October Question Meme: Day Six

[rogueslayer452]

Asked by philstar22:

What sorts of fandoms/characters do you wish existed or wish there were more of and why?

This should be a given, but I wish there was more diversity, especially in fantasy and science fiction. It's disappointing knowing that there's all this imagination in creating a made-up world, only to be so restrictive in representation. Like, I love you Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, but it isn't beyond plausibility to have Asian hobbits or more women warriors. This also implies to other genres, too. The fact that there's this fear of having proper representation of women, of minorities, of presenting sexuality that isn't in some perfect little label box or ignored, is astounding to me. I mean we're slowly getting there bit by bit and the small victories we get should be celebrated, but we should already be there by now.

Comments

[potentiality-26.livejournal.com]

You're right about the business being difficult, and I blame the people in the big chairs more than individual creators, because so much of the entertainment industry seems to just be stagnating. If you look at the comparatively big risks Netflix is taking with shows like Orange is the New Black, you'd think that network TV could take a much smaller risk and- say- vaguely allude to Constantine having a male ex or something.

I think the main reason I get frustrated is that I'll watch shows from the sixties and seventies and see that they tried so hard to push the envelope. Were they sometimes incidentally racist and sexist? Sure, but they were also actively trying to be inclusive. Sometimes I think that the media today has lost a lot of that, because they sort of decided "we're good now" when we really aren't yet.