Mr. Straight White Dude

Over the course of the last one-hundred-and-twenty or so years, a standard hero has emerged in storytelling: the straight white man. Or, as I call him, Mr. Straight White Dude. Even in many stories not written by white men, the hero is a straight white man or seen as one because nothing is said otherwise and he’s the standard hero figure. Why is that and why is that bad?

I could blame “The Hero With A Thousand Faces” for this, but that would not be true. While the book has had an influence on many writers, it’s not that influential. Yet, the western world as a such is.
As most of what amounted to ‘literature’ and later on storytelling in other media such as stage plays, movies, TV, or computer games was created by people from either Europe or North America, the overwhelming majority of main characters fit with the creators or whom the creators pretended to be: straight white men. The only literature genre where the straight white man normally is not the main character is romantic literature. Here, it is the straight white woman, which is not much better (but a little).
The problem with this is that everyone who is not a straight white man, everyone who can’t immediately see themselves in Mr. Straight White Dude, does hardly feel represented. With the large majority of heroes being incarnations of Mr. Straight White Dude, other people aren’t considered regular hero characters. They can take other roles, such as the damsel (usually the straight white woman), but not the main spot, not outside specific genres.
We can do better than that and we should do better than that. Mr. Straight White Dude has worked long and hard and deserves an extended holiday now.

The overwhelming presence of Mr. Straight White Dude is not doing the stories any favour, as it were. By narrowing down the idea of who can be the hero, the stories limit themselves. Mr. Straight White Dude has a certain set of regular skills (usually martial ones) and a certain way of dealing with his problems. He also has a limited amount of different faces — mostly those of a handful of white male actors who regularly play the action hero.
Diversity doesn’t just mean different skin colours, genders, or sexual orientations. It means filling up the ‘toolbox’ of the author. A fighter has a limited reservoir of skills, as does a healer, a diplomat, a spy, or any other character class (to dip into RPG jargon). Yet, a group made up of all of them will have a wide range of possible solutions for any kind of problem which might crop up in a story. A fighter can defeat a group of thugs. A healer can patch up someone who has important information. A diplomat can get the group past a guarded roadblock. A spy can creep ahead and spy on the evil mage in their lair. Imagine overcoming all of those problems with just one of them.
Mr. Straight White Dude has proven over and over again that he can handle saving the day (or the world). Considering there’s many other people in the world, it is time for him to take a break and let others get to the day- (or world-) saving.

There is no change, however, until people make it happen. This means that instead of relying on Mr. Straight White Dude, authors would do well to choose other heroes for their stories. Every story which is not focused on him is a story which broadens the idea of what a hero can look like or what it means to be a hero in the first place.
There are authors (and especially production companies) who shy away from that, rather going with what ‘has always worked.’ They play it safe. Don’t be one of them, though. A lot of people will enjoy books with a more unusual hero, with a hero who, perhaps, is closer to them than Mr. Straight White Dude. There is a market for it and it’s easier for your story to stand out that way as well.
Replacing the standard hero with another one — someone who has not been through a million stories already —, not only gives the author something new to work with, but also gives the audience something new to get into and enjoy.

One argument against using someone else than Mr. Straight White Dude is often ‘there were no [enter other social groups here] in this place,’ especially in historical fiction. Yet, even changing one aspect of Mr. Straight White Dude (the straight, the white, or the male) helps. A straight white woman is a step in the right direction. A straight black man is a step in the right direction. A gay white man is a step in the right direction. There are choices, even if some might be minor ones.
The more aspects you’re able to change, the better — and every fantasy or science-fiction setting should allow you to change many aspects. Yet, every change is good. Using a female main character makes changes to the story. Using a POC character makes changes to the story. Using a gay character makes changes to the story. Each of them also makes different changes to the story.
Every change undermines the idea that Mr. Straight White Dude is the only hero out there and nobody else can take his place. Every change makes it more likely for Mr. Straight White Dude to be able to take a much-deserved sabbatical.

First and foremost, even if it’s the last point here, remember that characters are characters. Not male, not female. Not white, not POC. Not straight, not gay. They are characters and should be created to fit with the story. Or they are characters and the story should be created to fit them, depending on what comes first for you, the story or the main character.
Don’t make stereotypes but fully-realised characters and you’re already mostly in the green. The more you step away from the standard, the more you will take your character and your story in the right direction.
Mr. Straight White Dude deserves a long holiday.

Mr. Straight White Dude has had a long and successful career. He still can have a lot of work in the future, too, but it is time to move past him and discover a wide world of other heroes who do things differently and are part of different social groups. Expand your writer’s toolbox and dive into a more diverse set of heroes. Expand the range of your stories and allow them to stand out.