This is something I've seen gradually increasing during the last year, and it's a very welcome development. But I'm wondering if it'll make any difference to my chances of success as an SF short story writer. Because encouraging submissions from people of diverse backgrounds is an easy win. You can measure your progress and point to statistics to show the world how well you're doing. You can make yourself look good on the VIDA count.
But the thing is, diverse people also have diverse world views. And if you're serious about attracting submissions from different groups of people, then you have to be serious about publishing diverse story content too. But so far that doesn't appear to be happening. I've read stories that support the patriarchal culture, marriage, and women relegated to the role of mother. And work division on gender grounds. None of these things describes my life, and these stories don't serve me or speak to me.
The thing is, as well as magazines honouring my physical diversity, I want them to honour my diversity of mind too. For me, that means accepting stories which show the evil, exploitative side of sex, which question and challenge the religion of 'the family', and the notion that human breeding is a good thing. I want to see stories about reducing human population and increasing wildlife. I want to see less about shiny tech and much more about the environmental consequences of making and using that shiny tech.
But I'm not seeing that. A wandering multi-viewpoint story about UFOs outside a diner in the middle of nowhere America just doesn't do it for me.
Sorry, magazines, must try harder. Much, much harder. You're supposed to be the place where we see brave new worlds. But the future I see in your pages is more of the same, an extension of the culture we have today. And the prospect of our current patriarchal, discriminatory, sex-obsessed culture extending into the future isn't one I find attractive. And I certainly don't want to read about it in your magazine.
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