaking fantasy writers. This doesn't mean it's the only thing I like or want to read. Everyone reaches different points where they may say "What else is out there?" I did that after years of only reading Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books. I eventually wanted to see what else there was. I don't feel like every reader wants to only read about people they can relate to or look or act just like them. I've always had a fascination with other cultures and backgrounds, something I hope to explore more through my own writing and reading habits.

I hope I can make a more direct response to your post(s) as I think there's a lot in there. When I have more time later, I may delve more into that.

Thanks a ton again!

 

[Feo Takahari]

Word-of-mouth is an important tool, and I've got to say, most of the authors people recommended are white, male Anglophones. There's nothing wrong with that–it's just something worth considering. I know I do it myself. People recommend Martin, Abercrombie, Gaiman, Rothfuss, Kay, Pratchett, Sanderson, etc. I'm not saying we unrecommend those guys , but I don't see why we'd then complain that people aren't reading Cornelia Funke, Andrzej Sapkowski, Nnedi Okorafor, etc

It's subtle, but there are points where both Sanderson's worldbuilding and his outlook seem to be influenced by his Mormonism. In that sense, I believe he adds to the variety of different kinds of voices, without being heavy-handed or preachy.

 

[Mindfire]

In fantasy, differing qualities of characters is a result of assorted qualities of settings. We have a great deal of white guys since a great deal of imagination is about settings comparative to medieval Europe, and generally history books that manage medieval Europe discuss it as far as white males.

Perhaps I'm blind to the obvious, but I don't see any logical reason you can't use that same setting, and still have non-white people. It is fantasy after all. There's no rule that the "standard" setting must have white people. Take the show Merlin for example. Based on Arthurian lore- and Guinevere was black.

 

[Devor]

Perhaps I'm blind to the obvious, but I don't see any logical reason you can't use that same setting, and still have non-white people. It is fantasy after all. There's no rule that the "standard" setting must have white people. Take the show Merlin for example. Based on Arthurian lore- and Guinevere was black.

It's maybe because you're quoting a disavowed spammer.

While there's no reason not to include a diverse cast of characters, I do think there's challenges to doing so in a way that breaks from the medieval experience of race. Blindcasting worked for Merlin, but doing it without explanation kind of cuts a little into the story's seriousness. It's a thing that readers notice, and wonder about, and ultimately have just go with. Is there a history there? Are they from different regions? Was there magic involved? N'ahh, they just did it.

But giving it an explanation comes with historical overhead, and we haven't developed the tropes to draw on to help simplify that overhead for readers. That's all I was saying. Let's create better ways to blindcast, while having it make sense, and still giving us the chance to explore racial issues when we want to.

 

[Mindfire]

It's maybe because you're quoting a disavowed spammer.

I was wondering why the post I quoted suddenly vanished.

 

[saellys]

I think it's completely unhelpful, even destructive, to have this kind of debate about perceived diversity in science fiction and fantasy via Twitter and blogs. Just look at the all-encompassing flamewar known as "racefail" from 2009.

If the alternative is to not have this kind of debate at all, I firmly disagree. The Internet is the greatest communication tool the world has ever seen, and blogs and Twitter help make it that way. I believe we need to be talking about this any way we can. If that means in person with other writers, great, but I don't have a real-life writing discussion group at this time and I've found the Internet to be a wonderful venue for exchanging these ideas. The great thing about this format versus face-to-face discussion is that I have more time to really consider my perspective before I respond to someone.

Yup, there was a crappy flamewar four years ago. There have been more since. They will continue to happen. This does not mean we should avoid talking about this on the Internet.

The best diversity goes unnoticed and isn't the product of an intentional push for "more diversity" sparked by some dude's blog post or essay in the Guardian. (Besides, the recent Books Blog post in the Guardian has it wrong -- a lot has changed, and the white man antagonist is no longer the default.)

