There Absolutely is Such a Thing as Forced Diversity, and Here’s Why it’s Hurting Creativity

Picture by Anete Lusina

Forced diversity primarily occurs in fictional adaptions — works adapting a given medium, usually books, where a character’s basic premises, such as ethnicity, personality, or sexuality, is warped to fit into the modern, American social agenda. A female character suddenly becomes a token feminist in the most stereotypical sense, a character’s homosexuality is highlighted to the point it eclipses the rest of their essence, a white character is black-washed even when the character’s whiteness is an inherent part of who they are.

I am dubbing it “modern, American social agenda” because, it should go without saying, not all nations share in the US’ social dynamics. By virtue of its difficult history, steeped in the near genocide of one ethnic group and the enslavement of another, today’s America clamours for representation long denied throughout the country’s history. The core issue with forced diversity is that, while the idea of increasing diversity in fiction is good, the methods employed to go about it often are not.

Diversity done right

To head straight into it, let’s look at examples of diversity done right.

Tenet