Are You Represented?

Well let's see.

As a white British citizen just above the poverty line therefore living a fairly western standard life, things are geared towards me a lot in media in this part of the world quite well.

As a chronically depressed, highly anxious, diagnosed obsessive compulsive with issues of self abuse and low moods...not very well. The media likes to demonise nearly every aspect of mental illness, particularly those with OCD, anxiety that prevents normal social interaction (being literally panic attack inducing to leave the house during the worst periods) or just about any debilitating mental issue. To the point of having to skip a great deal of movies, episodes etc that depict them as it's always so overbearingly negative, condescending or plain wrong.

As a nonbinary transgender...good lord where do I even start. If there's one thing media will demonise and turn on faster than mental illness, it's the LGBTQ community, and definitely transgender people. Independent media is the only place to find any material that isn't as grossly, offensively wrong depictations altogether. And that's mostly because it's being made by the community to showcase their actual lives and experiences, things people turn to popular media so they don't have to see it. I mean being insulting is one thing, but depictions that serve to pander to fear, anger, abuse, incitements to near violence (which I end up being on the recieving end off) are mostly what we get.

The goth thing, that's a mixed bag. There are plenty of bad examples that play heavily on the overweight and want to die kind of stereotype. But that's disappeared the last decade or so and we have alternative characters of various types on different shows and movies that are happy, well adjusted and positive in their portrayels. Who are shown to just adopt a different aesthetic to their lives and generally get a good responce from the audience and survive the entire run of their time on air/screen. It's expanded in different media to show people of various altertnative subcultures too as the years have gone on which is nice to see.

I'm not much of a gamer, I don't read comics, etc so I can't comment on much of that. I'm am a bit of a geek which can go either way in most shows. Parks and Rec was one of the better shows I've seen for that. TBBT is attrocious though.
 
*Deep sigh* Good ol' representation. I believe it is extremely important to see yourself in the media, and not just your personality, but your race, your sexual orientation, or anything else. We live in a world where these things matter and have real life consequences, whether we like it or not, so I'm glad we're sort of witnessing a new wave of diversity in the mainstream media. But as far as I'm concerned, let's see.

Representation Checklist Thingy:

I am a male, with a penis.
I am an African American.
I am agnostic.
I am part of the LGBTQ community.
I have a mental disorder.

Now, here's the fun part. I do see myself represented as far as being a male, although I rarely if ever, relate to any male character profoundly, even though I share some similar qualities with them, like Oz for example. We're both extremely laid back and chill, we rarely speak unless spoken too, and we both were in bands at some point. Modern masculinity never really appealed to me.

On paper, I am a black male. But, if you look at me, you'll see very light skin, especially during the winter. (Think Jesse Williams, without the piercing blue eyes and him being 10 times hotter). According to the "one drop rule", anybody with recent black ancestry is just straight up black. So when I was growing up, I often found myself being the butt of jokes. I've been called "white boy", "light bright", or "sunshine", hence why I never felt like a member of my own community. Now, I do have privilege outside of my own community and in the world, but that's another topic all together.

You do a new era of religious freedom, so there's some atheists and agnostics that you see in entertainment, and that's one of the many reasons why I love Buffy so much. In CwDP, when Holden asked Buffy is there a God, she replied nothing solid. That's me and religion in a nutshell. 😛

I've always felt this attraction to men and women, although once I started a relationship with a man, I rarely think of women in that way anymore. So my sexuality isn't really that easy to define, and since mainstream media thinks there's only two sexual orientations, my role model hasn't shown up yet.

Finally, I suffer from anxiety and major depression. And we all know how that goes. We get so demonized, it almost makes you not want to go and get help. I'm only beginning to understand my illness, and the steps that I need to take to rehabilitate myself, and it's a long, hard journey. But when I look on the TV screen, I see no one that looks like me, talks like me, is into the same things as me, and has the same illness as me.

The good news is that I don't need to be represented in order to enjoy some of my favorite shows and movies. My two biggest role models just happen to be white, blonde, and female (Buffy Summers and Veronica Mars) so clearly that shouldn't be a big deal when watching something good. The bad news is that, when your growing up, the lack of representation still stings, and it takes its toll on your self esteem, whether you recognize it or not. I remember growing up feeling like a freak because my media feed constantly showed white characters, and while there isn't anything inherently wrong with that, my inner fantasies and dreams were filled with people who didn't look like me. I remember asking my grandmother who raised me why don't I have perfectly straight hair, and then being disappointed because I don't. I remember wanting to be the female instead of the male because gay characters weren't fathomable when I was a child. When you're so used to seeing yourself or people like you on screen, you tend to take it for granted. That's why there was such backlash about Rue's character in The Hunger Games. That's why there's backlash whenever Star Wars introduces a minority character (seems like they forgot what Star Wars actually tried to teach them 🙄).

