What is forced diversity?
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It’s a term used by people who feel that modern entertainment adds diverse characters who aren’t straight white men not because it’s what the story requires, but because they’re trying to market to a wider audience.
The idea is that TV shows like the upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series set to debut on Amazon Prime’s streaming service, are forcing black characters into a narrative that didn’t originally include them, because they’re trying to make the show appeal to a more diverse audience.
It’s a controversial phrase because, in general, only bad people use it.
It is the complaint that a character or multiple characters in a TV show or a movie cast actors of color, women, people with certain genders, or any other identifier not because the director thought that person portrayed the character well but because there is an *agenda* and the studio wants to get “liberal points” for having a diverse cast. They call it “forced diversity” because in their opinion the show would be better if the entire cast was whatever race they think a character is “supposed” to be. The same people mysteriously don’t have problems when a character that is by canon of a certain race is given to an actor of the race they prefer.
It’s hard to give an exact definition without any context but more often then not it’s a term used to describe a situation where inclusion is forced to ensure that all parties included are represented equally.
It’s generally an ignorant term thrown around by conservatives used when a character in a movie or a tv show is represented by a person of color (or is gender switched to female) when previously they were a white male.
“Forced diversity” is a reactionary response to increased diversity in media.
For a while, media really only reflected a very narrow portion of society (usually white, straight, male, Christian, moneyed, etc.). As target demographics for media companies widened, representation of these new demographics became necessary in order to appeal to them and sell them stuff.
A small segment of the original demographic for media saw the increase in representation and felt threatened by it, deeming it “forced diversity”. In reality, the planet is extremely diverse, and media today still reflects less diversity than you see in the world. The idea of “forced diversity” really only exists in ethnically and culturally homogeneous areas of the country, or among people who just don’t spend a lot of time in the real world and only consume media.
It would be more accurate to describe the situation as a forced lack of diversity being stripped away over time as media companies seek larger profits. It really has very little to do with cultural norms and more to do with economics. The original demographic that was almost exclusively targeted, after all, was the one with the most disposable income to spend on media.
Forcing diversity on something that wouldn’t ordinarily have it based on some preexisting knowledge.
The new lord of the rings show for example. The books have no mention of people or races of other skin colors other than white. Why are they including a black character in a “world” that doesn’t have people with black skin?
And the answer is because politics. The left would generally argue that it was just a product of the times but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t include a diverse cast now. The right would see it as an unnecessary attack on the integrity of the work and a forced diversity move that is strictly political.
To a large extent, it’s a matter of intent and marketing. If your casting choices are based on making quality entertainment, it’s not forced diversity. If your casting choices are based on scoring political points, then it is.
It’s similar to people complaining about “Mary Sues”. It’s a critique of badly done entertainment, indicating that the creators got distracted by issues not relevant to producing good work.
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