I'm trying to work out exactly what you mean with that first sentence. Can you give some examples of "the best diversity"? It doesn't matter to me whether someone was inspired by some dude's blog post or an essay in the Guardian to include more diversity in their work; it matters to me that they did it.

Maybe it's easier for me, as a New Yorker, to view diversity as a natural thing and not contrived. After all, you can walk two blocks and hear 15 different languages here. But we tell people to write what they know for a reason, and maybe the perceived lack of diversity has more to do with authors living in a bubble.

Yeah, I think you nailed it here. Writing doesn't happen in a vacuum, and most of the time, diversity doesn't just naturally spring up in people's writing. The things we write are, in part, products of our environments and experiences, and you may find it easier to default to a certain level of diversity because you're steeped in it, while other writers have to work to make it happen. Still other writers live in the same sort of melting pot, but might still struggle with only writing about one slice of humanity. Being aware of it is the important thing.

And for what it's worth, I think "write what you know" is bunk. That's what research is for. It's also why we're fantasy writers.

Someone sent Travis Beacham, the writer of Pacific Rim, a message on his Tumblr saying they had hoped that the Wei triplets and the Kaidanovskys would have bigger roles in the film, calling the endgame heroes "the Anglosphere alliance + Mako". Harsh, but accurate, and that's in a film that deliberately set out to demolish action movie tropes, and which had one of the most diverse casts I've ever seen in an example of its genre. And still it defaulted to making four out of the six active world-saving participants white men.

Beacham was wise enough to acknowledge this and say that POV in writing is a really personal thing. Could it have been changed at some point in the writing process? Sure. Can he do anything about it now that the movie is finished? Nope, but fortunately he's also generating a lot of expanded universe material (starting with the graphic novel Tales from Year Zero) that includes loads of diverse and awesome characters, and as he does this, he is aware of what he defaulted to for the film.

My list of favorites includes Haruki Murakami (Japan), David Mitchell (UK/Japan), Iain M. Banks (Scotland), Alastair Reynolds (Wales), Neil Gaiman (British expat living in New York), Chekov (Russia), Charlaine Harris (U.S.), Steven Pressfield (U.S.) and Steven Saylor (U.S.). Oh, not enough women! What to do...

The solution that presents itself most readily to my mind is that you could read more women. Unless, of course, you were just being facetious about not having enough female authors in your list of favorites, in which case... okay?

 

[Abbas-Al-Morim]

I'm trying to work out exactly what you mean with that first sentence.

I don't want to speak for Sanctified but I think he means the following. A lot of TV shows and books include a "token black (or any other ethnicity) character". The only reason they include him is so they can tell people how diverse their series is and how cosmopolitan they are. You shouldn't add a character from a different ethnicity to your story just to show you care about diversity and whatnot. Usually those characters are bland too. A lot of video game shooters have that on cliché black sergeant that's a total badass and that keeps throwing around oneliners etc. That's a token character.

 

[saellys]

Sure, you shouldn't have a single racially divergent, stereotypical character in your work and then turn around and claim you understand and employ diversity. That's pretty much a given.

That being said, "I care about diversity" is a totally valid reason to include many types of people in your work. This isn't an either-or; your choices are not "a bunch of characters who all look exactly the same" versus "I wrote a cliché black sergeant and now my work is diverse!"

 

[ascanius]

Perhaps I'm blind to the obvious, but I don't see any logical reason you can't use that same setting, and still have non-white people. It is fantasy after all. There's no rule that the "standard" setting must have white people. Take the show Merlin for example. Based on Arthurian lore- and Guinevere was black.

Yup, there was a crappy flamewar four years ago.

