to default dudes* who write sci-fi/fantasy novels/films: stop with the boring repetitive bullshit ok
To those who have been published: Stop colonizing every single damn world with your boring-ass self. Avatar would have been more beautiful and intriguing without human colonizers (and, Cameron, THREE MORE movies ALL told from the colonizer's perspective? WHAT THE FUCK). Naboo’s history told through the eyes of the Gungans would have been fascinating. The Ents deserve stories of their own instead of glimpses from humans and kinda-humans (seriously, Ents were Tolkien’s only real creative bit). Yvaine’s story would have been way more interesting without whiny white dude Tristan trying to use her for his own gain. Seriously, get the fuck out of the way and make new worlds without soiling them with yourself and/or your race as the ‘hero’ or villain. Your privilege-poisoned idea that nobody will care if there isn’t a white dude at the center of the story is just flat-out wrong. I know you probably don't see it, it's "just the way the world works" -- so self-educate. There is no fucking excuse for ignorance with the resources at your disposal. People like Gaiman, Lucas, Cameron, you are especially responsible for the white supremacist patriarchal sludge that passes for sci-fi, because with your power you could write ANYTHING you want.
To those who haven't been published, who write the same damn shit: No you don't get a pass because you have less power. If you actually believed in equality you'd put it in your fucking books. No, getting published ISN'T more important than being an ethical storyteller. No, it isn't acceptable for you to write books exclusively about the exploits of white straight men just because 'that is what will sell.' If you write what will sell, you're not creating art, you are creating advertizing. MAYBE if you had a plan for a series that began with a default dude and moved on to focus on other people I might believe your excuse that you want to write what will sell, but you never move on, do you; I've seen the endless white-dude series that happens when you do get published. The publishing industry is problematic but if they had no colonialist white supremacist patriarchal bullshit to publish they'd have to accept other options. Stop giving them what they want, or rather, what you say they want because it is what you want. Compromising the story so that the publisher can have a self-insert is blasphemous to art; the world doesn't need artists who reproduce bullshit instead of creating art. If that's what you are actually doing it's horrible, but I bet what you're really doing is not even realizing what you are reproducing, and how very terrestrial and boring and commonplace your "other world" is. I bet what you really are is someone who hasn't yet realized that it is not inevitable, sensible, common (in a universal sense), or positive for the world to revolve around your kind.
NOTE: this is NOT a call for recommendations for books by straight white males. Part of the problem is that the market is deeply skewed toward inclusion of default dudes writing default stories. If you respond to this with a recommendation, the main character better not be a default dude and it better fucking pass the Bechdel test for both race and sex. If the author of said book happens to be a white straight man, I won't hold it against them.
*a default dude is white, male, straight, cisgender, non-disabled, neurotypical, and usually USian.
To those who haven't been published, who write the same damn shit: No you don't get a pass because you have less power. If you actually believed in equality you'd put it in your fucking books. No, getting published ISN'T more important than being an ethical storyteller. No, it isn't acceptable for you to write books exclusively about the exploits of white straight men just because 'that is what will sell.' If you write what will sell, you're not creating art, you are creating advertizing. MAYBE if you had a plan for a series that began with a default dude and moved on to focus on other people I might believe your excuse that you want to write what will sell, but you never move on, do you; I've seen the endless white-dude series that happens when you do get published. The publishing industry is problematic but if they had no colonialist white supremacist patriarchal bullshit to publish they'd have to accept other options. Stop giving them what they want, or rather, what you say they want because it is what you want. Compromising the story so that the publisher can have a self-insert is blasphemous to art; the world doesn't need artists who reproduce bullshit instead of creating art. If that's what you are actually doing it's horrible, but I bet what you're really doing is not even realizing what you are reproducing, and how very terrestrial and boring and commonplace your "other world" is. I bet what you really are is someone who hasn't yet realized that it is not inevitable, sensible, common (in a universal sense), or positive for the world to revolve around your kind.
NOTE: this is NOT a call for recommendations for books by straight white males. Part of the problem is that the market is deeply skewed toward inclusion of default dudes writing default stories. If you respond to this with a recommendation, the main character better not be a default dude and it better fucking pass the Bechdel test for both race and sex. If the author of said book happens to be a white straight man, I won't hold it against them.
*a default dude is white, male, straight, cisgender, non-disabled, neurotypical, and usually USian.