The truth is, most people want to see themselves in fiction. We live in a new era, so while we've come a long way since the 90's, we still have a long way to go to include people from all walks of life. The wonderful thing about it is now, if I can't find a light skin LGBTQ agnostic black nerd in the mainstream media, I can simply go online and create him. 😉
 
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There are so many meaningful posts on this thread. I'm impressed. I thought about not posting at all, but I'll just say yes I'm represented, being a stereotypical straight white teenager from the suburbs. And to all who feel under represented, I say the media is stupid!
 
Hey, I'm just curious. How is mental illness portrayed in talk shows?

I mean those that often show some painful human condition. The kind I'd think are aimed at stay at home moms as it's usually geared more to their interests (and reflects their typical biases for better and worse in order to keep them viewing and thus making advertising dollars, and tend to play from late morning to late afternoon when many people are at work). Oprah is a famous example, though I don't even know if she still has a show or not.

I wouldn't know as I haven't watched that many. On one hand many in society are generally unsympathetic, but on the other hand so many have pills and there are even plenty of mothers (a target audience of many of these talk shows) who take their small children trying to get them diagnosed with something (even if they have to get a fifth opinion before they get it). Therefore I can't even make a guess on this, though it wouldn't surprise me if the tone is very different today than say 10 years ago.

I know they have a specific narrative for many backgrounds (domestic abuse, sex crimes, runaways, drug addiction, etc), for better or worse, depending on the background (and again, reflecting what I think their target audience WANTS to hear). I know that makes a difference because those who are of a topic that's given lots of sympathy can be found a dime a dozen online, but those that are portrayed unsympathetically are extremely difficult to find despite also being very common. (I also know the shows are there to make money rather than raise awareness--even if someone wants to do good, they still have people to answer to who won't share their goals and values--and will thus pander to their target audience, and find other ways to make money by offering hugs or metaphorical kicking over depending on what they think their audience wants to see, and going for the more dramatic cases is also profitable, which typically means the more extreme rather than typical.)

So how is say bipolar and depression and personality disorders and things like that depicted? How accurate does it tend to be, and in what ways do you think it gets compromised? Are those with a diagnosis willing to recommend them to say family members wanting to understand, or would you prefer they never see such shows?

(I also wonder if this should be a separate topic deserving of its own thread, but as it's media representation, and I can easily see others speaking about how these shows depict other things which is fine by me, it's probably best in this thread.)
 
White, straight, 30-year-old female with Asperger's Syndrome. Brown hair now, but I was a blonde child. I've worn glasses in recent years (computer screens = myopia!).

I don't identify with race and gender politics at all. I actually loathe it and the idea that people are told to only care about a character if they relate to them on such superficial levels instead of something meatier like actual characterization. I've also never remotely felt that there was any difference between male and female representation. What I'm looking for always seems to have had a lot of both and I don't feel a particular absence. I actually prefer older things, so it's not the age of the media either. But then again, I don't always relate to a lot of females.

With my Aspie brain, I can't really handle the kind of vapid, mind-numbing entertainment aimed strictly at women (girly rom-coms are my idea of hell). Aspies are often accused of lacking empathy, though we absolutely do feel. We just can't fake it, give fake answers (if you ask our opinion, expect a real answer, not the one you're fishing for) or fake interest in things we really don't give a damn about. I'll always go for the male or nerd genres every time. The female-gaze WB and a lot of nerd genre stuff has had plenty to offer girls who, while loving the tragic, dramatic, romance genre (I always seem to take to the sad, bittersweet stuff), also need that little bit of male-style entertainment to go with it. I'd much rather watch stuff like the fairly masculine-but-female-friendly Star Wars OT and Indiana Jones ('70s, '80s and '90s are my movie decades--I've fallen into a black hole culturally in the 21st century) than most things aimed at the lightweight female audience. Too much whiny, self-centered, emotional drama-queening has me switching off quick (it's also a turnoff in characters and later BtVS is guilty of it, which is why AtS generally fits me better). I'm also that person who seems to like a bunch of heavy, sad stuff with a lot of death and tragedy.