In that crappy flamewar there were some good points early on, then well... However one thing I remember is the point Mindfire made above. If it's fantasy than why can't the dominant medieval population be blacks, or Chinese. Why can't x race/ethnicity be replaced with another it's fantasy after all, we are in total control of what we create. Only problem is those same questions can be asked in reverse. Why can't x race/ethnicity be white? If a writer is arbitrarily picking for the sole sake of diversity then it's meaning is hollow. However it is fantasy and we are in control but I think before someone decides or even thinks to diversify their cast they should at least put the time into world building. I think the so called "diversity" should be a little bonus that you discover when finished writing. A little surprise that you didn't even consider. This is, of course, assuming their goal is to be the a great writer first and foremost.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Chilari]

Fantasy cultures can be inspired by realworld cultures, and in those cases giving the people of that culture a silimar ethnicity to the source material feels normal. But it's not the only way to create cultures. Yes, you can draw upon real world cultures, but you can also think "right, this land has X geography and Y climate, what would it be natural for the people living here to look like? What might they find in their environment to focus upon as important to their culture?

For example, you might have a rocky barren region in a temperate clime, with geography such that it doesn't get much rainfall and doesn't have many rivers because the topography of the region sends drainage in another direction; but they've got a lot of natural resources like precious metals and gemstones, and so they trade with neighbouring cultures, food and drink for what they have. This culture might therefore have a major focus on water in their religion, and in terms of fashion, wear a lot of gold and brightly coloured jewels combined with woolen clothing, also dyed brigh colours - gemstones offering some dyes, trade providing others - to make up for the otherwise rather drab colours, the greens and greys and browns around them.

So to someone unaware of how they got to look the way they look, it might seem off to have a pale-skinned eastern asian appearance combined with bright colours reminiscent of India, in styles that are more Celtic with jewellery that looks more Egyptian and a religion that is perhaps inspired by Buddhism with a serious focus on water; but if you look at the geography and climate of where they live it makes perfect sense.


Or you might have an equatorial inland sea with numerous islands, fertile river valleys and lots of rainforests. The people living in this region might have dark skin, a religion with a sun god and a sea goddess and a few other minor deities, a very strong sea-faring tradition with boats that look like Viking vessels and sea charts made of sticks and shells, and light airy clothing like that the classical Greeks wore made of linen and largely undyed or with natural colour dyes (browns, mostly) and status shown by pearls sewn into garments rather than worn as jewellery.

But, since they've got some long distance trade links, you often see brown-skinned people from the northwest, who wear wide-brimmed hats and gold jewellery and worship rivers; pale-skinned people from the far south whose preference is for dark colours and who are repeatedly amazed by the sight of the sea, as they're inland-based and reached by river only; and a light brown-skinned ethnicity from the east with a fascination for birds and a tendency to build as tall as they can and make food as spicy as they can, and a very strict hierarchical social system based around the day of the week you were born on. These all mix freely in a few trade hub cities where gold, wine and numerous commodoties flow with ease.


Being inventive with worldbuilding makes it very easy to introduce diversity. And isn't worldbuild a major part of fantasy?

 

[Devor]

Why can't x race/ethnicity be replaced with another it's fantasy after all, we are in total control of what we create. Only problem is those same questions can be asked in reverse. Why can't x race/ethnicity be white? If a writer is arbitrarily picking for the sole sake of diversity then it's meaning is hollow.

The issue isn't the portrayal. The issue comes from ignoring the concerns of a specific subgroup of your audience, as if you don't really care whether they read you or not. It's the real people who matter, not the fake ones.

 

[saellys]

Only problem is those same questions can be asked in reverse. Why can't x race/ethnicity be white? If a writer is arbitrarily picking for the sole sake of diversity then it's meaning is hollow. However it is fantasy and we are in control but I think before someone decides or even thinks to diversify their cast they should at least put the time into world building. I think the so called "diversity" should be a little bonus that you discover when finished writing. A little surprise that you didn't even consider. This is, of course, assuming their goal is to be the a great writer first and foremost.

I would hope a partial answer to "why can't x race/ethnicity be white" is that there's already quite sufficient representation of white people in the fantasy genre. Assigning different races to your fantasy cultures on purpose is not hollow. It's called making an effort. As long as they're believable, compelling characters, there's nothing hollow about it.

