Another meme, worth doing

[minxy]

Characters of Diversity, Fanfic, Mine meme. As seen in hossgal's and hesychasm's LJ. Three makes it a meme, right?

Methods and Materials

Fics considered: all posted fics in this LJ, including snippets.

Measurements: Using pov character(s) or main character of focus, count stories with one or multi povs, and classify the race, gender, and other attributes of the pov character.

Considerations/definitions:

Jack is an older male in any fic set after S8.

Non-white is Black, Hispanic, Asian, Arab, American Indian, Hawaiian, African, Space Aliens played by an actor of one of these classifications and just about anything not European. Does not include Jews, Gypsies, Irish, Catholics, Welsh, Slavs, Texans, Blue-Eyed People or other people Just Not Brown Enough.

Old is a character who looks, acts, or is treated as though they are past their prime. Teal'c is not old.

Gay or bi is canonically gay or bi; subtext is irrelevant for the purposes of this census.

Other notes at the end. Author is not a math geek, Scully, and so must point out that these categories are not mutually exclusive.

Census

Total Stories: 24 (wow, when did that happen?)
Total Stories of over 500 words: 24 (yup, that would be all of them.)

Stories with only 1 POV: 22
Stories with multiple POVs: 2
Stories with only 1 pov, Minor Character: 1
Stories with only 1 pov, Original Character: 1

Stories with White Male POV only: 12 (default to Daniel or Cameron)
Stories with White Female POV only: 7 (Sam and Janet and Kate and Vala)
Stories with Non-White Female POV only: 0 (Wow. Again. Since I've written in Atlantis, I'm not going to try to excuse this.)
Stories with Non-White Male POV only: 5 (Teal'c and Bra'tac)

Stories with Old People POV only: 1 (Jack; Bra'tac was a young man in his story.)
Stories with Canon or OC Gay/Bi Character POV only: There are no canon bi or gay characters in Stargate, and I've only written in Stargate.

Stories with Multiple povs, more than one gender: 0
Stories with Multiple povs, including non-white characters: 0

Stories with Mix-Race Relationships, where relationships are distinctly romantic: 7
Stories with Non-White, Old, or Gay/Bi Characters in speaking roles: 13

Authors Notes:none.

Comments

[rydra_wong]

I did two counts, one for POVs and one for lead/co-lead characters, because yup, sometimes the POV isn't the central character or isn't the only central character.

Ultimately, I don't think perfect precision or point-counting is what it's really about, though - I think it's the self-scrutiny and looking at the trends that's interesting and worthwhile.

But hey, my most recent Stargate story is actually a 1st person POV from an old, non-white, bi, male original character.

And a very fine story it is too! :)

[eve11]

And a very fine story it is too! :)

Oh, thanks! *blushes*

[http://users.livejournal.com/_minxy_/]

Ultimately, I don't think perfect precision or point-counting is what it's really about, though - I think it's the self-scrutiny and looking at the trends that's interesting and worthwhile.

Indeed. And how lucky am I that you were around to explain my motives whilst I slaved away at work?

It's funny how the gaps in this simple little exercise are motivating, though. I *yearned* for there to be a little Teyla ficlet somewhere in a comment fic. YEARNED, I say, because filling in a 0 under 'fics written from a non-white female POV' was Hard. Therefore I proclaim that the exercise has merit, for I have realized something I hadn't considered before.

And also? Stargate needs more non-white female leads.