Diversity

[Tartaros]

I wonder though, is the abundance of non racially diverse characters a result of writer bias, or the bias of the media that they are taken from?

Even though I disagree with a decent bit of what I've seen in the article (I mean, "Queer Identities After The Apocalypse: Trans Health Care and Queer Reproductive Choices In Post-Apocalyptic Worlds", seriously, what kind of post-apocalypse is this?), I'd almost certainly say the latter. Then again, I suppose it's a greater capitalistic or cultural thing though, not a conscious effort.

Those kinda choices and problems are realistic problems that people would be facing without a stable healthcare infrastructure. Those would be interesting panels to attend because they ask questions that aren't usually addressed by most post-apoc fiction, as evidenced by your totally dismissive and kinda insulting statement.

However, it only really affects a very small minority of the population (between two surveys by the Williams Institute of the Los Angeles School of Law in Massachusetts and California, a rough average of 0.3% of the survey's sample claimed to identify as transgender). While it would undoubtedly be an issue for some, and could make for interesting discussion, it isn't really a complex enough issue for a whole panel to be held regarding it ), and it would be better suited as an aspect of a panel of general health during such a situation (in my opinion, of course. And apologies if I came across as somewhat rude there, I tend to get somewhat bitter late at night)

And I would tend to say both to the first question. Like, obviously it's easier to pull white/male characters out of fiction because they are, BY FAR, the most predominant characters of interest within them. Also though, we have a serious lack of OC characters that are people of color, disability or any other minority, and those characters we can't blame the media for. I would also say that there are a few good shining examples of interesting characters that are part of a minority that aren't chosen, like Michonne, Spawn, Oracle etc etc etc.

I can't really deny this, however, I can bring up a point. Writing a character with a serious disability or mental illness can be a very challenging thing, and the illness can easily "drown out" the other aspects of the character to the reader if the writer is not careful, which just makes the character feel token and flat (I often see this with people attempting to portray illnesses, particular those such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in tabletop RPGs, though this is just an anecdote). So I believe the absence can also, in some cases, come from fear of coming off as insensitive to those suffering from said disability, and lack of confidence on the writer's part.