However, I've always been drawn to outcast characters, sometimes with loneliness, social awkwardness (with a lot of fear of social failure) and depression issues. Many of them are male (Spock-like logic brain over emotions tends to be a male trait and that's Asperger's) and hardly anything I look like. Oh, and I'm attracted to fairly masculine Alpha types. As a very strongly opinionated person and being so dominant in intellectual, analytical conversations with absolutely no ability to do small talk, I absolutely have to be around people who can handle a strong personality--which means another strong personality.

I identify with ANGEL for God's sake! The depressed, socially-awkward introvert with the head-over-heart, big-picture outlook with a love of travel, languages, Oldies ballads, etc... I'm also notoriously lost in time (old parents) and cheap/frugal. I'm constantly feeling like I've been a hermit so long that I have no idea what's popular or up-to-date anymore. I'm also used to social situations that feel like a gang-up of people trying to break you out of your comfort zone.

Though I can see bits of myself in Buffy (middle-class, goody-two-shoe girl from Southern California who loses all of her friends and now the dead parent connection), Wesley (never feels good enough despite being an overachiever, walking encyclopedia of sometimes useless trivia, same head-over-heart, big-picture, logical thought processes also exhibited by Angel common in Aspies), seasons 2-3!Fred (her loving relationship with her parents subject to jealousy, being in a foreign place for a long time without any contact with them and realizing that the only person who can save you from self-isolation is yourself) and my whole childhood of season 1!softer-side-of-Sears!Willow (also, computer nerd), as well.

On a completely vapid note, Sarah Michelle Gellar is one of the only actresses I've ever seen with five ear piercings (three in one lobe and two in the other). Given that I have seven (three in each lobe and one up top), it's a weird, little thing I can relate to.
 
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T
thrasherpix
Based strictly on your posts to BB, I never thought of you having a syndrome. I have found you interesting and refreshing at times, and I thank you for this explanation of how your mind works!
@thrasherpix , Yes, the talk shows of the 90s and 00s definitely raised awareness, not all of it postive, more fo a side show way, of people rarely shown and heard from in media and popular culture. But awareness it was regardless and it humanized stigmatized people. Oprah especially was a positive force in the culture. To me what your first post reiterated was that people do not need and ask for representation because looking different or behaving different makes them unable to relate to characters but that empathy for other people is what allows that.

And we all deserve representation not because we are unable to identify with characters unlike our selves but that we our selves should be shown and represented so that other people unlike us can gain by empathizing and identify that character. I think a Oz like character with @Living Dead Boy representation checklist sounds amazing and would be awesome, not that in he would necessarily gain a new favorite character but that in other people not like himself would gain and benefit from that character.

@NileQT87 "I actually loathe the idea that people are told to only care about a character if they relate to them on such superficial levels instead of something meatier like actual characterization."

That is exactly right. It is not about vanity it is that we need more stories. The feeling for example that there is hardly a difference in male and female representation is a minority view point, informed by who you are, a women with aspergers, it does not define you but if a writer or director or author were to say "lets remove this characteristic of a life" it will lose the context of said life, so a character holding a certain perspective no longer makes sense, so in the end you end with a completely different character and representation that could have benefited me specifically to see things in a new or different perspective.

Every story of someones life is a deeply human story, there is no greater offense then saying a character by virtue of being a different ethnicity alone makes them unrelatable to you cause we are all human and if we are to celebrate humanity and what makes us human we need a plurality of stories.

There is a thread on the portrayal of Drusilla's mental illness I contributed to. I saw a really insightful post on tumblr about that that has always stuck with me. Yeah, to examine a show in this way is not necessarily to denigrate it. Sherlock's The Final Problem had the most egregious portrayal of mental illness, that was very dehumanizing (where as Drusilla often was treated in the humorous "nutcase" cliche, the problem is not the humor but being ill was served to dehumanize and dis-empathize) and I have not seen a single thinkpiece on Sherlock so I do not think it is necessarily a case of being oversensitive these days.

In particular personality disorders are usually used to signal a character as "evil" and "double-handed/two-faced" the scene were we discover that they have been lying about everything.

While depression most commonly is used in service of the "too brilliant to bathe" genius man stereotype. I don't watch but apparently "You're The Worst" portrays a women with depression that is realistic and empathetic and has humor.

In other words it is not the unhinged ex or unstable girlfriend trope serving the male protagonist story.

I have not seen "Silver Linings Playbook" but I did hear the way mental illness is treated in that movie is too frivolous and flippant for some, might want to check it out still, along with Katie Holmes "Touched With Fire" I hear 2016 "The Other Half" is a welcome depiction.

Sarah Michelle starred in "Veronika Decides To Die" a depiction of a depressed women. A buffy and smg obsessed friend of mine with bipolar considers it a very important movie to her, yet to others who disliked the book, to each their own.

