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Creative hobbies and spaces really expose people's biases (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 days ago by wastelandpilot@lemmy.world to c/goodoffmychest@lemmy.world

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Just a thought, but, as someone who has spent a lot of time in online fandom and creative spaces (writing, roleplay, and art), it's really clear in what sorts of characters people's biases lie.

The older I get the more I notice a lack of proper POC characters (who aren't just fetishizations or blatantly whitewashed), female characters, and LGBT characters who aren't white gay men or sexless feminine lesbians. People say genuinely concerning things about their inability (or lack of interest in) expanding the diversity of their roster, like, "I don't know how to write women" (even when they are actually women in real life!)

It's absurd because most creative spaces are actually DOMINATED BY these minorities, and yet the sorts of characters that are labored over don't reflect these demographics at all.

I guess I just wish people would examine their biases more (EVEN if one is a minority IRL) because it helps you grow as a creative to expand your horizons and consider perspectives and possibilities that you didn't before. Also consider how the media you're exposed to causes you to form biases, because you are not immune to propaganda.

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[–] SparrowHawk@feddit.it 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

can't even imagine what "i don't know how to write women" is like

like...just write a person...that is a woman...

there are contextual superstructures that i really struggle to perceive but that people shape all of their perspective on without realizing it.

I wish there was a way to mass dispel this curse

[–] wastelandpilot@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

To be fair, much of the media and art that people are exposed to doesn't really center people who are not of the "majority." So it makes sense to be conditioned over the years to subtly value such people and perspectives more. But it's also depressing, and a lot of people don't question their own feelings, especially if it's more subconscious and not based on anything that seems political to themselves. I guess the answer is to just keep on going with this long slog of trying to project those who are seldom in the spotlight, until people really do see them equally, really see them, not just acknowledge in the back of their heads that, sometimes, Those People exist, but you don't really have to care about them.