In a recent tweet, TV writer Dani Fernandez rightly told off anyone who thinks inclusivity is “forced diversity.”
“I don’t understand why adding gay characters or poc characters is ‘forcing’ diversity when they are literally everywhere in the real world,” she tweeted on February 26. “Like what planet is your character on where everyone is straight and white lmao.”
I don’t understand why adding gay characters or poc characters is “forcing” diversity when they are literally everywhere in the real world. Like what planet is your character on where everyone is straight and white lmao
— Dani Fernandez (@msdanifernandez) February 27, 2020
Related: Our diversity is our strength, as these 8 LGBTQ icons testify
Fernandez — who’s also an actress, podcast host, and frequent Comic-Con panelist — also spoke out about diversity in January after famed novelist Stephen King said he would “never consider diversity” in his voting for the Academy Awards.
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“Stephen, you know this industry and those in charge, as well as the award voter demo very well so I ask you: who is deciding what’s of ‘quality’ and what do they look like?” she wrote at the time. “Is it possible that if the majority of voters look a certain way they are going to resonate more with stories and actors and films that reflect them? They are of ‘quality’ to them. And while we have some outliers, the majority of nominees throughout history remains the same.”
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By the way, keep an eye on Fernandez. In December, HBO Max ordered a script for 1% Happy, a single-camera comedy she co-wrote which “[shows] the funny and relatable sides of clinical depression” and “challenges both the stigma of mental illness and the United States healthcare system itself,” according to Deadline.
Related: TV continually devalues queer diversity. These 15 pathbreaking shows buck the trend.
And as for the “forced diversity” issue, Urban Dictionary’s top two definitions sum it up nicely: “when something isn’t a straight white male” and “when white men are offended by not being the center of the universe.”
frapachino
She sounds like a racist!
Cam
In other words, the fact that anybody not white being included enrages the new screename for RexHusky.
GlobeTrotter
I am a gay minority and reject all attempts at forced diversity. When you force authors to adhere to ideology, then you no longer have art, but propaganda.
This phenomena was made glaringly clear when I started watching a new TV series a few weeks ago: a municipal fire house company comprises a female boss, a trans firefighter, 2 gay firefighters in a relationship, a Dreamer firefighter, a female firefighter and half the crew are minorities…in short, a left liberal Me Too wet dream.
Problem is, none of this resembles reality and it’s hard to take the plot or the characters seriously. It’s also hard to escape the conclusion that you’re being preached to instead of being told a story and that many of the characters were created more for political ideology than for serving the plot.
Yes to diversity (as long as candidates are qualified) but no to propaganda!
dinard38
You stated that perfectly. Yes to diversity when it mirrors reality. No to forced diversity. I’ll give another example of forced diversity. Two of my favorite shows in the 90s…… Friends and Frasier, both were criticized for not having diverse characters. So what do they do? They hookup Ross with a black girlfriend, played by Aisha Tyler. It was soooooooo awkward!!! On Frasier, they had Kim Coles from In Living Color and Living Single as a guest on the show. Not as awkward as Aisha Tyler on friends but still felt out of place.
As a black man I didn’t have a problem with these shows being lily white. There were no white characters on shows like Living Single or Martin, and I don’t think many would expect there to be.
Do I want to see more diversity on TV and in movies?? Heck yeah. But let’s keep it real and not forced.
frapachino
“Lily white”? Racist much dude?
Osterfool
I thought the same thing when I saw the pilot of that particular show (9-1-1: Lone Star). Damn they’re going a bit overboard with diversity. But they explained it in-series, I accepted it and very very quickly moved past that and started to fall for virtually every character on that show. They aren’t a Muslim, a feminist, 2 queer firefighters (actually 1 gay firefighter in a “are they or are they not” relationship with a gay Hispanic cop) or even an interracial happily married couple. I personally don’t feel like I’m being force fed anything other than riveting drama. I take issue more at the completely outrageous emergencies that are presented on the show than the characters themselves. I mean come on… a car crashes and the baby seat in the back somehow detaches, escapes the car completely and winds up 20-30 feet above safely on a tree branch? And the baby doesn’t make a sound (in the rain) until the precise moment they realize he’s missing? Suuuuure.
James D
Everyone should watch ‘Visible: Out On Television’ On Apple TV+. It is very eye opening and informative. It might make you think twice before repeating this “forced diversity” BS. Watching LGBT characters on TV was life changing to me.
GentlemanCaller
I think it’s fine to have a spectrum of people in roles: she’s right, that if you live in a metropolitan area of any decent size you’re going to see all kinds of people all the time. The issue I have is with over-representation: for instance, if a racial group constitutes 12% of the population, why is it necessary to demand that they appear in 50% of roles? And if a sexual minority constitutes 10% of the population, it’s unreasonable to expect that 100% of the roles featuring LGBT people will be played by LGBT actors, unless we want fewer depictions of ourselves. On the other hand, women represent more than 50% of the population, and yet most of the major roles in movies and TV feature men. So go figure.
ScottOnEarth
Some people have clearly missed her point – it’s not *forced* diversity, but, rather, the real world. The world is not all white, skinny, young, American and heterosexual; however, looking at a lot of movies and TV shows, one might think otherwise. Diversity in the media is a reflection of reality.
Cam
She literally is saying cast people based on reality, not on the 1950s exclusionary policies of Hollywood.