Buffy Season 3 episode 10 "Amends" is a nice allegorical homily to depression and contains a great metaphorical soliloquy on depression and suicidal ideation.
 
Meliza said:
@thrasherpix , Yes, the talk shows of the 90s and 00s definitely raised awareness, not all of it postive, more fo a side show way, of people rarely shown and heard from in media and popular culture. But awareness it was regardless and it humanized stigmatized people. Oprah especially was a positive force in the culture. To me what your first post reiterated was that people do not need and ask for representation because looking different or behaving different makes them unable to relate to characters but that empathy for other people is what allows that.

And we all deserve representation not because we are unable to identify with characters unlike our selves but that we our selves should be shown and represented so that other people unlike us can gain by empathizing and identify that character. I think a Oz like character with @Living Dead Boy representation checklist sounds amazing and would be awesome, not that in he would necessarily gain a new favorite character but that in other people not like himself would gain and benefit from that character.

@NileQT87 "I actually loathe the idea that people are told to only care about a character if they relate to them on such superficial levels instead of something meatier like actual characterization."

That is exactly right. It is not about vanity it is that we need more stories. The feeling for example that there is hardly a difference in male and female representation is a minority view point, informed by who you are, a women with aspergers, it does not define you but if a writer or director or author were to say "lets remove this characteristic of a life" it will lose the context of said life, so a character holding a certain perspective no longer makes sense, so in the end you end with a completely different character and representation that could have benefited me specifically to see things in a new or different perspective is gone.

Every story of someones life is a deeply human story, there is no greater offense then saying a character by virtue of being a different ethnicity alone makes them unrelatable to you cause we are all human and if we are to celebrate humanity and what makes us human we need a plurality of stories.

There is a thread on the portrayal of Drusilla's mental illness I contributed to. I saw a really insightful post on tumblr about that that has always stuck with me. Yeah, to examine a show in this way is not necessarily to denigrate it. Sherlock's The Final Problem had the most egregious portrayal of mental illness, that was very dehumanizing (where as Drusilla often was treated in the humorous "nutcase" cliche, the problem is not the humor but being ill was served to dehumanize and dis-empathize) and I have not seen a single thinkpiece on Sherlock so I do not think it is necessarily a case of being oversensitive these days.

In particular personality disorders are usually used to signal a character as "evil" and "double-handed/two-faced" the scene were we discover that they have been lying about everything.

While depression most commonly is used in service of the "too brilliant to bathe" genius man stereotype. I don't watch but apparently "You're The Worst" portrays a women with depression that is realistic and empathetic and has humor.

In other words it is not the unhinged ex or unstable girlfriend trope serving the male protagonist story.

I have not seen "Silver Linings Playbook" but I did hear the way mental illness is treated in that movie is too frivolous and flippant for some, might want to check it out still, along with Katie Holmes "Touched With Fire" I hear 2016 "The Other Half" is a welcome depiction.

Sarah Michelle starred in "Veronika Decides To Die" a depiction of a depressed women. A buffy and smg obsessed friend of mine with bipolar considers it a very important movie to her, yet to others who disliked the book, to each their own.

Buffy Season 3 episode 10 "Amends" is a nice allegorical homily to depression and contains a great metaphorical soliloquy on depression and suicidal ideation.
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White, straight female and my kids are probably as old as many of the folk posting. 🙁Working class parents (Dad was an NUM convenor during the UK miners strike) I have a class-conscious (actively progressive left, conceptually soft Marxist/Neo-Freudian psychoanalysis) but with qualifications, career and income that (on paper) alienates me from that class. Catholic/Methodist background (neither enforced) I'm unwilling to foreclose on the idea of God (I'm with Voltaire - if he doesn't exist we'd need to invent him) because I like the transcendent space "God" gives us. Transpose that space to self, society and art - persuade others that space exists - and it's liberating.

I have cool hair 😎- very short - naturally silver at the front gradating to black at the back. Slight purplish tinge from the shampoo I use - it's that steel grey that's on the ball at the moment. I get stopped and asked where I have it coloured and take great satisfaction in pointing out it's genetic. Daytime wardrobe - Converse, DMs or similar, rolled up chinos or (ideally) vintage denim (yep - I'm that pretentious - I also drink Flat White).😱 Stereotypically liberal arts - except universities have become more professionalised so less stereotypical than it was. However, I scrub up and I'm not averse to a dress or skirts. I have what is colloquially known as a big gob.🙁 I also have a working class accent and I'm over-reliant on swear words. I sound aggressive but temper it with humour and self-depreciation. How much is conscious and unconscious performance I couldn't say. All I know is it works. I'm never patronized - I'm perceived as slightly eccentric but genuine and honest (and probably more intelligent than I am). So no - I'm not represented because I'm not easily representable but it doesn't concern me in the slightest. 🙂

