"What if we limited the number of white men in film and TV?"

"Creatively, a bad idea—but so is peppering diversity onto default casts."

I should note my 31% cap would in no way limit the number of awesome projects in development; it would just change the breakdown of their casts. After all, as a woman who wants to have any kind of cultural literacy, I’m expected to engage with white-male-centric stories all the time. And even though they're low on ladies, I love Saving Private Ryan, Lord Of The Flies, True Detective, Toy Story, The History Boys, The Godfather and The West Wing. So why shouldn’t white men get equal enjoyment out of watching stories in which they aren’t represented?

Fantastic TV shows like Orange Is The New Black, Empire, Call The Midwife, Black-ish, Fresh Off The Boat, The Bletchley Circle, and Orphan Black prove that increased diversity can open up new storytelling avenues for everyone to enjoy.

Another example: While I feel fairly confident in saying the white male perspective on World War II has been thoroughly covered over the last 75 years of filmmaking, there are fewer films that explore women on the home front, all-black platoons, or Japanese-American internment camps. If we insist on revisiting that time period over and over again, why not do so from a fresh angle?

Sure it’s true that part of the demand for better representation is about social justice: We as a society have determined that equality makes the world a better place.

But demands for increased representation are also demands for new stories. In fact, we already ask for diversity from Hollywood all the time when it comes to genres, styles, tones, and characters (from comedies to dramas, blockbusters to arthouse films, heroes to antiheroes).

Adding more racial and gender diversity is just one more way to foster fresh storytelling. And that’s inarguably a good thing.