#Diversity in Media

[alwaysbewoke]

[televised-uhhh-nerdistry]

Cartoon rec of the week:

Craig of the Creek

I haven't seen enough people talking about the show, so I'm mentioning it here. Absolute 10/10 cartoon. Just three kids, running 'round, making friends, running their own semi-sustainable community in the forest (there are some concerns about how much trash they leave there but ultimately they're better than most adults). Literally such a dream. they encourage each other to be emotionally healthy and they protect each other from "danger". Like they'll help each other achieve their dreams as they come (and new dreams show up pretty often because they're young kids).

And they're so funny! Like genuinely these kids are so earnest and intelligent and incredibly humorous and full of heart! They have full lives and they live them to the fullest out in nature after school, on the weekends, and in the summer. It's one of the best representations of found family I have ever seen in a cartoon, and I absolutely love it.

Also several of the writers behind the show are POC and queer (I think the head writers are all Black but I could be wrong), so you know that it was written well and the representation is awesome like I know that it should absolutely go without saying, but representation is much more than just showing BIPOC people on screen, and in terms of cartoons I haven't seen that many shows understanding that fact except maybe the Proud Family, Fat Albert, and a few others whose names will return to me once I've taken my ADHD meds. But the point is that Craig of the Creek gets it right. Most of the characters throughout the show (from what I've seen) are BIPOC, and you can tell that there are caring nods to BIPOC communities (primarily Black American communities), and more than that, that the writers know what they're talking about and are deeply familiar with and are a part of those communities. Craig, the titular character, is a young Black boy, and his family are middle class and ultimately very successful Black people. Kelsey (one of the main characters) is Jewish and Polish, and written with more complexity than having a one and done Hanukah celebration. The Creek's main business, a trading post, is run by Kit, a young Black girl with a love for economy and business. And many other characters are racial or ethnic minorities as well, and it warms my heart to see these characters done justice time and time again.

There's great subtle queer rep too, and you can tell it wasn't written just for the sake of representation, like it was thought out and intentional, and it worked beautifully. There are queer witches, and there are no labels applied to them, they're just allowed to exist with no explanations, happily in love with one another. There's a non-binary character later in the series (I'm only like 10 episodes in so I haven't met them yet but I've read amazing things about them). Kelsey also apparently identifies as a lesbian later in the series (I say "apparently" because I haven't done much reading so as to avoid spoilers, not because I am discounting her identity). On top of that, JP (one of the main characters) has a sister who is dating another girl.

There's also a significant amount of body positivity in the show, at least far than I've seen elsewhere. Not only do they openly say "all bodies are beautiful" and follow up on that by defending one another, there's also very little need to defend one another, because there's a very unspoken and deep respect in the Creek for things like body type, skin colour, disabilities, and so on. The kids of the creek, and their grown ups, are all different body types, and given their penchant for community and uplifting one another, it's no wonder they all seem confident in their bodies.

Not to mention the disability representation. There is a character later on in the series who is Black and deaf, and he not only speaks in Sign Language, but in Black American Sign Language. In addition, though unconfirmed, many of the kids in the creek embody aspects of various neurotypes. For example, the three main characters, Craig, Kelsey, and JP all come across as neurodivergent, with special interests, neurodivergent ways of thinking, and so on. Some have speculated that JP has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which is a disability often comorbid with ADHD. Not to mention that all the kids in the creek embody different special interests, most of which would be considered weird or frowned upon in everyday society, but that are given the opportunity to shine and flourish in the Creek's accepting culture.

Take the Horse Girls for example, a small clique of girls who roleplay as horses in a pasture near the Creek, and of course many of their behaviours are played as jokes, but ultimately they are accepted and involved in many adventures because of their unique interests and abilities which are ultimately how they aid the rest of the Creek. Every kid is a useful and accepted part of the Creek, with the exception of the ranger scout kids, who are essentially the same as cops, who are often exploitative, rude, and disruptive to the community as a whole.

Ultimately, the show is one of love, friendship, community, and acknowledging differences as a natural and helpful part of life. On top of that, it's not copaganda! What more could you want?

[morally-earl-gray]

the acolyte got hated on pretty hard and im guessing this comes from those dudebro gatekeepers who dont like how "diverse" the new star wars content is

like-- hate to tell this to you man but if youre pissed that the protagonists were two black women...

theyre identical twins. played by the same actress.

[spookycattowo]

I might make a video on how to create a diverse cast because what Lily Orchard has in all of her fics is not a diverse cast. I'd be redesigning a separate cast of characters that isn't diverse as an example of how diversity actually works. Like it or not a diverse cast will have cishet white people as well as black people and gay people and that's not often acknowledged by people because our culture is so based around media that has no minorities. People often assume that diversity means that all your characters don't confirm to the norm when in reality nonconformity and conformity coexist and both contribute to diversity. Writing a cast of characters that are all lesbian women is not diverse character writing. You're writing the same group over and over again and claim to have a colorful cast of characters that are all different from each other.