I don't/can't identify with characters - they're words/scratches on a page, a chemical process that moves by way of technology. I'm interested in form and dynamics - that's the only draw books/films have for me. From that perspective, all texts are interesting and worthy of study. I'm paid to watch films, read books etc. 🙂I'm also paid to deconstruct meaning and analyse representation, which is why, on a personal level, it doesn't bother me - I can't stand outside of representation but I can see it/know it for what it is. However, once I get beyond the point at which it relates to "I" or me (and I deconstruct both - I also deconstruct what it is to "enjoy") it's incredibly important and I'm angry that people don't realise the importance of the politics of representation or identity politics. 😡Representation isn't something on a screen or in a book - to represent is also to re-present; to give something meaning; and to have something stand in for a thing that isn't here. Representation always imposes a distance from the real - the real is beyond representation. Representation is both imaginary and symbolic - neither is real but together with the Real constitute reality. Representation is differential and non-essentialist - it's binary and hierarchical and has a privileged term and an oppressed term. The privileged term is that associated with white, middle class masculinity. The oppression of the other is inscribed in language, in discourse, in ideology- in representation. We exist only at the level of representation. For me, it's imperative we recognise this - it's the way forward to a better society.

That I'm "a women" and misrepresented isn't something that's at the forefront of my mind. My research takes me into the abstract realms of reconceptualising time and spacet - a realm where women and the other exist but not in a form we'd recognize. I recognize this is self-indulgent. 🙁However, outside of this rarefied space LBGT and race concerns me greatly. LBGT because I have two sons who are gay and I want them to be happy and have access to spoken and unspoken rights, to their own stories and history. Race because it falls into the category of "other" (and I'm not subsuming difference within the other" - I'm just saying that's my starting point). The use/misuse/abuse of the other in representation is my major concern (and anyone who thinks this is merely PC can politely PO).

I think in shapes - shapes that emerge from psycho-social dynamics and their relationship to truth, history, power and knowledge. So - I don't identify with Spike but I'm drawn to his shape for several reasons: a) he's undefinable (so an intellectual challenge). Freud said to accept paradox was a sign of maturity - I've got older but I haven't grown up. b) He's the vehicle for a radical discourse in S7 - IMO, the most progressive of the seasons (it gives us alternative narratives; is reliant on the restoration of lost histories and is a profound deconstruction of the politics of representation). c) Marsters' headtilts. However, I'm equipped to read the "desire of my desire" (with the exception of the headtilts - they're a mystery to me but - if there is a God - I thank God for them).🙄
 
@Meliza Funny you should mention Amends as a representation of depression (and a suicide attempt).

Another little biographical note about myself: I rather incompetently (thankfully) tried to commit suicide when I was 15 (it involved a ton of Aspirin, heart palpitations, blueberry poundcake-flavored vomit and my hands shaking for months). It was also when I realized how much I wanted to live (as well as it scaring me). And this was after I had spent 10 months (2001-2002) in an abusive tough-love program called Casa by the Sea in Ensenada, Mexico (shut down in 2004 for child abuse) after the years of bullying and my then very late and recently diagnosed Asperger's. I was certainly the goody-goody of the place given that I was definitely a special case (not the typical addiction issues).

I had pretty much quit everything (school included) and isolated myself in my room by age 14, despite being academically strong enough that I was in the gifted GATE program (actually was accepted into the Seminar program) all through school, was often on the honor roll, later ended up in 12th grade by age 15 via self-study (not much else to do at Casa), started junior college at 15 (taking mostly history and foreign languages), tested out of high school at 16 (CHSPE) and was accepted into six UC schools without taking the SATs that I didn't go to (stress is a bad thing that leads to breakdowns for me).

It's yet another bit where I relate and my mind does tend to go there when I watch Amends. My mind also goes right to the Casa stuff when Angel and Fred share that little scene about building yourself a new cave all over again in Fredless.

I've come a long ways since then (and I am so much better at social interactions than I was--I also became a much emotionally-stronger, assertive, worldly person, though perhaps a bit too hard at times, instead of a very naive, easily-targeted one), of course, but these experiences do tend to stick out when I watch certain characters and episodes.

There was an interesting little video meta that turned up on Amends a while back on this very subject and how Angel is more relatable for some than a lot of the fandom (who often considers him a very unrelatable character) would suspect:


(Check out the little post I made under the same screen name in the comments of that video, too.)
 
