> To me, that would be the other way around: a chance to stand out and be one of a kind, act in a way nobody else had acted before, and reap the benefits of being unique, or the first at least

This is a great attitude to have. I know that not everyone has this ability (yet) to function this way, but it really should be the goal of how to operate.

For me, it took me years to get there. Variety of reasons, but I realized much later in life that I was still carrying around traumas of being targeted in public by random strangers at a young age just by being out in public (yes, just walking down the street). That sort of stuff can erode psychological safety that we bring with us and unknown situations can cause us to react rather than respond. This is one of the reasons I think representation matters. Not just that it creates a mental model of what's possible, but proof (hopefully) that it's also safe and allowed.