An actual example of a diverse cast would be the owl house. Despite the implied lack of straight characters, there are characters from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds, genders and sexualities. You can take any two characters and immediately see contrast in their backgrounds, personality, belief systems, romantic interests and goals.

Don't get me wrong I love shameless sapphic fluff as much as the next person, but claiming you have a diverse cast when your entire cast consists of nice lesbian women who usually have super powers and are put into a fluffy low stakes environment and are usually white or white passing is not the paragon of a diverse cast everyone seems to think it is. If you want to write the same character archetype over and over again that's completely fine, but don't advertise your work as including a highly diverse cast of characters.

God I'm so tired

Ps I'm gay

[simplyvillainy]

a post for appreciating inclusivity on QSMP:

i love that quackity started out with the intention to make an inclusive space for people from different cultures/languages to interact

and so it attracted people who are accepting, not only of various cultures, but various identities

so now as more and more people get involved, the more representation viewers have! not only in culture or language, but sexualities, neurodivergence, disabilities, etc!

I could ramble about the family structure alone for hours. Tallulah being raised by her abuelo. BBH adopting Pomme, while being a single father for Dapper. The favela five. Jaiden and Roier. I’ve seen SO many people talk about seeing the various family dynamics being representative of their own. Even one of the islanders, Forever, connecting with Tallulah because of his IRL father. It holds a special place in my heart seeing the acceptance and “it takes a village” mentality.

also for characters themselves: the fact that there is a character like, for example, tallulah who is a mexican girl raised in complex family situation that wears hearing aids, has asthma, etc makes me so happy!!

And there are SO MANY characters with complex identities! And the cc’s don’t shy away from representing characters with different traits than their own!

Seeing everyone embrace and celebrate their differences makes me so happy! 🥺

Words cannot express how much the positive diverse representation means to me <3

[daygabs]

Scarecrow Video in Seattle is a non profit and the LARGEST public depository of physical media in the WORLD.

They need your help! As a non profit most of their operating costs come from people’s donations. And guys, this place is dying. If you care at all about the preservation of physical media, any support would be appreciated. It's a very special place that deserves to be preserved.

https://scarecrow.app.neoncrm.com/forms/donatepnw

[fictionalnormalcy]

See I don't even know myself why I have such a problem with this. But everytime- everytime I see a post regarding the PJO show, my brain goes to this. I absolutely love how everyone was cast. Everyone matches their character, they emote the personalities well.

But when it comes to Walker as Percy, I'm like NO. I can't get myself to like him.

I have no problem with Luke being played by a brunette and no longer being a blonde. I ADORE Grover now being played by a southeast asian actor.

It's when I think about the fact that I no longer can see my fave character bearing his dark hair and sea-green eyes, the actor falls woefully short to me.

I know I'm just making excuses, plain fact being that I'm just not a fan of blondes. Much so to the point that when I'm reading a new book that I read a central character is a blonde, it's just an immediate turnoff. Even when I'm rereading books I used to love as a teen.

Then today, I was telling a friend of my plans to watch the PJO show after all, pointing out my offputting, and realizing something else.

I am one of those people, who likes to advocate that there needs to be more POC representation in media. And I mean, thinking of just PJO in itself, the only latino character I can name off the top of my head was Chris Rodriguez. Heroes of Olympus is where we get Leo, Reyna, and yes we had Hylla in SoM but Riordan wasn't going out of his way to describe Hylla as latina. I mean I thought Grover was black for a while until I actually saw the official art for him and being like, "He's been white this whole time?"

So when we got the announcement about how there was going to be a show, a second chance at PJO seeing a screen, then getting spoiled of those cast for characters, I was PUMPED.

And here's where I also admit: I was also too influenced by Tumblr. PJO and HP getting the treatment where we were seeing Percy and Harry drawn in darker skin tones. I was saying, oh hell yeah this is much better. Never forgetting seeing someone's post saying that Percy is canonically from the upper east side of New York, more latino territory, loving the headcanon of Percy being latino.

So when Percy's actor was revealed, showing the actor I recognized from The Adam Project who apparently is a blonde with blue eyes? Paired alongside a cast with more people of color? I guess, well I am judging on appearance. If they were truly going to go more inclusive, I wanted to see Percy as a POC too. Instead it felt like they backtracked even more. Where instead of a dark-haired, striking green-eyed hero that could even be mixed race, being blonde felt like reinforcing like hey this demigod is white.

There's also something I remember we bring up in fandom, as well as become aware about in non-Percy POV stories: the fact that Percy actually comes off as intimidating. He may think he comes across as a dummy, clueless, non-threatening. But we have our handful of moments where boy as he grows is meant to look intimidating.

Ejemplos being: Leo being yelled at by Percy reminded him of the hair-raising feeling when Jason summoned lightning. Annabeth being mortified when Percy was torturing Akhlys with her own tears and poison. So much so Percy didn't want to scare her like that again! Percy having that dream in TLO where he sees Rachel's painting of him where he has an ominous look on his face.

