Has Diversity in SFR Led to its Niche Status?

I recently was engaged in an email discussion with a peer on the topic of non-inclusiveness in SFR and during that discussion, one point in particular jumped out at me. I've done a lot of thinking on that particular insight and decided it might make a good subject for a blog.

In paraphrasing, this captures the basic sentiments in my own words: 

Science Fiction Romance seems to be a genre where diversity flourishes, yet ironically that diversity might also be what has kept some readers away from the genre altogether.

Whoa, I thought to myself. Could that observation explain much about SFR's "failing to fire" with a larger audience? 

The meaning behind "some readers" is pretty clear here. It infers those readers who are intolerant of reading books where a hero and/or heroine aren't classified as "white-hetero." Something I think a large majority of SFR books tend to deviate from just by their very nature. 

In my series, for instance, there are no races. There are human subspecies. These subspecies have prejudices and differences in outlook based on their nature (fear-mongering vs. peaceful, for instance), history and/or political outlook, but it has nothing to do with the pigmentation of their skin or archaic Terran prejudices. It's a future where all races merged into one big human stew, then separated into subspecies due to differing conditions on the planets they chose to colonize (ala Protodog research). 

Racism is a moot point in this future. But the antagonism between certain subspecies did allow me to explore the human capacity toward pre-judgment and bias (think Sair the Rathskian vs. Zjel the Purmian) and how those differences were eventually overcome by an understanding borne from an unlikely alliance.

From my perspective, diversity is an inherent part of SFR because I don't think many of us imagine--or pen--a future (should the SFR be set in the future) where space exploration belongs exclusively to white males. 

By its very nature, SFR envisions a very different universe from what is often seen in other genres. Which is to say, some genres have a tendency toward white aristocratic/privileged hetero hero and white-but-of-a-lesser-social-ranking hetero female. Yet, genres that often entail these dynamics have a far larger romance audience than SFR could ever dream of having. (But don't ever change SFR--we love you just the way you are!) 

On a different angle, I've often puzzled over why SFR hasn't enjoyed the same popularity in written form in terms of readership that it has on the big and small screen in terms of viewership. 

Some of the biggest theatrical blockbusters and TV hits of our time involve SF and romance elements (Avatar, Star Wars, The Expanse, Firefly and many of the recent Superhero/ine releases, to name a few.) So why doesn't that huge SF with R audience translate to SFR readership? Is it because the demographics of readership vs. viewership are so very different? Are readers less likely to embrace diverse characters than viewers, something that has put SFR at a disadvantage for growth because of its very tendency toward diversity? 

I don't have an answer for that. It's something I'll be mulling over for quite some time. But I do think it suggests a brighter future for SFR as readers begin, more and more, to explore and embrace diversity in fiction books. At least, I certainly hope that's the case.

Have a great week.