On Diversity
I was invited to be at the recent SMASH at the Barbican. As part of the process, each speaker had to do a statement of where they were on the issue. Of the three panels, Joel put me on the Diversity panel as token white guy, and it seemed to go well. All the other speaker’s pieces are here, and you’ll find mine below. The aim was basically to throw down some unconnected thoughts and give some angles of attack on things to talk about. Do read everyone else’s, for the panel I was on, and the other two. These are all smart interesting people and well worth listening to.
Here are a selection of diverse thoughts about the state of diversity.
Perfection is impossible. Relax. “Progressive” imply change. There is no utopia, no stasis. Even the most radical in the room will be Germaine Greer one day. In 20 years time, almost everything all of us are about to say will be problematic. Especially, I suspect, the word “problematic.”
Hearing about girls sitting down and reading Ms. Marvel in the middle of a comic shop and breaking into tears would move anyone. Even a monster like me. However, as important this is, we must not forget the powerful effect on people other than those depicted. By consuming culture about people other than ourselves we flower, and our capacity for understanding and empathy expand. Diversity of culture we consume is one of the the best weapons we have to improve the world. In as much as I was saved, I suspect was saved by Tenar in Ursula Le Guin’s Tombs Of Atuan. I think that Rey may yet save a generation of boys.
It is heartbreaking when I speak to my female peers and say they’ve never had a female role model. I often wonder how having female heroes effected Jamie McKelvie and my own work. We’re monsters, but I suspect less so.
Diversity is not just a social justice issue. Diversity is a formalist issue. Diversity makes better art, as it is truer to the world. The world is diverse. If the art our culture produces does not have the diversity of the world it pertains to show, the art is failing us.
As a creative community we are in a position where all but the biggest dinosaurs agree that diversity is good. We are all pro diversity. This is a problem, in the same way that almost everyone expresses anti-racist sentiments in a world when everyone, via the background radiation of society, is to some degree racist.
To quote Jordie Bellaire’s campaign, Comics Are For Everyone. However, that should not be confused with All Comics Are For Everyone. You cannot please everyone. That is both a truism and a directive. You should not be trying to please everyone. Ironically, the self-censorship makes less diverse art including less diverse world-views.
Creatives are not just a machine to deliver diversity.
Creatives are petrified in Writing The Other. To be honest, Creatives are petrified of Writing The Same.
I have a test for diversity. If you are using the Bechdel test in any seriousness, your writing about diversity is almost certainly pretty poor. This is surface level reading of culture. Really thinking about sexuality, about gender, about race, about everything needs to be deeper.
In a single work of art, Diversity is a zero sum game. To write a love triangle between men in Young Avengers I had to include more men. As such, I had less women than I’d like in Young Avengers. An expectation of full diversity inside any individual work actually limits the stories you’re able to tell.
Diversity is necessary but not sufficient. Treating bad art with good diversity kindly is worse than useless, because if we do then we are reducing the value of our critical opinion’s coin. As such, it worries me when I see articles about my books which have the #1 reason to read it being the diverse cast. That petrifies me.
The biggest problem in comics is the lack of diversity in the talent pool. Frustratingly, there is no quick fix for all manner of tedious economic reasons. There is a medium term fix. I believe in five years, the industry will be almost unrecognisable. I am optimistic, god help me.
I think white men should probably shut up more. So I will.
These are some really fantastic thoughts on diversity. They far more eloquently articulate things I have thought and found in making my own comic, in itself tackling diversity and representation - but in the form of LGBTQ+ representation.
By doing so, that immediately limits how diverse the cast can potentially be in one respect, but also, the LGBTQ+ spectrum is so wide and diverse there is no hope of covering everyone.
My only hope has only ever been to produce stories representing people who suffer from little representation in the medium, and make the stories I wanted when growing up; and also to try and tell them in such a way that they are accessible to anyone, regardless of sexuality. I do hope that I have succeeded in that.
Well, I say only hope, but that is not true. My secondary hope is that the book can help in some way bring more diverse stories and creators out, either by encouraging them to tell their own stories or by pushing the idea of sexual diversity in ‘cast’ of characters.
But whatever I write, whenever I write; every story I have to tell in the future, I will try to be as diverse as possible within the confines of the story and narrative world. Of course I would, because that is the world we live in.
That being said, I am just another white guy. Moreover, a bald headed white guy with a beard, which if you look at the comics industry right now, well. So I hope to see more diversity in the creative talent too. I too am an optimist, and I hope Kieron’s predictions ring true.
