Hi, I’m Nidhi!
If you asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, from the age of seven I would have told you, with a straight face and no doubt, constitutional law. The fact that I, as a child, even knew what constitutional law was should tell you a lot about me. I grew up in a household where politics and religion were regular dinner table discussions, and where it was up to you to back up your beliefs.
At the same time, as a first-generation Indian-American growing up during the New Golden Age of Television and who happened to move a lot, books and TV became a safe space, a way of making friends, and a way to learn social scripts. I inhaled multiple stories a week spanning from fantasy and paranormal romance to spirituality and poetry, and there was rarely a moment where I wasn’t either actively watching a show or didn’t have a favorite on in the background.
This culminated in not only enjoying BUFFY, but being able to understand the significance of its third-wave feminism undertones, the genius of its writers in using fantasy and the paranormal to depict very human experiences, and the importance of its queer romance representation.
Fast forward a decade and I’m halfway through my Politics degree at NYU working on the Hill in early childhood education (bridging the summer learning gap, advocating for funding for after school bussing, etc.) and I was debilitatingly tired of begging folks to care about the needs of marginalized communities. Then BLACKFISH came out. This $1.5 million documentary cost SeaWorld more than $16 million in sales, led to a flurry of legislation protecting orcas, and resulted in SeaWorld ending its orca show and phasing out its breeding program.
For me, it became abundantly clear that entertainment was, and is, a powerful catalyst for grassroots driven change.
In the years since, I graduated from NYU with a major in Politics and a minor in the Business of Entertainment, Media, and Technology. I worked for agencies, and casting companies, and spent the better part of my career working with talent both to create content and to leverage their brand for social good. At the same time, I continued working in activism and abolition spaces pushing the lesson BLACKFISH had taught me.
Content Diversity Advising was born out of a desire to rectify harmful narratives, and to increase the quality of representation present in the content we do consume. It’s an effort to become a safe space for writers and create content that is authentic to the story and experiences of the characters it's looking to portray. This work is a culmination of my experiences and passions: my love for storytelling intersecting with my decade-plus of experience in advocacy and activism.
These conversations bring me such joy, and I can’t wait to have them with you!
Specializing in a variety…
Characters have this wonderful ability to become part of you. You emotionally connect with them, and in exchange, they have the power to expand our worldview. This is the reason representation is so important: it highlights the human behind the political punchline, it allows communities to see more for themselves and their futures than the present may allow, and it makes us feel seen. This is also why it’s so important, especially at a time when storytellers are recommitting to diversity and when audiences are looking for more, that we do it right.
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When we think about diversity, this is the first identity dimension that usually comes to mind. However, the work goes deeper than including Black folks in narratives. True representation must depict BIPOC communities as more than just their race.
Furthermore, while we look at race in storytelling, we must also look at class as they are two sides of the same coin and cannot be considered independently.
Industry-standard diversity test: DuVernay.
Commons tropes and stereotypes include the white savior, magical negro, trauma porn, hypersexual Black or Latino man, the asexual Asian, the sassy Black woman, Asians as perpetual foreigners, immigrants as terrorists, and positive stereotypes such as Asians being good at math or tech support.
*It is important to note that race does not operate independently of other identity dimensions and characters and storylines must be viewed holistically.
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Gender representation refers to not only the mainstream male-female binary but all diversity of expression, including agender, bigender, cisgender, gender fluid, genderqueer, trans, etc.
Industry-standard diversity test: Bechdel.
Some common tropes and stereotypes are the psycho ex-girlfriend, the cold/manipulative career woman, tiger moms, dragon ladies, or a woman’s entire identity being a wife or mother.
*It is important to note that as gender does not operate independently of other identity dimensions and characters and storylines must be viewed holistically.
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LGBTQIA+ and sexuality representation refers to the full spectrum of sexual and romantic attraction, including being asexual, bisexual, heterosexual, pansexual, etc. It also includes transfolk and overlaps with gender representation in this way.
Industry-standard diversity test: Russo.
Some common tropes and stereotypes are promiscuous gay men, sassy gay men, hypermasculine lesbians, the gay best friend, etc.
*It is important to note that sexuality and LGBTQIA+ identity does not operate independently of other identity dimensions and characters and storylines must be viewed holistically.
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Ability and disability diversity refers to differences in cognitive, social-emotional, and physical abilities. We all have different abilities, and none are “better” or “worse” than another. There is no such thing as “normal”. This aspect of diversity refers to ADHD, PTSD, anxiety, hearing and non-hearing folks, visually impaired people, and those with learning, mobility, medical, and/or psychiatric disabilities.
There is no industry standard test here, so I use a combination of the Fries Test, Jenni Gold’s CinemAbility test, and Chelsea Rivas’ tests.
Some common tropes and stereotypes are better dead than disabled, disabled inspiration porn, mental health crisis evolving to murder, and asexual disabled persons.
*It is important to note that ability does not operate independently of other identity dimensions and characters and storylines must be viewed holistically.
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This is a framework in social justice for conceptualizing a person, group of people, or social problem as affected by a number of discriminations and disadvantages, and takes into account people’s overlapping identities and experiences in order to understand the complexity of prejudices they face.
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This dimension of diversity centers on how we can advocate and actively work toward the inclusion and equity of marginalized and politicized groups in all areas of society. It is a cornerstone of activism and abolition.
From a storytelling perspective, we look at what harmful or false narratives a character or story is perpetuating even if they do not identify with a certain aspect of diversity.
From a writer’s perspective, this is work we engage in off the page, identifying the -isms that have seeped into our thinking and worldview and have, therefore, seeped into the writing. Though this work is uncomfortable, it is necessary and unavoidable if our intention is truly to commit to diversity and representation.
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Though abolition was originally a movement to end slavery, modern abolition centers on transforming systems of harm and oppression by reimagining our models for community safety, security, mutual aid, and harm reduction. It centers on political education, relationship-building, and movement work geared toward creating economic and social change.