I'll admit, Walker does emit that air of confidence, he'll pull off the leader role, but I don't think the show will be able to enforce the Percy being scary that someone will be nervous around him.

poc

[hollywoodoutbreak]

As a young woman who is both deaf and an amputee, Alaqua Cox would seem to be an unlikely choice to star in a Marvel Cinematic Universe series. But she made a huge impression playing the role of Maya Lopez -- a.k.a. Echo -- on Hawkeye, and she was given a spinoff series, Echo. And her co-star on the show, Vincent D'Onofrio, said she's one of the most incredible actors he's ever worked with.

Echo is currently streaming on Disney+.

[sage-thee-herbmaster]

Politicising representation in media is redundant and not fair to those who are surrounded by the majority, black kids grow up to accept themselves as black more if they see black representation in media, queer and trans kids grow up accepting themselves or even realising they’re queer and/or trans sooner if they see a queer and/or trans representation in media. That’s just makes sense.

To deny that kind of representation isn’t needed or pushing some “political agenda” thus marking it as negative is a sign of intolerance and an excessive resistance to change.

[leoneliterary]

I just finished your demo and i absolutely love it! The character customization is amazing as well. It’s implemented through out the story as i read along.

Another thing i’m happy for is the amount of Black/POC characters that are ROs or not. Interactive fiction is a very niche genre and most writers don’t include black characters as much. Kinda makes me feel isolated from the story and feel less immersed into the story. But i don’t have a problem with this one, Which I’m grateful for. 😊

Ah thank you! It's such a relief that it's coming across well. I love when character customization matters, but writing this has made me appreciate the work that goes into it even more.

And thank you for loving my characters! I wanted the story to feel vibrant and diverse in a believable and natural way that many parts of the world are. As I've said before, I love the fantasy genre, but the world is too wide for us to just draw on one cultural influence for our worldbuilding. Plus I know the isolating feeling that comes with consuming media where you're clearly either an outlier or an afterthought. So it makes me so happy that my black and poc characters are getting some love!

[sunflowerdragonsunny]

"It's unrealistic for all the characters to be gay/trans/poc/disabled/neurodivergent/poor/etc. "They gave the character too many special snowflake identities. No one like that exists."

Hi, I'm a nonbinary, intersex, disabled, neurodivergent, mixed race, bisexual person who grew up living below the poverty line.

Oh? I'm just a single exception?

My friends include a pansexual trans woman; an autistic, bisexual, nonbinary person; and an autistic, masc nonbinary person married to his gay husband. I'm also dating a trans lesbian.

Also, of my friends from high school, since graduating: one came out as a bisexual trans woman. Another, who used to identify as a straight man, is now dating a trans man. Another came out as trans masc nonbinary.

My friends from college, including my best friend who is nonbinary and Jewish, and my roommate, who came out as a biromantic asexual during our junior year.

Still not enough? My aunt is a butch lesbian engaged to a butch lesbian. My older brother is neurodivergent. My sister is a survivor of multiple suicide attempts and now struggles with addiction. Even the son of my mom's best friend, someone i have no direct relationship with, is trans. My boss at work is a lesbian.

The world is diverse. If yours isn't, then you are blind, lying, or no one trusts you.

[lowkeysambucky]

Look I’m just saying that if Stephen strange had been Asian American it would have made the story so much better. Like instead of the tired and racist “white man goes to an Asian country, masters their magic system way faster than they did, and is some sort of super prodigy chosen one” nonsense, it could have been an Asian American and/or desi boy who had achieved the “American dream” and been super Americanized (prodigal son of immigrants becomes a doctors in America, struggles with balancing two cultures, the dreams of his parents to see him be successful in the new country, while also struggling with how that contrasts with trying to keep up with the culture and tradition of the homeland, which would then deepen and add to the agonizing cognitive dissonance Stephen felt in the original plot) rediscovering his heritage in tandem with the plot.

Also! You could still have salty!Wong except instead of the frankly justified annoyance at “this (white) upstart comes in and becomes the sorcerer supreme in a few months when I’ve been doing this for most of my life”, you could have the much funnier and objectively better and funnier “grumpy traditional Uncle is annoyed with this young Americanized Youth who is annoyingly good at shit” dynamic.

Anyway, besides not being racist (and the “white prodigy” trope IS racist), this would add so much depth and heart to the story without detracting from the original plot in any meaningful way.

[thebsideofthings]

"In sports media, there is no such solidarity between writers of different beats, nor is there much insight into what the compensation is for these roles. New York, with its pay transparency requirements, is one of the few places with any visibility into that market. We aren’t represented in a way that would allow collective bargaining for a change to the compensation structure, and writers are often discouraged from revealing their salaries lest it get back to management as another writer negotiates a raise."

- "Equal Pay for Coverage" by Jane McManus

[rambleonwithrosie]

#ThunderThursday

[justanothercinemaniac]

WHAT MESSAGING!? There’s been no messaging! There’s been representation. Very LITTLE representation (two second same-sex kisses in the background of a scene) that people have had to fight tooth and nail for. If you think there’s been too much focus on that I’m very worried about the future.