Ok, this gonna sound polemic and I’m gonna try to not use any adjectives. (Except for once)
The thing is that sometimes I feel like many stories try to appeal to a broad audience, but regardless of what they aim for, a lot of the time the audience ends up being (I’ll allow myself this just once) men rather than women. I’m not sure if this happens with the animated series of Avatar, but I do notice that with Star Trek, even though they try to make everyone feel represented, the reality is that the average viewer is, well, just that—the average person in the country where it’s broadcast.
In the case of Avatar, it’s criticized by some Japanese people because they associate it more with China, to the point that they label it as almost racist when it’s compared to Japanese animation (anime). What I mean is that no matter how much a series tries to appeal to a general audience or to please everyone, that’s never really going to happen; it will always end up having a group with shared characteristics that likes it.
But what do you think? Can there be stories that anyone—regardless of gender, ethnicity, or country—can enjoy? I think the closest thing to that is Harry Potter, and well, you know what the creator is like, but that’s not the point here.
It’s hard to explain, but this is more aimed at writers or any other creative producer: do you write with a specific audience in mind, or do you think that everyone will like what you create?
There are a lot of unknowns in this question, and assumptions filling in for facts about audiences (intended as well as actual viewership), writers/producers — and the gender ratio of each group. Throwing international, culturally diverse audiences into the mix doesn’t do much to focus the subject.
There’s a lot to unpick, especially when replies to comments show you’re also implicitly concerned with the “anti-woke” crowd and their perceived gender majority. As well as their outsized public voice (ie, loudness) compared to their actual numbers, as @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website says.
Personally, and therefore also based in assumption, I don’t see Trek as written for an “average viewer” vs an actual, predominantly male audience. I’ve only observed Trek viewers to be a fair mix of all gender identities, and the show’s appeal to such a wide spectrum must come from the show itself, as written and produced.
But the individual shows must also be considered in isolation. Where shows like Discovery and SFA have celebrated woke (ie, humanist, progressive) values, I very much perceive the SNW show runners as a gang of old, male fans who somehow have been allowed to create the world’s most expensive, regressive fanfic. But that’s me.