To give a perfect example of this kind of thing, think of the film "The Great Escape". It was (based on) a true story about British PoWs in WWII who got recaptured after successfully digging their way out of the camp. Why was Steve McQueen in it? For the sole reason that American audiences wouldn't watch the movie if he weren't.Playful Pony said:
To be honest, using "white" and "American" isn't necessary. Bearing in mind this is a broad, but quite fair generalisation, it's actually more simply a "male" thing. Boys and men (across the world, across different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds) are more inclined to look up to, watch films and shows, read books written by and play games starring, males.
Recently on Facebook, one of my favourite authors posted a link on her public FB page to an interview she did. One of the questions was about why she changed her name on her book covers from "Jennifer Fallon" to "JJ Fallon", to which she answered that gender bias, particularly among male readers, more so among male genre fiction readers means female authors don't get nearly as many sales or as much recognition as their male counterparts. I asked if that was true on her post and she replied to me directly (I must admit I was quite star-struck that she was engaging me in FB conversation!) and said it was. She said it's the reason Joanne Rowling wrote under JK Rowling and why Harry wasn't Hermione.
I actually read some interesting articles on the subject after she messaged me since it never occurred to me that such a thing happened. McIntosh, Fallon and Haydon, all female fantasy writers are among my favourites and I can't imagine why another man would pass up a book for no reason other than because it was written by a woman. But the sad fact is they do. In a way, it's the same reason the leading Hollywood male stars generally out-earn the ladies and an extension of the tiresome and ongoing debate about women in games.
As a woman, it likely doesn't occur to you whatever the gender is of the protagonist (or creator) in most fiction (at least it doesn't dictate whether or not you'll read, watch or play it). Women in general don't show nearly as much gender bias in terms of authors they'll read either and IMO when it comes to things like films, shows and games, because so much of them do generally put a male in as the "default", it's simply accepted.
