Suggestion : Draw characteristics of your characters randomly, weighted by how common they actually are in our world.
Tell me you have never consumed any form of Chinese media without telling me.
My Monster Hunter Wilds character is a black guy. I’m a white dude, but I like that whenever I play I get to see some goddamn diversity kickin’ ass. It’s so easy, and it actually helps relate in a way because you actively look for common points where before you wouldn’t have to do that actively*.
*This does not, in any way, mean that I think we shouldn’t have representation. Representation is incredibly important.
I see what they’re going for and I think it’s good to have diverse perspectives represented, but if you actually said this to a “white cis guy is the default” person they would just tell you “this is America, not China, and white cis guy is the default here. Just look at who is rich and successful.” It’s not the gotcha the original poster thinks it is because it’s appealing to a greater view of the world than the racist, sexist person wants to have.
If someone told me the protagonist should be a white guy I wouldn’t directly tell them they’re wrong, I’d express my own counter opinion that I don’t want to see the same thing over and over again, I want to see new stuff, and seeing another white dude is boring and therefore kinda lame. Maybe point to accessible movies like how Annihilation has cool action and visuals but also a distinctly feminine aspect that distinguishes it from something like Oblivion. Or how Everything Everywhere All at Once has a scene about someone giving up the life they had to emigrate to another country and the feelings that came from that which a standard white dude won’t feel.
Edit: Sorry, I missed which community this is. Feel free to remove my comment if it’s not appropriate.
Reminds me of a thing that I learnt a few years ago: There is no such thing as an average person. As soon as you look at more than a handful of statistics, noone is within 1 sd of the mean in all of them. The US air force found this out when trying to design a cockpit for the average person, and then found that noone could use it effectively. That’s why you should always design for the extremes, and then the design is better for everyone (see curb cut effect).
The average human is a Chinese guy named Mohammed Wang
With slightly less than 1 testicle
The average married couple is Mohammed Wang and his wife Mary Li.
I think this says a lot about how non white people are literally whitewashed out of the world. white isn’t average it’s just dominant
And it’s not even genetically dominant! 😉
Isn’t that kind of the point of everything everywhere all at once?
The average human also has more than 206 bones
And less than two legs and two arms…
And that number fluctuates, like right now I have chicken wings in the freezer.
Thank you for reminding me to take my bones out of the freezer. I like you!
Y- … Your own bones?
I remember when people were decrying the fact “The only role model our boys have is harry potter!” Because everything else was too female or foreign
I don’t remember that. When was it a thing?
Turn of the century. I’m old 'n shit.
I remember that. It was a thing in that people said it and appeared to believe it. It was not a thing in that Harry Potter was not ever at any point in history the “only role model” for boys.
Absolutely not. I recall Chuck Palahniuk saying there weren’t enough male role models for the average guy once and thought he was full of shit, too.
I grew up idolizing male role models because there weren’t enough strong women in popular media. Then 28 Days Later came out and I was like… holy fuck - a woman with a machete who does not fuck around. It opened my eyes to more kick ass women in history and media.
