I'll add: Totally not caring about commercial success, no, this is about ethics. Though will say that there are a lot of women who make the argument that video games/sf etc producers are narrow-mindedly shooting themselves in the foot by not considering the wishes of female consumers. (I don't feel confident enough of how markets work to say I agree)
I have to say I think we have very different ideas about the creative process. To me, even if you ignore issues of offensiveness etc it's always a good idea to redraft your work and get outside input(*). Maybe not at all stages, sometimes you do just have to let your creative juices flow and not worry about it, but if you're not careful you'll end up with something resembling an unedited NaNoWriMo entry.
Also I think we have very different opinions of how much subconsious bias/prejudice/stereotyping your average well meaning person has. I'm inclined to say a staggeringly large amount. To the extent that every writer is likely to have some sort of accidental racist/sexist/ablist/etc subtext to their writing which can only be combated by consciously looking out for it. A writer might decide that doing so would cramp their creative style too much, and that's a choice they can make, but they have to acknowledge that they have chosen to be complicit with racism/sexism/etc for the sake of their Art, same way as "meat is tasty" may be an excuse for not being vegetarian, but it doesn't make meat any more or less unethical from the POV of the animals being eaten.
To give myself as an example: I do worry about my work having accidental racist/sexist etc subtext, and it does cramp my style sometimes. But so does worrying about being derivative, or cliched, or my twists being too obvious, or my character's motivations unclear etc. If you're not worrying about something at some stage you're being self indulgent and probably not very good.
Of course that said some creators really do seem to work totally right-brained from the subconscious, or are so absurdly talented they don't need editors etc. I must admit I didn't really consider those sorts of people when writing this, though I think they still have a responsibility for what they put in the public eye even if they can't control what they create.
(*)Said redrafting and outside input possibly resulting in the decision that it's probably best left as is
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I'll add:
Totally not caring about commercial success, no, this is about ethics. Though will say that there are a lot of women who make the argument that video games/sf etc producers are narrow-mindedly shooting themselves in the foot by not considering the wishes of female consumers. (I don't feel confident enough of how markets work to say I agree)
I have to say I think we have very different ideas about the creative process. To me, even if you ignore issues of offensiveness etc it's always a good idea to redraft your work and get outside input(*). Maybe not at all stages, sometimes you do just have to let your creative juices flow and not worry about it, but if you're not careful you'll end up with something resembling an unedited NaNoWriMo entry.
Also I think we have very different opinions of how much subconsious bias/prejudice/stereotyping your average well meaning person has. I'm inclined to say a staggeringly large amount. To the extent that every writer is likely to have some sort of accidental racist/sexist/ablist/etc subtext to their writing which can only be combated by consciously looking out for it. A writer might decide that doing so would cramp their creative style too much, and that's a choice they can make, but they have to acknowledge that they have chosen to be complicit with racism/sexism/etc for the sake of their Art, same way as "meat is tasty" may be an excuse for not being vegetarian, but it doesn't make meat any more or less unethical from the POV of the animals being eaten.
To give myself as an example: I do worry about my work having accidental racist/sexist etc subtext, and it does cramp my style sometimes. But so does worrying about being derivative, or cliched, or my twists being too obvious, or my character's motivations unclear etc. If you're not worrying about something at some stage you're being self indulgent and probably not very good.
Of course that said some creators really do seem to work totally right-brained from the subconscious, or are so absurdly talented they don't need editors etc. I must admit I didn't really consider those sorts of people when writing this, though I think they still have a responsibility for what they put in the public eye even if they can't control what they create.
(*)Said redrafting and outside input possibly resulting in the decision that it's probably best left as is