CoC in demand

[kattahj]

So, I started thinking about just how many CoCs are underrepresented in fandom, sometimes vastly so (*cough* Gus on Psych * cough*), and it became rather depressing - and then I started wondering about the ones that aren't underrepresented, and why that is.

At which point thelana made a very interesting post about that, among other things. Her example of

Comments

[alixtii]

I think class is a huge factor in which characters of color get written. When I examined my own writing and what characters I had written and which characters I would have an interest in writing, class was the huge divider.

Now, if lower-class white characters routinely get written (by an individual or by fandom as a group), we're back to some complex race/class intersectionality. And I suspect that may be the case. The only one that jumps easily to mind is Faith from Buffy, but I suspect that may have more to do with the fact that, figuratively speaking, I haven't "had my coffee" yet. A lot to think about here, though, so thank you!

[kattahj]

Well, Rose Tyler is working class, the Winchesters too. Of course, they're main characters, which most of the working class CoCs don't seem to be. So I think it's a factor, but that there's more to it than that.

Huh, I now suddenly get an urge to check my own writing when it comes to class.

[0nlymemories]

And for what it's worth, Eliza Dushku is of Romanian descent and there are a lot of places in the States where she wouldn't get read immediately as "white".

[undomielregina]

I'd have to disagree there. I'm of Romanian decent and I know my full-Romanian relatives (I even knew my great-grandmother, who was born there.) We would all be read as white immediately no matter where we were and, looking at Dushku, so would she.

[0nlymemories]

Being from Northeastern Oklahoma probably gives me a skewed perspective on this, but if she were going to college here she'd be presumed to be at least part Native American. I suspect that it's the fact that the vast majority of Caucasian settlers to the area were Irish/Scottish, but generally speaking anyone with an olive skin tone of any sort is presumed to be either Native or Hispanic automatically.

I'm not saying that there aren't huge swaths of the country where you're right, but it's definitely not true everywhere.

[tiferet]

Eh. I find that in California a lot of Jewish or just plain dark people get taken for Latin all the time. I sure do. Then again I don't think it matters quite as much out here. I'm always uncomfortable when I go back home to the South or the Midwest (relatives in both places) and everyone seems to look kind of alike because there are almost no Latin or Asian people and the black and white people don't go to the same places.