Discovering diversity after you finish writing would be nice, but the sad fact is that an overwhelming majority of the time, it doesn't happen. I've lived this. My co-writers and I looked back at our first draft and discovered it was completely whitewashed. That's one of many things we're working to fix now. My goal is to be a great writer first and foremost, and part of that means writing a broad swath of humanity.

Being inventive with worldbuilding makes it very easy to introduce diversity. And isn't worldbuild a major part of fantasy?

I love your examples because they bring together disparate elements that we'd recognize from the real world. I wish more writers worldbuilt like that.

The issue isn't the portrayal. The issue comes from ignoring the concerns of a specific subgroup of your audience, as if you don't really care whether they read you or not. It's the real people who matter, not the fake ones.

Agreed, but that can also embrace the portrayal (the aforementioned point about stereotypes).

I've said it before on this forum, but it still staggers me how many writers shrug it off when people point out problematic things in their work. "That's not my target audience" is a popular refrain. Well, A) if they're reading my work, they're my audience and I should value their perspective, and B) my target audience is people. I'm a writer--humanity is my business.

 

[Philip Overby]

I really think this issue comes down to each individual writer. If writers care about these matters, trying to make their worlds diverse, then that works for them. It makes sense to me personally to have a diverse cast simply because our world is diverse. We all have unique histories that have criss-crossed over each other in good and bad ways over the years. I find utilizing different cultures and how they butt up against one another or assimilate or whatever the case may be is fascinating for a fantasy world. However, I can't force another writer's hand. It's up to them if they want to explore this way of creating a world.

At the end of the day, it's really going to be depend on a group that hasn't been mentioned much in this discussion: readers. If readers are scrambling to read stories with more diverse casts, or interested in non-English speaking authors, then publishers will push these stories. If fantasy or sci-fi readers don't show much interest in changing the status quo, then things will stay basically the same.

I'd like to draw a small parallel. When the movie "The Ring" came out in the U.S, suddenly there was this influx of interest in Japanese horror films. No one had shown much interest in these kind of films prior to this point. It was a different take than American fans were used to: more tension, less gore, more creepiness, less jump scares. It had an appeal for a short while and even introduced more Japanese style horror to the market. However, the well dried out. People are still making Japanese horror films today. But the U.S. public isn't scrambling for this anymore.

In the literary world, we have Martin's fantasy becoming more widely popular due to Game of Thrones. Therefore, we'll probably see more and more political fantasy with a darker feel to them. If the audience wants this stuff, the market provides it. Supply and demand.

So in order for there to be increased diversity in fantasy and sci-fi truly, readers have to vote with their wallets. If they don't want the same old same old, don't buy it. That's the only true way to change anything. But first a handful of writers have to write fantasy that includes diverse casts of different races, genders, sexual orientation, classes, etc.

It really only takes a few to instigate real change. But they have to be good. If some of the best writers step up and change, more will follow. And then we'll get real diversity. Writers and readers on the same page. Not just diverse for the sake of doing it. Not just plugging a stereotype into a role. Real diversity.

That's what I hope anyway.

 

[Devor]

Agreed, but that can also embrace the portrayal (the aforementioned point about stereotypes).

I've said it before on this forum, but it still staggers me how many writers shrug it off when people point out problematic things in their work. "That's not my target audience" is a popular refrain. Well, A) if they're reading my work, they're my audience and I should value their perspective, and B) my target audience is people. I'm a writer--humanity is my business.

For some points targeting is more valid an explanation than others. Sometimes you have to end up making tradeoffs between audiences - usually when you pick the main characters and themes and story elements because different people are interested in different things. And of course the writer (or producer/company) is going to be better at handling some types of content compared to others. But when it comes to secondary characters, secondary themes, you're almost always going to expand your audience by considering the wider market.

 

[Chilari]

I've expanded on my above post and added some pictures including one of a giraffe as drawn by Chinese people in the 15th century, on my blog. Link in sig, if anyone wants to read. It's not so much "why" as "how to".