Represantation cant replace good story

 "...we both know how hard it is constantly being on guard, weighing every word, every move.
"The idea of March" Tom Duffy

Pop culture isn’t just wallpaper—it’s the architecture of our inner lives. Every frame, every casting choice, every storyline is a brick in the foundation of what we believe about ourselves and others.

 According to research by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (2023), 

audiences increasingly demand authentic and varied representation because what’s on screen seeps intothe collective consciousness, normalizing identities and influencing real-world policy debates.  https://www.tasteray.com/articles/movie-representation-movies

If we actually judge movies of the last decades not based on the storyline or the messaging but whether on how inclusive they were, then we are lacking. Since Hollywood first became mainstream it was a white dominated industry with white actors portraying black and asian character and gay people being  the villain. A great example of this is the movie Gone with the Wind where black slaves were portrayed as submissive to their kind owners and KKK as a neccesserilly evil.

@ruthnaggawa I am a MAJOR advocate of representation in stories. I’m also an advocate for people of the community being able to tell our stories, fictional or not. I love when people who aren’t Black or POC want to make their main characters POC. LOVE THAT. But, let’s leave that to the stories that don’t speak to the heart of our racial and cultural experiences. I think it’s best to let us tell our stories, especially when they’re that sensitive. And ask yourselves this: Why am I only able to come up with Black or POC main characters that are in a story in which they’re faced with oppression? #blackwritersoftiktok #blackwomenwriters #BookTok #4youuuuu #writersoftiktok #whatnottodo #romancemovies #romancebooks #wattpad #ao3 #reading #writing #blackstories #blackhistorymonth #booksandmovies #writingtips ♬ son original - Ruth Naggawa

Another example could be the comparrisson between the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffanys and the 1984 movie 16 Candles in which asian characters are being used for comedic relief with stereotypically Asian names,accents and habits

People of colour and LGBTQ members  would see themselves on the screen as complete characters at the early 2000s. At that time period black people would also see themselves on advertisments.

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/wy3ltk/i_dont_quite_understand_why_representation_is_so/
 What we get from that is that representation is not neccesserilly a bad thing. The problem starts when writers dont know how to actually use inclusion as a key ingredient to the plot. One of the main pieces of criticism that is being applied to these media are about how they prioritise preaching ideologies over creating actual stories

One of the best examples that we can find for this is the Marvel and Disney+ series She Hulk. The series was promoted by its creators as a way to change the narrative that is used for boys to feel worthy. She Hulk gained a 5.2 score on IMDB and a 32 % by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes with many of its criticism being on how all men that were portrayed were either stypid or evil. While presenting a womans struggles through a comedic lense is a smart idea the execution is what makes a show or a movie worth. If we compare She Hulk and Legally Blonde as pieces of media we can understand why Legally Blonde was a way more beloved film. Elle Woods character doesnt try to prove that she is more worthy than a man. She tries to prove that she can be smart without losing her femininity. 

Another major problem is how media from the past is being viwed. Of course and as it mentioned before there were many harmful stereotypes and problematic aspects but that doesnt stop them from being works of art.In recent years these exact pieces of media have been criticised for lack of represantation, white saviour trope, oversexualised female characters and racists and homophobic ideas despite the fact that most of the media werent even that problematic themselves in first place. The first examples that comes to mind is the hit television series Sex and The City in which referred to black trans women as "half men half women"  or the infamous "biphobic" comments in the Boy Girl Boy Girl episode. The problem with that is that Sex and The City especially at the time it was aired it was a revolutionary series where gay people were completed characters and not just comedic reliefs.

@tonyvanderhoef Exploring the Meaning of 'Woke' We discuss the evolution of the term 'woke' and how it has come to be associated with modern identity politics and institutional activism around issues of race, gender, and sexuality. #woke #identitypolitics #socialconsciousness #BLM #socialjustice #DEI #cancelculture #progressivism #politics ♬ Classical Cello Solo (Acoustic) - Rafael Krux

Another great example can be the Twilight Saga series which have been heavily criticised for making "Mormon propaganda" presenting the white rich good "vampires" being rivals with native American "werewolves". The problem here lies to the fact that throughout the series the werewolves are being presented as the good guys who help the helpless while vampires are bloodsucking monsters

As the Vima magazine cleverly writes :" If we go by that logic then we should ban ET for being offensive to extre terrestials". What we dont understand is that if the only lgbtq characters that were presented on mainstream media were the ones that we saw on Sex and the City it will be considered problematic but if we see it while having in mind how the community is being represented all these years then it is not as harmful as the stereotypes that the movies who try to fix the source materieal are. These types of media represent gays as more feminine lesbians as more masculine and Asians as academically smart forcing people to fit in specific standards in order for them to be considered part of the community

Similiar stereotypes can also be found in people with all forms of disabillities or cancer.It is common for most of the films that represnt these types of characters to have them either pass away or fall in love or do both. Assistant Professor Chavon Niles at the Department of Physical Therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, who researched critical disability studies, shares a  sentiment  about cultural misrepresentations of disability. In an email to The Varsity, she explained, “When the media predominantly portrays disability through a negative or limited lens, people with disabilities may feel that their experiences are misunderstood or devalued by society, leading to feelings of isolation and disconnection from social life.”  

This isolation is further compounded by the fact that many fictional stories and visual media

 fail to represent the structural barriers and discrimination that people with disabilities face daily.”

 Instead of exploring the complexities of life with a physical illness or disability, Niles argued that many films accentuate the character’s tragedy by showcasing their bad decisions and fatal endings.In the same way LGBTQ characters are being used as an ingredient to spice up the plot without these characters being  anything more. The irony here lies to the fact that most of these characters are never acknowledged as gay in order for them to fit in as straight in other countries versions with stricter policies about homosexuality

To sum up while representation is an important aspect we shouldnt gone to far in order to prove -hypocritically- to others how much we care about certain minority groups. Represantation should be organic and not something that is being used because the left is trending