Why Is There A Lack Of Ethnic Diversity Among Doctor Who Fans?

[Si Hunt]

Don't you think? What percentage of Planet Skaro members are white and of British background? Is it (gasp) actually 100%?

Si.

[shada pavlova]

It's because we Brits (and possibly a few Americans and New Zealanders) are the only people in the world who really "get" Doctor Who.

Nobody else seems to get it. Especially not the Greeks.

(that's not a racist slur BTW-I speak from experience!)

[Pip Madeley]

I guess it depends on your definition of fans and the circles you move in. When I set up the Doctor Who display at the library last year there were plenty of Asian/Pakistani children & teens taking an interest, borrowing books etc. As far as fandom goes, yes I guess it is largely white people, but then at the same turn you wonder why so many are men and so many of those men are gay...

Plus fandom is made up of many 30-60 year old men who grew up with the original series which we know had few non-white actors and not one non-white regular cast member. There's a lot more female fans, of the new series at least.

[Captain Tancredi]

Well, I'm one-eighth Norwegian, so that must count for something.

There are probably a few factors in play here- you could ask more or less the same question about rugby league, steam railways, beer mat collecting or any other of the thousand and one pointless things that British people take up as hobbies. For a start, there's the whole thing of social acceptance for first and second-generation immigrants, and then there's the fact that many people who move to another country are likely to follow the same interests they had at home. In that sense, Who may in the past have been a bit too British and too rooted in our traditions and whimsy. And I have to say, I suspect that a lot of people who follow traditionally white middle-class hobbies seriously do so at least in part as a retreat from today's pressurised multicultural world where traditional certainties are vanishing.

Going to Prague got me thinking a bit about relocating abroad, and I have to say that if I were in that situation I'd be looking to integrate quickly, which means local customs and fashions, but not everybody would be the same.

[Si Hunt]

It's because we Brits (and possibly a few Americans and New Zealanders) are the only people in the world who really "get" Doctor Who.

But a large population of British people, born here and who've lived here all their lives, are Coloured, Asian or Chinese and yet none of them post here.

Is it a cultural thing?

Si.