Re: Thoughts on Shoehorning unrelated content into works of entertainment.
And to respond to people using one trait to represent some folks:
Mostly agreed, actually. There are definitely moments of cringe. Some of them are because we are still new at actually making sure people are fairly represented, and we hit sour notes sometimes. Some of it is because it's a form of signal-boosting, and it's awkward and it's not the best way but it's not necessarily awful either. Again, language is everything. In good fiction, especially, we're going to get details we don't need. I don't care who so-and-so sleeps with unless they're part of the main story, but guess what? I'm gonna get that detail. And if it's done artfully enough, I may be made to care, because suddenly this person is more than just the driving force of a story. Suddenly they have a life, an identity. And of course, everyone's balance point is different there.
I'm writing a novel, it might actually be a series. One of my characters is bisexual, and I don't make a big deal out of it. She just is what she is; some characters comment on it because not everyone in the world is keen for it, but that's just society for you. An entirely different character is asexual, and there's a reason for it. But it's not going to be like "meet so-and-so, the asexual character". I'm not big on tokenism. When I was writing the bi one, I was writing a scene and a barmaid was involved, and I'm like, "These two were lovers once", and boom. It clicked. It made sense. It wasn't shoehorned. I'd be annoyed and dismissive if someone read this and said "you just wanted to shoehorn representation". Same deal as if another of my characters is dark-skinned and has been oppressed in some fashion, and that comes up. Art imitates life sometimes. If you aren't comfortable with that, re-examine your privilege.
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