How much content are you consuming that was created by women and people of color?
It may seem like a fluffy question, and yet, it has so much to do with your unconscious bias. You can think you believe in equality, but your brain is going to do something else, and your unconscious bias (your subconscious) is so strong!
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You can think you believe in equality, but your brain is going to do something else, and your unconscious bias (your subconscious) is so strong! It’s trying to put things in buckets. It’s trying to make things easier for you by making categories, so that you do not need to deal with each piece of information coming at you quickly in the modern world.
If it mostly sees the leader as male, then you’re going to assume leaders are male until told otherwise. If you mostly see the stay-at-home parent as female, you’re going to assume the stay-at-home parent is female until told otherwise.
All these biases add up, no matter how much you don’t want them to. The way to fight those biases is to see other examples. The way to see other examples is to consume content actually created by women and people of color. A male writer may throw a stay-at-home dad in, or a female leader in, but you need the actual writers and creators to be women and people of color. Because it’s not just about being in the role, it’s about how they interact with the world.
I think about it all the time when I see a show or movie with a woman at work, without her purse (because it’s probably back at her desk), going to the bathroom after something stressful and splashing water on her face. No woman would do that! It would mess up her makeup, right?
Everytime I see that (and it is used a lot, as a trope), I think to myself: there were no women involved in that decision, because any woman would know not to do that. You cannot splash water on your face while you’re at work, unless you have your bag with you to fix your makeup. And it goes far beyond this example: how characters interact, what language are they using, what hierarchies exist, etc.
As you head into this award season, and see what is being awarded, and think about what you want to watch or read next, think about consuming content that was created by women or people of color.