Diaries of an Angry Fangirl

☞ indecisive people

Now, I'm not talking about the people who can't choose between Chinese food or Chick-Fil-A for dinner, because, let's be honest, I'm one of those people. I'm not here to rant about myself. Not in this part anyways, because that would take many parts so...

I'm talking about people who can't decide if they want diversity or not. And you may be like, "Julia, da fuck does that mean?" I'm glad you asked.

BASICALLY. I just finished King's Cage from the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard and I went to look at the reviews to see how many people felt like I did after finishing it. I see a lot of people feeling like me (which I won't say in case any of you are reading it but I will say I'M PISSED) but then I see someone talking about Mare, who's the main character, and her skin color.

So, Victoria kind of randomly decided that Mare would be dark-skinned about halfway through the series, I'd say, like it wasn't a beginning decision (and her sister is white so). They were complaining that it was too forced and that Victoria only did it to prove she's a "diverse" author and such, which I somewhat agree with, honestly. Like it was an out of the blue thing and it did seem forced. Maybe she did it to boost her sales, I don't know...

BUT. 

This person was complaining that since Victoria is white, she shouldn't write with black characters.

Um. Excuse me? 

Like.

What?

First of all, you're going to rage because there's no diversity in books, but then when there is some (no matter how forced it might have been) you're gonna say there shouldn't be just because the author is white? What the fuck kind of logic. 

Like I bet you all the money in my wallet (which is only like two dollars and some change but that's not the point) that there's a dark-skinned girl somewhere in the world who noticed Mare is also dark-skinned and felt so good about it. Do you think that girl gave a damn about the author's race? No, because she was reading about a character who she could relate to in more ways than one--physically and mentally. Isn't that important to you, oh so ignorant commenter? Like, in a sense I understand that it would be more genuine if the author were a person of color, but at the same time, diversity is diversity. It doesn't matter who the fuck writes it.

I'm not a person of color, so I obviously won't have the best opinion on the matter but I feel like my opinion makes some sense. Wouldn't you rather just read books with diversity rather than giving a damn about the person who wrote it? 

Take the book My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier, for example. This book is fucking filled with diversity, from trans to lesbians to an interracial couple--you name it, it's probably in there. (It's a really good book by the way, and hella creepy, so if that's your style I highly recommend it.) But there were reviewers saying she had no right to add a trans character because she isn't trans. That she had no right to add a lesbian couple because she isn't lesbian.

WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK.

THESE ARE THE SAME PEOPLE WHO COMPLAIN AND RANT ABOUT BOOKS NOT HAVING DIVERSITY, BUT THEN WHEN Y'ALL GET IT, YOU GOTTA COMPLAIN ABOUT SOMETHING DAMN.

Jesus, it pisses me off so much. So, am I not allowed to have a gay couple in my book series (The Inception in case y'all care--self promo, oops) because I'm not a male nor gay? I'm fucking sorry I believe that love is love and that all humans are equal, for fuck's sake. Do you want me to change the gender for one? Oh wait. I'm not trans. Can't do that either, dammit.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I MEAN THOUGH?

I'm so into books with diversity. I try to add as much into my own books as possible without feeling forced to, you know what I mean? Diversity can be anything from different religions or skin colors or cultures. In Infatuation (another of my books, but I wrote it when I was like 13-14 so it's hella cringy--don't read it) I added some of my Lebanese culture into it, especially mentioning of the food because that's who I am. 

And like I didn't randomly make Micah (dude in my series) gay--technically bisexual--just because I felt like I had to. It fit for me, because Micah had no idea about love to begin with, so it was totally plausible for him to literally fall in love with anyone. But even if it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, I don't see what would be wrong with it. 

Maybe there's a reason I'm not seeing, so please, feel free to comment and we can chat maturely about it. I'm definitely up to hearing y'all's thoughts on this.

This was kind of a random rant because I just thought about it and idk, I just felt like I needed to say this. We need more diverse books in the world. Don't fucking complain when you get what you want just because the author isn't who you want them to be.