On Diversity & Science Fiction (Part I)

The first Star Wars: Rouge One trailer dropped today.  You should it see it. Go, right now. I don't mind.  Its awesome. In response to the film's main protagonist seemingly being a woman (played by Felicity Jones) conservative luminary John Podhoretz, film critic for the Weekly Standard  tweeted (and quickly deleted) this 'joke'

(Via)

Now Podhoretz, who once wrote "What if the tactical mistake we made in Iraq was that we didn’t kill enough Sunnis... to intimidate them and make them so afraid... the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35 the reason there was an insurgency", doesn't have much of a moral compass, so we shouldn't take him too seriously. But the discontent he displays about the 'Social Justice' turn of science fiction is hardly unique. Many people whose moral compasses are existent, including several of my friends, have confided in me that they are somewhat put of by the diversity for diversities sake. Saying that although they don't have a problem with diverse characters, it can detract from the "universalness" of the story.  They are right, but only inso far as there are such things. Charles Dickens was writing for a general audience when he penned the gross anti-semitic caricature Fagin in Oliver Twist.  The highest grossing film in US history, Gone With the Wind is full of racism. Even  Lord of the Rings has been hit with accusations of racism, sexism, Luddism, along with a the now traditional fantasy trapping of the rightful rule of kings, and and obsession with 'the past.'  This is unsurprising, given that Tolkien as a person was a conservative Catholic,  skeptical of democracy and had an anticommunist orientation. 

 Likewise even by including women, people of color and other minorities in our modern writing we are making an ideological statement at they deserve to be there. There is no such thing as a truly 'universal story' because we are all different, products of unique environments.  When people hark back to the way it 'used to be' they are displaying an ideology without even realizing it.  Specificly the ideology centered on white male normativity, while other types of people are coded as 'diversity' and peppered into the story like one would flavor a steak.  That is of course not to say that you can't tell a fantastic story using white men (Lord of the Rings is still Lord of the Rings after all) And sometimes, given the constraints of the story you're trying to tell (say historical fiction for example) that you can't be too diverse (No one is going to hit Saving Private Ryan for its lack of women).

Of all the genres Science Fiction has the least excuse for not being full of diversity, as it takes place in the 'not now' free from current conventions and prejudices. (Fantasy, for the most part, tends to take place in medieval inspired world and, with a few great exceptions,  is bound to its type of patriarchy.) Unfortunately, despite a decent beginning and lots of progress, women and people of color are still restricted in the sci-fi community. Of the 32 'Grand Masters' of science fiction only five have been women, and only one has been a person of color.  It needs to do better.  And Star Wars  is leading the charge.