deusbex:

smitethepatriarchy:

People: Writers should try and include under-represented populations in their works of fiction because lack of representation has been shown to contribute to low self-esteem, mental illness, discrimination and prejudice, all which leads to higher rates of unemployment, poverty, hunger, and suicide. Anti-SJ: How dare you try to force writers to write things they don’t want to write! How dare you try to mind-control them into diversity! People can write whatever they want and if you criticize them at all for it, that is literally fascism! JJ Abrams: The new Star Wars movie stars a cishet thin able-bodied white woman and a cishet thin able-bodied black man. Anti-SJ: THIS IS SOCIAL JUSTICE PANDERING. HOW DARE YOU. Director of The Hunger Games movie: Rue is black. Anti-SJ: HOW DARE YOU. Director of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Hermione is black. JK Rowling: Sweet. Anti-SJ: HOOOOOWWWWWWW DAAAAAARRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE

It matters, but at the same time (as a writer) I’m not going to pander to people’s desire for diversity. I’ve never wrote a female protagonist - not out of sexism, but because I find it easier to write a male character whom I myself can relate to.

The truth is that writers don’t need to be forced, or even encouraged, to write a diverse cast. Seriously, there are tons of LGBT authors, authors covering racism or even transphobia, etc. The issue is that these books supposedly don’t sell and that big companies view them as “unmarketable”.

Elsewhere within media, and namely music, have you heard of an artist called Matt Fishel? He started his own career from scratch after a recording label refused his song unless he changed the pronouns from “he” to “her”. Matt’s gay, but the label thought that a homoromantic relationship wasn’t marketable and “tasteful” for radio.

tl;dr It often isn’t the artists fault, rather the audience and publishers themselves.