The Necessity for Diversity: Beauty Standards in Novels
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Growing up, I read a lot of Young Adult (YA) Fantasy Novels. Not to sound like an old man, but in my day, these novels were truly meant for the age they targeted themselves towards. They would feature 14-17 year olds who would be going on harrowing journeys of love, acceptance, and self-discovery. Now, it seems that these books are nothing more than thinly veiled Romance novels that involve these young adults getting into relationships with beings 400 years older than them. TikTok has taken to calling this specific subset of Fantasy novels “Romantasy,” which just merges the two genres.
With the emergence of this genre, there have been more novels written that are (essentially) exact copies of each other in terms of characters. There will be the female main character who is always described as petite and almost dainty looking, yet are always stronger than they appear. Then, of course, there’s the dark-haired, brooding man who is dark and mysterious. These two always end up falling in love. While there is inherently nothing wrong with that, especially as audiences have shown they like these stereotypes enough to promote them, there is a lot lacking in terms of character representation in these novels.
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While I specifically want to talk about this issue in regards to the Romantasy genre, this is a wider issue as a whole. Eurocentrism is more common in Fantasy and Sci-fi than in any other genre, from the way the fantasy governments are structured to the appearance of the characters. This issue then continues to bleed into the Romantasy genre in terms of what kinds of characters get these love stories, and how it is exclusionary to people of color, queer people, disabled people, etc.
These stereotypes for both sets of gendered characters don’t take into account how harmful it can be for young people who grow up reading these stories. Eurocentric beauty standards result in people favoring those with smaller noses, straight hair, light colored eyes, along with many other traits. While a person’s hair or eye or skin color does not equate to someone’s intelligence– or in a fictional setting, their ability to save the world and find love– there is a racist narrative that claims that to be true. This, of course, hurts readers over time. People who read about these stereotyped characters often feel like they have to live up to these characters, especially when they see how popular they are.
These beauty standards are not only harmful to people of color, but also for disabled people. People in wheelchairs or with prosthetic limbs do not see themselves represented, and if they are, they’re represented very sparingly. It feels like they only exist to check a diversity box, rather than because the author actually wants to tell that story.
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While this has always been a problem, it feels like it has become more rampant in the last few years. With the way the internet has changed in regards to how it promotes books and the way that books are quickly published, some barely going through editing before being put on the shelves to make a quick buck, there are more and more novels being published, read, and discussed across the world. One would expect there to be more diversity and inclusivity in these books, especially with the way the world is advocating for more equal rights for its citizens.
This won’t be an easy or simple fix. The world would have to change a lot in order to break free of the Eurocentric standards it has, and it doesn’t seem like that is going to happen. Regardless, we need more diversity in fiction. We’ll just have to take the world by its shoulders and shake it around until it listens.
Strike Out,
E Dunsmuir
St. Augustine
Editors: Indigo Carter and Maya Kayyal
E Dunsmuir (he/they) is a writer for Strike St. Augustine. He loves Victorian England, emo music, and anything to do with horror. When they're not writing for Strike, he’s probably texting his boyfriend or watching TV with their roommates. You can reach him at edunsmuir66@gmail.com or @edunsmuir66 on most social media platforms.