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I am a married straight white male adult, so I feel represented. And I don't give a damn.

I don't care about the genealogy or the race or the origin story or the gender spectrum or the relationship status of a character. I care about the ideas and thought processes of a character. There was one war movie (I think it was "Patton") where a character said, "The only way for a real soldier to die is by the last bullet in the last battle of the war." Wow. That was a concept I would never have suspected would exist - I thought everyone would be eager to outlive the war and gloat about success. But there is a soldier mentality that lives for war, doesn't want the war to end and if it does end, he wants to end with it. I don't care if the person making such an eye-opening statement is a person of colour or what religion he subscribes to or who he is going out with or where he came from or what his culture expected him to do. I have been around long enough and seen enough "representation" of shopworn tropes in the performing arts that I am only interested in seeing something I have not seen before in the form of ideas and thought processes in a character.

I have mentioned before that Buffy seemed to be shot in an alternative California where Hispanics did not exist. Only Kennedy, Willy the Snitch, Ampata and Ampata's guardian were Hispanic in a state that is 49% Hispanic. Muddying the waters of a story by introducing a culture clash along with vampire slaying would have made for a messy story line. Would a Hispanic Xander have been a better choice? In terms of being true to the reality of California, maybe. In terms of serving the story, definitely not. But if he was a Chinese character (Xan Der?) with the adherence to a cultural code of respect and family behaviour, there could have been a different story to tell that would have held my interest in the character, if it was authentic or if it ran counter to a standard trope.

There is also a mentality of seeing what the underrepresented people do. If they excel at something, all is well. If they fail, well all kinds of criticism may rain down on a show where a person of colour is shown to fail. Robin Wood was the principal of a school where nobody graduated. Graham got turned into a monster by Adam. Mr. Trick got staked. Kendra got killed. Gunn was bitten by a vampire and although he is still alive at the end of the show, we know he gets sired. I don't see any rush to condemn Joss for the dire fate of African people in his show. Other than a one-night stand between Robin and Faith, no African is shown to have a significant other or any other trappings of relationship relevance. And no one, even on this board, seems to take notice and this is a good thing. A quota of success and failure in addition to a quota of people of colour would be an intrusion on the writing process.
 
@NileQT87 That is really something. For two years I was going through the toughest time of my life so far and watched nothing but Angel night and day and I really mean mostly nights because that is when I was awake, I slept during the day which is how I liked it, anything better then dealing with my problems or you can substitute that for dealing with my life, when really it was myself I did not want to deal with. "Being sad on Christmas day isn't something to be brushed over, its characteristic of your life and experiences and it has to be dealt with over more then one day"

I think the word depression is being used in the clinical sense here and I do not know if I met that criteria but I do know behavior is a spectrum and it becomes abnormal & a disorder when it negatively effects ones ability to live to their life. To share a term I read in a psychology text once, "There is no such thing as abnormal behavior, only extreme versions of normal behavior" so there you go, every body is normal in our abnormal behavior and neuroticisms. Also a famous qoutation "Nothing human is foreign to me" is coming to mind at the moment. Thank you for sharing that. Everybody is human, everybody needs to take care of their mental health.

Watching Angel was my escape, transporting one to another world is what good television can do for you,
hearing that the show could transport you to another time in your life and give you strength you didn't know you had is wonderful. The show spoke to me too, except while I enjoyed it, it made feel really ambivalent, I was not looking forward to hearing anything that reminded me of reality ...although thinking on it now, why keep going back if it was distressing? I guess it was because it was still one of the safer worlds to escape into. And I knew Buffy, and even if it was painful, it was not purposely trying to to cause me pain, I knew on some level I could trust Whedon. In the character Angel, I could hear what I didn't want too hear but also I think what I wanted and needed to hear.(That my problems could be faced?)

I related less to Angel then Buffy because I related almost solely with the victims of Los Angeles, who needed Angel's help. Because of how I was feeling about myself I identified less with his battle and was seeing more of the extravagant moralism I couldn't be like.

What you describe is uplifting and knowing that your mind went to the hardships you encountered in life, must not have been pleasant, which I suppose is the point, hearing what you overcame and how far you have come gives me hope and it makes me want to watch the show again and pay closer attention to identifying with Angel and maybe I will take some new strength away from it.

That video talks about the holiday blues a lot, I was not expecting it to be so deep, yes to the importance of connection, true for mental health in every day in everyone. When one is sitting all alone, do not feel sad, one can feel alone in a room full of people, it means you are currently without the connection you desire and you can have that, life is worth living, connection comes down to "how comfortable with who you are and where you are in life" loneliness is about how you see yourself in the world.

