Obligations of the Creator

The people that contribute to Moorsgate Media in general, and I particular, think a lot about world building. Be it the setting of rules for a role playing game, the types of magic and monsters that should lurk in the corners of Urban Fantasy, or the types of FTL technologies available to any one race. 

However, there are other considerations that always come up in the scope of world building. What, we wonder, is an author's or designer's obligation to his audience?

Is the writer of a Zombie Apocalypse story required to have his scrappy band of survivors represent, and represent well, every strip and strain of humanity. If he doesn't, has he committed some cardinal sin of fiction? Is a game designer's option to have her female character be a lesbian, mean that she is implicitly writing off the hetrosexual gaming population? Is the reverse true? Is a Gay Male hero saving his boyfriend a "damsel in distress" trope? If not, why? 

Recently, GRRM, author of the widely successful Song of Fire and Ice series ( and TV Show under the Game of Thrones label) has come into some criticism for both the "ethnic" casting of certain characters, and his depictions of whole (made up, but historically analogous) regions. Anyone interested in the specifics of those arguments can find them on the intertubes. 

Similarly, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian, and others, go into great detail the way that gender is construed in mainstream and indie video games.  Both sets of criticisms are valid and worth your time. However, there is an uncomfortable vagueness of concern that lurks at the core of the criticism. 

Obligation. 

What is the author's obligation. Is a straight, white male obligated to create "others" for the benefit of his audience? Do we want him to? Do we want positive role models for underrepresented peoples to be crafted by the over-represented? If a black lesbian writes a novel, is she obligated to have a positive portrayal of straight white men? Should she? Is the opposite always true?

This is not to say that there is an equivalence between those authors whose trade is tropes and stereotypes and those whose aren't, but the question needs to be asked. Who is the arbitrator of your work?  If the market is, then the market decides if a story-line is a trope, or a re-invention, sufficiently diverse or not. If it is society, then society should be able to produce enough voices that one successful GRRM is countered by other depictions of POC in a fantasy setting. 

If that's not the case, and I think any cursory reading of widely successful new IP in the sci-fi and fantasy space says its not. Then we have to ask why? Where are the sweeping Tolkien-esq epics featuring POC characters? Where are the gripping video-games with all female-leads? Do the underrepresented have an obligation to create for themselves, as well as criticize.