Why Does Representation Matter in Fiction?
In the history of storytelling, there are great examples of heroes who don’t fall into the common mould of the time; Tamora Pierce, for example, is well loved for subverting the norm by giving us amazing characters like the cast of Circle of Magic or Alanna of Trebond.
But those characters were few and far between. Which has brought us to the current day, when many readers still automatically assume characters are white, straight, and cisgender unless otherwise specified. 99% of the time this is an unconscious choice based on what we’ve been programmed to expect, rather than malicious.
However, it does highlight the need for more color, more curiosity, and more interesting characters who better reflect the diversity of our own world.
A favorite example from my own reading experience is the character of Cinna, from the Hunger Games. I imagined him as a middle-aged, handsome white man without question. But when I saw Lenny Kravitz in the role, I had an immediate response of joy, not for any so-called “agenda” or need for shoe-horned representation, but because Lenny Kravitz was perfect and immediately overrode my original image.
I agree that there are many cases, especially in movies and TV, where diversity is being used as a way to get audiences in the theaters and fill a quota. They are often poor examples that are sidelined or whose character arcs are laid out in a way that makes it clear the writers wanted to sound progressive, but with minimal effort and research into the cultures they’re portraying.
This doesn’t mean we need less representation, but rather better and more nuanced representation. Not in the sense of replacing one race, gender, sexuality, religion, culture etc. for another, but with the goal of creating worlds with a rich tapestry of unique characters with unique experiences. Characters who are not thrown in for token diversity where their difference is mentioned once and never touched on again.
We’re in an amazing age where writers are diversifying their stories in literature and other media. I’ve been working toward this in my own writing and it has helped me to create characters who are fun to write, who feel real, who have their own personal trials based around how they experience the world they live in.
A fictional world does not need to have the same labels or races or identifiers as ours. Why in a universe where characters can have purple eyes, or who can transform into animals and perform magic, would we stick to the same standards? Diversity in fiction shouldn’t be explored for the sake of a political agenda, or to check a box. It should be written with the hope of reaching out to the readers, broadening the audience of people who can fall in love with and relate to the story.
Because that’s the point of storytelling in the first place — to immerse us, to help us understand ourselves better, and most importantly: so that we can understand how people who are different than us feel and think and live.