I want to say to those of us who may not necessarily be able to "go home" on Christmas to remember that family is what and where you make it, home is with the people who are gonna be there for you (absolutely like Willow, Xander, Giles) thus it is true this is where Christmas is and once in a while that will even be by yourself, so have your merry Christmas because your home, where ever you are.

Forgive the run on sentences that really is the best I can do! P.S Passion Of The Nerd made a fantastic Amends video definitely worth watching.
 
As a white straight male I should, but not really ... I don't feel my views/thoughts/feelings are represented. Ive always felt like an outcast & feel like Im neither one thing or another in everyway, but I should feel blessed as Im able to fit in?
 
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thrasherpix
It's definitely a mixed blessing.
I just remembered, I once saw a musical tribute to Black Widow and saw comments about how many loved it and it "proved" women were as good as men (when technically speaking, no one can do that kind of stuff, male or female, though it's cool to see, and often reminds me of how I loved tall tales as a small child, like of Pecos Bill). I didn't ask anything (for similar reasons I wouldn't ask anything on Jerry Springer when that's not the tone), but I thought about it, and it reminds me of how I first got excited when I saw books aimed at girls when I'd been reading those for the general (and thus male) population, and thought if I liked the general audience books, then I'd love the females. But I found I hated it, because my characters were disempowered. And that, among many other things, led to the destructive belief that I am weak which caused me some harm, and cause A LOT of harm to other females who get exposed to that a lot more.

So then (without ever talking to those on YT), I realized what the appeal of Black Widow was. Black Widow may have been doing the impossible (just like the men), but she was still able to find her own power to stand on equal footing with the men around her and be just as relevant and that was the appeal and power of it (and what was missing for those game books aimed at girls which is why I disliked them). And I'm glad that's becoming more common in pop culture media.

Come to think of it, two actresses on Sucker Punch said that was a movie they'd have loved to seen as a young girl (seen here if you want to see it, lasts about a minute and a half from the 4:30 mark where it should start).

Btw, I once tried to get a girl I helped to raise into archery, but she was not interested so I let it go. However, she finally changed her mind, and I was noticing many other teen girls showing up as well (much more than there used to be), and reflecting on that I realized it was shown more in movies, like Brave and The Hunger Games. It's like how The Crow once got me interested in skateboarding when I was 11 (and I thought it was a girl thing because Sarah was the only one using it--and I'm wondering now, had Sarah been a boy, would I still have found skateboarding interesting?), so were these movies getting girls interested in archery...and more so, at least I hope, to be strong and stand up for themselves rather than protected and saved, like Merida (Brave) and Katniss (HG). In that regards I think girls in general have it better than when I was growing up.
 
Btw, just noting it, Katniss isn't white in the books (Hunger Games). I don't think it's a slap in the face to anyone to have the character played by a white actress and don't mind her performance (I know the common criticisms of her performance which I'd argue, but that doesn't seem to what this thread is about so I won't bring that up), but it would've been a nice extra to have Katniss played by a good actress who actually looked like the character.
 
As a white gay male, I'm fairly well represented on television and in movies, but I have yet to come across a gay male character that I do really identify with and relate to. David Fisher on SFU came close, because he was not just the 'gay one', but a fully realized multi-dimensional character with different sides to him. I feel like with most gay characters - it is almost their defining character trait, which annoys me. And I'm really waiting to see a gay character who is a little bit more like me, empathetic, cautious, nerdy, shy, and maybe not as entrenched in gay culture. Like, I watched Looking and I just never saw myself or my own experiences in those characters and yet it was a show about gay white dudes and I should theoretically have been able to identify.
 
I don't care about being represented. I care about good entertainment. That's what I read books for, listen to music for or watch movies/tv for. For me representation is more important in real life. Like minded people or people with the same problems only count for me in RL because it's much more helpful to me than entertainment. All I care about in entertainment are good characters and a good story. And there I don't care what skin color someone has or what sex or sexual orientation etc..

I think however that this is only a big deal when it comes to Hollywood, though I might be wrong. I mean Bollywood is it's own thing and so is China with it's limited Western media releases. Pretty much every country has it's own entertainment. But nobody talks about that because they aren't global like American movies/tv shows. So the discussion about representation tends to focus on Hollywood etc.. Personally I think the media of the respective country should represent said country. There shouldn't be representation in everything just for the hell of it. Under 5% of the American public identify openly as LGBTQ. Now the real number might be double that but that still means that only 5/100 characters in entertainment should be LGBTQ. Otherwise it's not true representation. I think entertainment should be more focused on diverse humanity rather than skin color or sexual orientation. Disabilities, upbringing, addictions and the multitude of mental problems that inform pretty much every human being. These things make for interesting characters that people can relate to. And the skin color or sexual orientation doesn't matter much as long as the character is well written.
 
