#it also often turns into like...a greatest common denominator checklist? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sroloc--elbisivni · 1 year ago

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not to like. have a hot take about discourse on main but i've been thinking recently about how singularly unhelpful it is to gauge 'good representation' based on personal experience. to use a real example, i'm trans, and i don't consider myself as having a deadname. i vastly prefer using a chosen name in public or a professional environment but generally, for close friends and family and paperwork reasons, i'm fine with answering to my birthname. they're both my names. notice i'm NOT saying 'and therefore anyone who anyone who writes a character who has a deadname is bad rep because it doesn't align with my experience.' and i am ALSO not saying 'therefore i should not expect to see my own experiences depicted in fiction because it is Bad Representation.' just like. there are more things in heaven and earth horatio than are dreamt of in your lived experience. 'bad representation' is kind of meaningless as a phrase to me now because of how often i see it used by someone decrying something that doesn't align with their own life.

#it also often turns into like...a greatest common denominator checklist?#thinking of a different example: a canon autistic character who is never shown to have a non-verbal moment #but is regularly depicted in fanworks as being regularly non-verbal #and some of that is very much people who ARE autistic and DO see themselves in this character and are themselves non-verbal and want to ref #ect this aspect of their experiences #but a nonzero part of it just by sheer numbers has to be people who are allistic and have just seen this character depicted as nonverbal in #other fanworks or just seen 'nonverbal' somewhere in a list of autistic traits and internalized that it's a Correct or Discourse Approved #way to be autistic #sroloc babbles

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