It usually happens this way: someone nonchalantly asks for suggestions for women authors/women main characters/diverse main characters/LGBT authors/etc. etc. Someone, always, somewhere, will say, “I don’t care what the author’s race/religion/colour/sexual orientation/favourite dog/favourite ice cream/favourite sexual position is, all that matters is a good story.” I generally avoid getting into discussions like these, simply because oftentimes, the people involved aren’t actually interested in changing their minds about the topic, and I know I’m not educated enough about statistics and so on to be able to form a coherent argument.
I can say, however, that it hurts to hear something like that. What is meant as an “innocent comment” can end up sounding insulting if you consider that most authors don’t just set out to “write a good story.” They’re seeking to share something important to them–which, yes, very often involves their culture and every other facet of who they are as a person, no matter what their background–express their very being, as it were. Sometimes these things align with the reader, and they have an understanding: “This author knows what I’m going through! This author understands me!” Sometimes it doesn’t.
To tell an author that you don’t care about these things tells them that you don’t care about the nuances or details. “I don’t care about what they’re eating or how they view society from their perspective, just start entertaining me already!” More often than not, no matter what the gender or ethnicity or background of the author, these things DO matter to them…that’s why they made it to the story in the first place.
It’s a comment rooted in ignorance, I think, in how storytelling works, because the magic in storytelling doesn’t really happen out of nowhere. Authors pull bits and pieces of themselves in order to make a story live and breathe, which is why celebrating a variety of authors always ends up so refreshing, because you’re seeing so many different perspectives, so many ways to approach the same problem.
So instead of saying… “I don’t care about any of those things,” maybe these readers can learn to say, “I care about it all. Tell me more. Show me more.” Dear authors, express yourselves, because God knows there is no way in hell you can read your audience’s mind to present to them what they think they want, so you might as well draw from inside.
All wishful thinking, I suppose.
