MI6 is trying to appeal to women and people of color with their recent recruitment video. In it, a child watches as a shark circles a large aquarium tank, and retreats to the safety of his mother's arms. The last words of the video are, “Secretly, we're just like you.” The video presents a more diverse view of “intelligence gathering” and “intelligence officers” than the white, male, upper-class James bond stereotype.
I'm writing what was supposed to be a romantic suspense novel set in the American diplomatic world (you can download chapters if you sign up for my very occasional newsletter!), where I spent a chunk of time back in the 1990s. It's been a struggle for me to establish the backstory of my heroine, however, because she's a privileged white female–and I'm not. I have to dig deep in order to paint a picture that resonates, because I don't actually know what it's like to grow up in that world.
This is a conundrum that perhaps you don't normally see. More often, I think white writers tend to get non-white characters wrong (or at least, they resort to stereotypes because that's what they know).
This recruitment video interested me because it occurred to me that there aren't many women, especially women of color, who get to play action heroes. I'm tempted to make a big switch with my novel (which would require a massive rewrite, the fourth!) so that the main character is not an upper class white woman, but someone you don't ordinarily see as an action hero, certainly not in a suspense novel. What do you think?
I'm undecided because the entire novel is already mapped out, and such a massive change in protagonist will probably result in an entirely different animal. On the other hand, maybe what we need is to see a non-white character as the hero or heroine of an action story. It would certainly be an easier character and worldview for me to write.
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