So, The Dresden Files, is about a wizard in Chicago facing down all kinds of problems and breaking all the rules. The Iron Druid Chronicles, is about a millennia year old Druid getting by in a world full of deities that often wish him harm. The Elemental Assassin Series, is about a lethal magical assassin fighting the good fight in a corrupt city. The Morganville Vampires Series, is about a girl trying to live in a town completely controlled by vampires.
Basic, simple descriptions of what a book series is about. And you would think that the only way to change these descriptions would be to radically rewrite the entire series. But no, according to many people, I can completely change all of these series with one simple adjustment.
I can make the protagonist a minority. Or I can introduce a non-tokened major character who is a minority. Or I can introduce - horror of horrors - several minorities!
If Harry Dresden were gay, then suddenly The Dresden Files is a series about sexuality. If Claire were Black, then The Morganville Vampires would morph into a book about race. If Gin Blanco were followed around by several GBLT friends, then they may even be books that are trying to play politics or make a point!
Of course, people forget that being straight is a sexuality, or that being White is a race. Harry Dresden is definitely straight, we see several of his love interests (and he hardly sees any woman without wanting to have sex with her) yet, no-one would characterise this series as some kind of treatise on straightness or straight sexuality. But include a major gay character and suddenly it’s making a statement. Now it’s a commentary on all gay sexuality, now it has an agenda.
This is the power of the societal default - the default that allows a privileged race, sexuality, gender, gender identity, etc to stand in as the assumed. You can see this very clearly in the number of books that don’t bother to describe skin tone - unless describing a POC (I once read the line a “a girl was playing with an Asian boy” who can tell me what race the girl was? If your answer was anything but White, you’re deluding yourself).
The most privileged state is considered the generic, it is automatic. You don’t need a reason for your protagonist to be a cis, able bodied, straight, white man. This is the base assumption. You actually need a reason to make a character anything BUT a cis, able bodied, straight, white man. So you can have a cast of 4 or 6 or 10 or even more - and only have one woman because the straight protagonist needs to have a love interest. Or maybe you have a Native American character to provide some woo-woo, or a Black or gay side-kick to provide some sassy one liners.
