There’s a special place in my heart for creators who aren’t very good at being progressive but keep trying anyway until they start to get the hang of it. I’m talking the Wachowski Sisters, who made the mess that was Cloud Atlas but then came back and did Sense8 (which has its own issues but is so much better). I’m taking about Moffat, who cannot stop saying the wrong things and needed multiple years and a lot of reminders before he realized that he could make a working class black lesbian the companion but then he did it and it’s so good. I’m talking about Terry Pratchett who was constantly improving and trying to be more aware and more cognizant of diversity in his works, until he finally started putting in one or two explicitly LGBT characters. It might take them a while to get the memo, but they’re willing to listen and they’re willing to change. That’s important. 

I don’t know, it kind of reminds me of a lot of older people I’ve known who were really passionate about progressive causes but hadn’t been “in touch” since they protested on their college campus. (Aunt Kathleen, I appreciate your support but there have been so many studies on gender since the seventies and we’re pretty sure it doesn’t work like that any more.) It’s not always easy to stay up to date on developments in philosophy and science and politics, much less articulate that coherently and sensibly. Sometimes people are going to be a little slow on the uptake. What’s important is that they keep trying. Especially when we’re talking about already established popular creators, who can help normalize new paradigms and make diversity more generally accepted, who already have a platform and can share it. It’s all too easy for celebrities to get criticized once and retreat into a shell of denial and never try to address the issues. Being able to improve and move forward is a superpower as far as popular media is concerned. 

I know that it’s a luxury afforded mostly to already established media darlings, white people are allowed to slip up and take their time in a way lots of other people aren’t, but I still feel like it’s important to see creators actively evolving and becoming more fair-minded in a very human way. Your average middle-aged individual is going to need a few running starts before they figure things out, and they are going to say terrible things on accident (Yes, Aunt Kathleen I know what you meant but it’s still not a great thing to say. The words that came out of your mouth were bad). Holding them accountable until they slowly but surely improve and then watching their work improve too is very enjoyable. 

Lots of people tend to dismiss those in that category of “problematic creators” entirely, but I view it as an exciting adventure. There are too few people in this world willing to change. Look, this month it seems like Uncle Steven is finally starting to go to bat for his suspicion that gender doesn’t determine personality. And Aunt Kathleen discovered singular “they” pronouns!