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🏳️‍🌈 - The Strengths and Shortcomings of "Just Write A Person"

If you've been in the casual-representation game for any length of time, learning how to write an identity you don't share, you've probably heard some variant of the following:

"Just write a person, and then make them [identity]"

This advice is so ubiquitous, it's become the casual-rep equivalent of pithy storytelling pointers like "show, don't tell": an easily packaged, digestible nugget of wisdom for new writers to use as a guide in their craft. And, like "show, don't tell," there's an element of truth in it. Quite a large one, in fact, depending on the context you consider it in. Also like "show, don't tell," that truth should never be taken as universal.

I don't actually agree with "just write a person," but I continue to tell it to newer rep-writers anyway. This is a stance that is by its nature contradictory, so I'm going to make an attempt to unpack it in this post.

I'll start with a definition. Casual representation, or casual rep, is a kind of representation wherein characters of any marginalized identity (be that queer, disabled, any racial minority, etc.) are written into a book that does not center around their identity or the struggles they face as a result of it. Casual rep is a badass spacecraft captain fighting off a galactic threat—when that captain is also queer and Black in a world that fully respects her. It's a dragon-rider preoccupied with raising a dragon pup that's the last of its kind—when that rider also happens to be missing an arm. It's a Romance where the couple struggles to trust one another after past experiences of betrayal—and that couple just so happens to be gay.

Casual rep is the territory where writers who do not share a particular identity should remain. If a book gets into a plot centered around discrimination or unique experiences of being [identity], that story belongs to someone who's lived it and/or its consequences themselves. It is in that distinction—in the "just so happens to be" that I mentioned above—that the beating heart of "just write a character" lies.

If you are "just writing" a character of a particular identity, the assumption is that you are putting them in a position where that particular identity does not drive your plot. When it's realistic, this is a good thing! The world needs coming-out stories, but it also needs badass queer space captains, scientists, starstruck lovers, struggling students, detectives, and more. It needs characters who can go about their lives and accomplish plot-worthy things while just-so-happening to be queer. Or any other identity that faces barriers in the real world, but from here on out, I will focus on queer. Queer folks of all ages need to see themselves represented in media, not just their struggles, and casual rep plays a huge role in that.

The double-benefit of these types of "just characters" is that pretty much anyone who does their research can write one. Or two. Or ten. The characters can take side, major, or even main roles without straying into the complicated territory of "not your story to tell," and while selling these stories is another matter, that's a topic for a different time.

The problem that still faces casual rep, however, is twofold. The first is that these identities are minority and often repressed, so not every writer actually knows a person (or more than one person) who identifies with them. The second is that our society is really, really good at ingraining bias against them in... well, pretty much everyone. Even people who are queer themselves. Internalized queerphobia is a whole thing, but I'll be writing about that in another one of this month's blog posts, so I'll leave that topic here for now.

In the absence of living, breathing, human connection with actual queer people, many writers are left with what the media shows them. And, because the media is bad at this (though it's slowly getting better), the bulk of that is stereotypes. I'm not even going to get into examples because I could go on forever and that's research any casual queer-rep writer should be doing themself, but it's safe to say that a majority of queer characters in media today are either absent, have extremely minor roles, and/or are largely cardboard cut-outs supposed to be representative of their queer identity.