Diana
Diana
Nov 4 · 1 min read

This is such a good piece, Ashia, I love it.

“But these experiences are erased and minimized, sidelined by the narrative’s focus on the internal strife and character development of the white lead, whose struggles — by virtue of being the lead — are de-facto portrayed as the most important in the narrative.”

This really hit me. I think you have a truly important point — while a nice and different cast of side characters is always good to see, it’s extremely naïve to think that we don’t attribute the importance and weight of the conflict to the main character.

As a White Queer Author, I’ve also noticed my own tendency to float towards QPOC simply as love interests or sidekick friends. I think it’s the natural response for someone who goes “I want to be diverse, inclusive and conscious in my writing, but doing so takes a lot of work and listening so…”

Like, we aren’t brave enough to go for a non-white lead (bc that’s easier to suss out when you haven’t done any research), but a non-white LI is like saying “I have a person of color who’s /just as/ important as the protagonist, but we never have to go into their own thoughts and feelings so I don’t actually have to think about how their experiences might differ”.

Anyway, thanks for writing this!

    Diana

    Written by

    Diana

    Young, queer, and terrified of rollercoasters. They/them @gomadelpelorota on twitter.