November
November
Thanks for having words!!!!
Blaze
Blaze
5% technically means that 5 movies out of 100 should be LGBT themed or have an LGBT protagonist! I'm down for that lol
Yeah, nah I don't feel represented in media, but that's not what I watch it for. I watch TV to escape life, as a respite from real world troubles, a distraction from pain. If I wanted to watch me, I would look in the mirror.

I thrive in individuality and would be straight up shocked if I saw a character from Hollywood media that was remotely like me. I'd have to wonder if a writer followed me around the internet because I have NEVER met anyone like me. I prefer not to judge my worth on whether there are characters like me on tv. I think it is a bit sad that there are people who get upset because there no one accurately represents their reality in Hollywood. The TV is all pretend, the characters do not exist. Why is it so upsetting if there is not one who moves, acts and talks in the same way as every single viewer in every single show? I agree with @RomanticSoul here - it is far more important to well being to relate to others in real life communities and groups. Hollywood/porn is starting to alienate viewers with its extreme political views in some cases. For other viewers, it shapes their world view and restricts their minds, it leads them on how to perceive those who do not agree (ie. HATERZ). Personally, I have been seeking out content from my own and other countries lately. Im thankful for Netflix as Aussie tv is largely from the US.

Perhaps Friends could be an example of what I am trying to communicate, all white middle class but diversity in personalities and acceptance regardless. To me it feels like recent TV has more colours and sexualities but their personalities and opinions are similar, bland and boring. Sense8 is a good example of this. They started as their own, then blended so much into one another that the only differentiating factor between them was their stereotypical quips.

The "diversity" tagline annoys the heck out of me. I do not understand why tiny minorities are overrepresented while a majority of hardcore tv viewers are people living with disability. Occasionally we see a person in a wheel chair, an amputee, maybe an actor with downs syndrome. Mental illness is represented because every single person on the planet has "traits" of mental illness if judging by the DSM. What we don't see is the chronically ill, those mutilated by treatment for cancer, those with skin conditions, neuropathy or morbidly obese. To be honest we probably don't make particularly interesting characters if housebound. I'd hate to see tv try it in this current climate, partly because if representation is so important, the vulnerable will look up to those who look like them and be shaped by what they see. Even the documentaries on chronic and severe illness focus on what the characters cannot do, rather than what they CAN do (outside of colouring their hair or getting tattoos to mark them as that 'type')
 
Tome
Tome
While you are right in saying that diversity has to be good diversity, I disagree entirely with how you state that media is unimportant. The media HEAVILY influence almost all of us. Even those who think that they are immune are not.
I am a white heterosexual man. I am here to say that I totally agree about the lack of representation for women, LGBT peeps, African Americans, Latinos, Asians, etc. on television and, even more so, in movies. It is a little better nowadays, but there is still a long way to go... Stereotypes are still all over the place... even for white heterosexual men, to be honest.

Yet, I would like to point out that for me skin color, gender, and sexual orientation is not why I might relate to another human being. As much as these traits matter in the way one person might perceive the world and act in society, it does not fully define anybody. For example, I never much associated with the typical white male protagonists created by Hollywood. I often found them tasteless and so unlike me. In fact, my role model during my teen years was a fictional black man with a strong conscience, and as I became an adult I strongly connected with the character of Buffy for her unique combination of weakness and strength.

So yea, I did not care about their race or gender (though I could obviously draw parallels with the real world and understand how little good characterization females and non-whites can get in fiction), I simply bonded with them over their very real human problems, their joy, and their sadness.

I guess I tend to judge people by their actions and their personality. There is also the fact that I have always been attracted to other cultures and diversity. When I was growing up, a lot of my friends were part of ''minority'' groups. I did not befriend them on purpose... I simply felt a pull toward them. This love for everything different stuck with me when I went to college as I studied other languages, diverse literature, etc. I have also always felt a bond with people who are unjustly treated in the world, which pretty much applies with most of these aforementioned groups.

Anyhow, to finish this, I guess I will say that I hope more GREAT characters from all walks of life are created in the future. If we want things to change in all media (television, movies, videogames, etc.) we have to help change the minds of the next generation, because they will be the ones who build what comes next... and so on and so on.

Peace!
 
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