Quote Originally Posted by Raineh Daze View Post
Because the only reason to not have equal representation is heteronormativity and cultural inertia.
...

Rich himself just spelled out another reason on the previous page of the thread...

And again, IMPHO, cultural inertia is not a totally invalid reason either. Cultural products (I don't disagree at all with the way Shadowknight defined "art" a few pages ago, so for the purpose of this discussion I'll be considering that an author who lives off his/her work is "a creator of cultural products", not "an artist") don't exist in a vacuum, and the unfortunately-largely-culturally-inert audience (you know, the ones paying your bills in the end) is something that you kinda sorta have to consider.



Quote Originally Posted by oppyu View Post
For example, if the story were exactly the same way it is now, except that Roy and Belkar were women, would the story suddenly turn into a big political statement about gender-balanced parties led by an African-American woman? Or would it be the exact same story it is now, with the caveat of also not contributing to the pervasive trend where women and LGBTQ characters are being hugely underrepresented in just about every piece of media put forward?
If you want an honest answer, it would be the exact same excellent story as it is now, except that instead of featuring a bunch of PCs that's instantly recognizable to the average reader as the purely archetypal D&D adventuring group, it would have been featuring a clearly significantly nonstandard PC mix as the protagonists.