what things are underrepresented in fiction?

Probably can't hurt to put this here.

I went on a quest today to see if I could find /any/ books where a character has celiac, and I was unable to find any YA books (well, I maybe found one, but I think it was mislabeled because I can't find any information about it anywhere). Just some picture books and memoirs or whatever the word is. Which is great, because small children are getting some representation, and hopefully more as time passes, but now I'm thinking about stuff that's underrepresented in fiction. Maybe so underrepresented that most people haven't even heard of it. I don't know.

So I want to write some of those things into my stories, and I don't really know where to start looking. Obviously once I have some names of things I can do research on the internet, but I'll need someone to point me in the right direction.

Does anyone have suggestions or advice?

 

autism is underrepresented, i think. like, there are lots of characters in fiction that could totally be spergs, but that is often a fan interpretation instead of official canon-canon.

and lgbt+ stuff is too.

and i think sensory issues (both as autism thing and as part of something else) are also underrepresented in fiction.

 

yeah, but i know about those and am working on them already. i'm here on kintsugi, after all.

thank you for bringing those up though, they are important

 

i thought you might but i figured i might as well anyway, since they were the first things that came to mind.

and you're welcome!

 

I rarely see people with epilepsy. Even more rarely do I see it written where the epileptic is the focus and not their family. Types of epilepsy that aren't YO FULL TONIC CLONICS ALL DAY EVERY DAY are even rarer. As in I legit have never seen it. Partials are just not seen or understood.

I can also share what it's like to have epilepsy? Like I'm just one person with one type of it, but still I'm more than happy to share my experience.

 

yes! that would be fantastic, thank you! i don't really know a lot about epilepsy beyond something something flashing lights, and I'd love to know more!

 

Yay! There's a lot to it. Like how more things than just light can cause them!

Also that a lot of us have no fucking idea what kind of epilepsy we have or what cause ours. So it's basically just years and years of tests and changing meds and doctors going fuck i dunno.

 

Um. I dunno.

Spoiler: afab bs

People with bad period pains?

Also more mainstream pagan characters who aren't there for exotic points.
This needs to be a thing.

 

YES MORE PAGANS HOLY FUCKING SHIT. And more kinds of pagans. Like where are my fucking Celtic recon types at. WHERE?

Also actually religious Buddhists. You get more brownie points if you pull off a Theravadin or some other non-Zen sort.

 

Now this reminds me that I wonder if I should have a Buddhist character in my zombie thing. IDK

If I do I WILL ASK YOU FOR INFO IF THAT'S OKAY?

 

YES I LOVE QUESTIONS ABOUT MY STUFF.

 

I have some characters somewhere who are just kind of casually hellenic pagan.

though i have a lot of nonbeliever characters too, because that's also not always really a thing.

 

Also:
- autoimmune diseases (Crohn's, IBS, MS, etc) and other chronic illnesses
- personality disorders (where the characters are aware of it and working with it, I mean. There are plenty of characters who fit traits for personality disorders in a lot of fiction, but where it's never diagnosed or discussed as such)
- managed/treated psychosis
- subclinical eating disorders or EDNOS (="eating disorder not otherwise specified", basically not anorexia or bulimia but still messed up), and/or boys with eating disorders
- accurate OCD

 

Now, I generally write fantasy of varying tech levels and often one can't talk about e.g. personality disorders in modern terminology because it doesn't exist in that culture. So what do there? I think it's important to perhaps note somewhere that yes, this character is intended to have BPD or whatever, from a non in universe perspective?

 

Hm. Maybe you can have it noted that this character has those traits?
I don't know I feel likeaybe its like having characters talk about shell shock?
Or you can just go full lemony Snicket and have a snarky narrator character

 

Also it's likely that the culture has some words for various conditions. They may not separate them out the way we do today, and may have weird ideas about how they occur, but there'll be some realization.

I have a bunch of characters who are PTSD like whoa.

 

Idk if you might be interested in recs, but the main character in Hero by Perry Moore has epilepsy! And also someone dealing with radiation poisoning who has a colostomy bag, both of which are not treated as hilarious punchlines.

Nonbinary characters are something I'd like to see more of. And characters with assistive devices that are capable of moving their limbs, but not without agony. (Joker is the only one coming to mind for me.)

Medicated, well-controlled schizophrenia would be nice to see in fiction. And bipolar where it's not a joke about someone being tempermental.

 

Age/Body type variety in the Group of Heroes

Why are all your adventurers althetic 20-30somethings? Give me a zombie apocalypse with someone's ultramarathoner grandma. Give me a computer geek that can bench a small car. Give me a master assassin/thief with a beer gut and sausage fingers.

 

nb people
mentally ill guys who aren't mentally ill in "scary" ways
asexuals, bisexuals, etc
older people who are still badass
people with reproductive organs issues like endometriosis
acknowledged ptsd from emotional trauma? like I see characters who've clearly GOT it, but it's never said

 

Latinos. Latinos and Latinas that aren't some exotic stereotype for sultry times that somehow smell of the Caribbean or something. For that matter, more South Americans, Mexico is not the same as Bolivia is not the same as Panama. Central America is pretty dang different from South America despite our shared heritage there is so much ducking variety in what a Latino is. Latinos who are just... People, not like gangsters or prostitutes or a seedy underbelly of desperation sort. Give me the blond haired Argentinian doctor who married a mestizo who used to work washing cars before getting into business. Give me the Afro descent Garifuna boy who decided to study infrastructure. Give me a family of Brazilians who all look very different and would get offended if you implied any of them are not Latino or don't look it. More languages, more multicultural hadacters who don't make a big deal of it because so many people live like that.

Sorry I just get so annoyed. It's like the time someone called me Mecican, like no fuckers I am some ten countries away from Mexico, we weren't even in the same Virreinato under Spain!