We’ve spoken
repeatedly about the paucity of marginalised people being represented in all
forms of media. We’ve seen show after show, book after book and game after game
with no marginalised people. Or, at best, limited tokens clinging to the side
of some privileged people’s stories. We tag those books that have POC, disabled or LGBTQ protagonists - they are by far the
minority of the books we read and generally (albeit not always) far lower
profile and not part of greater series. Often, they’re pushed aside or shuffled
into their own side or niche genre
This can be seen very
much in the trend of long paranormal romance series: The Black DaggerBrotherhood, Dark Hunter Series, Argeneu Series and so many others feature long
chains of romances, a new romance with each book, constantly showcasing more
straight and primarily white romances. While the excellent Guildhunter Series
and Psy Changeling series feature many POC, they, again, show a chain of
straight romances. LGBTQ people, when they appear, are confined to bit
characters, usually supportive (or terribly
terribly represented) and not given close to the same representation as the straight
couples. And when you have a series of 15+ straight couples, the comparison
becomes glaring
It’s not, of course, that romance with gay characters doesn’t exist - but it is very much a separate, (and heavily colonised and problematic) genre. The idea that these romances should be blended into mainstream romance seems almost… alien. These are niche stories that belong in their niche subset
We see this pressure
for pushing marginalised characters into niche genres very much with the
assumption Societal
Default - that every time a marginalised character is present it must be for an
agenda or a reason (and, the implication being, that with that reason it should then be a
specialty “niche” show again). Our society is far more comfortable with a show
like RuPaul’s Drag Race or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy or even
the L Word and Queer as Folk than it is with a gay superhero show
(you’ll not my conspicuous lack of giving an example here). The former all have
concepts where the LGBTQness is “justified” and has a “reason” and, as such,
fits its appropriate “niche”.
We see this as well in the powerful backlash
we get when these characters and stories step outside their niche. Star Wars
“fandom” has driven
marginalised actors off social media for the terrible crime of bringing POC to the
franchise. Star Trek
discovery faced a similar racist outrage, Black Lightning, and Luke
Cage had a wave of outrage and protest and the epic shitfits pitched about Black
Panther was the stuff of legend. One of those terrible legends where the world
ends and we’re all eaten by giant wolves.
This definitely extends
to women with both typical backlash against Wonderwoman and the mere fact that
Batman and Superman have both had a mindboggling number of films made about
them - but Wonderwoman’s has only just been released despite being a
contemporary. And Jodie Whittaker’s new role as the Doctor has not only
prompted a backlash but also prompted her excellent comeback: Women
Shouldn’t Be a Genre
In all these cases we
had marginalised characters and stories stepping outside their niche; their
specific defined genres to tell their specific, permissible stories. I actually
participated in one especially annoying comment thread where a pouting man was
upset that Star Wars was abandoning its concept and reason for existing. He
compared including marginalised characters in Star Wars to having men control
NOW and NARAL - he sees marginalised characters mere existence as pursuing an
agenda that is antithetical to the genre itself.
This mentality, this
idea that marginalised characters may only exist - or only be important - in
certain niche genres, telling certain permitted stories greatly limits how
marginalised people see themselves - and it also greatly limits marginalised
writers. It has taken far too long for Octavia Butler to be recognised as a
pillar of the sci-fi community and I can’t even imagine how many of her
contemporaries deserve to be recognised but are not because sci-fi isn’t their
appropriate “niche”. N.K.
Jemisin has even written an excellent piece on why she doesn’t want her books
shelved in an African American section of the book store.
Let’s be clear, I’m not
saying these niches can’t have value. There is value in having marginalised
media produced by marginalised people for the consumption of said marginalised
people (there is a reason why #Ownvoices is so important). There is value in marginalised people being able to explore, represent
and embrace issues which are specific to themselves without having to explain
them to people who don’t experience them. Kind of like being able to tell an
in-joke without having to explain the context to random passers by. Or not
having non-marginalised people leap into family discussions to Give Their
Important Opinions.
But niches are great
places for marginalised people to visit and use - but they can’t be prisons;
they can’t be an excuse to drive marginalised people away from everywhere else
Similarly,
marginalised people are obviously going to understand and connect to elements
of a television show, book or computer game with marginalised characters that
none-marginalised people do not. Black Panther is going to have more impact and
meaning when raising issues of colonialism, Black Lightning touched on issues
like police violence against Black people, just about every LGBTQ show has
included both the closet and coming out (sometimes there seems to be no other
LGBTQ themes ever). These are obviously going to be more meaningful to
marginalised people to whom these are very relevant to and part of their daily
lives and cultural experiences
But even here, part
of the reason why these issues lack resonance with non-marginalised people is
not just personal experience but also this habit of forcing marginalised work
into these niches. Marginalised people are commonly expected to be able to
connect with and identify with media that has nothing but privileged
characters. And we do. And we can. We can because even if the experiences
depicted are radically different from our own or our own experiences are
(repeatedly) excised from the narrative, we can identify it because we’re still
immersed in these issues - because they dominate our culture completely and
they dominate our media. Marginalised people have grown up consuming media that
constantly immersed them in the lives of cishet white men - the idea that
women, POC, disabled people or LGBTQ people, cannot connect to these stories
and these characters is never considered because of this immersion.
The flip side of that
is we reinforce the distance cishet, white, able bodied people maintain between
themselves and the lives of marginalised people. These issues continue to be
“the other”, or “niche interest” and we passively give non-marginalised people
a pass on caring about these issues, considering these issues real or even
knowing these issues exist.
This deliberate
separation of marginalised characters, marginalised issues and marginalised
stories to “niche” or “separate” genres damages marginalised people by
constantly casting us as Other, as unsuitable for mainstream consumption and
generally making them less accessible - and less profitable and less numerous
and with less diverse stories. But it also removes marginalised people from the
vision of the “mainstream” - in fact, it creates a “mainstream”, a “normal”
that doesn’t include marginalised people, their lives or their issues at all.
It allows privileged people to look away, to dismiss, to ignore and - as we see
time and again - throw epic tantrums when marginalised issues arise. It allows
them to live in a bubble where these issues, these people, are rarely relevant,
never important or even allowed to exist. At best it fosters a terrible
ignorance and lack of empathy and at worst and outright hostility
This, thankfully, is
changing, but the very resistance to this greater inclusion is proof why it
needs to happen and why privileged people continuing to exist in these bubbles
needs to stop.
