Representation in Your Writing

This is the way the media depicts the world as being:

Straight

White

Male

Cisgender

Middle-Class

And that is not only wrong, it is also freaking incorrect.

The world is diverse, and our writing needs to show that accurately and respectfully. This isn’t about being ‘politically correct’ or anything, it’s about necessity.

We’ve come a long way from our thirteen year old weaboo selves writing Mary Sue OCs in poorly done fanfiction. There is no longer a reason for we as writers to have such homogenized visions. The easy way is to write characters from just our own cultural circle. That’s bland. People exist outside of stereotypes, and so should your depictions of them.

We justify this by saying things like: “I’m afraid of misrepresenting ___” or as ‘coming off offensive.”

Those are indeed real fears writers face, but we need to overcome them. What’s worse than having a poorly fleshed out character? Having zero diversity. (That is not to say that a stereotype is excusable either. If they exist as a punchline or trope, reconsider how you’ve depicted them, not whether or not you should even depict them.)

Research (more than just) a little, represent a lot. Learn what it can be like to live on a Reservation, find out more about hiring practices for people who aren’t white, or what bathroom experiences are like for people who identify as neither male nor female.

They don’t have to be sob stories and their differences shouldn’t make up their characters, but ‘they’ need to be in our TV shows, movies, books… it’s not a matter of choice as much as it is a necessity for today’s writers. Make them more than ‘they.’

 It’s going to mean something when your audience can identify and find themselves in your writing.