TV Tuesday: Being Seen

[yourlibrarian]

What does representation in television mean to you? Do you find representation important? When did you feel represented in a TV show?

Comments

[lilysea]

I do think representation is very important!

As a fat, queer, powerwheelchair user I don't think I've ever felt represented in a TV show :(

[china_shop]

Oh, that's such an interesting set of questions. I usually think of representation in terms of race, disability, and queerness. And those are all super-important!

But what actually makes me feel represented is positive portrayals of transformative-fandom fans, especially older fans. I don't think this kind of representation is anywhere near as important, but it was fun to realise this; I hadn't thought about it before.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> What does representation in television mean to you? <<

Well, the base definition is featuring characters who in various ways resemble the audience. So if there are female characters onscreen, women are represented; if there are gay character, gay men are represented, etc. Thus it's an expression of diversity, which is either visible (e.g. race), shown through action (e.g. homosexuality), or stated outright (e.g. religion).

However, the quality also matters. If all the women are in nonspeaking roles, or all the gays are dead at the end of the show, that's not a good representation. We're looking for things like:

When I was nine years old, Star Trek came on, I looked at it and I went screaming through the house, 'Come here, mum, everybody, come quick, come quick, there's a black lady on television and she ain't no maid!' I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.
-- Whoopi Goldberg

Good representation inspires viewers by showing them characters who resemble the viewer doing exciting things or just living happy lives.

So then, some people develop tests, like the Bechdel Test or the Fries Test, that measure the quality of representation. Here's my scale of identity literature as it develops over time; it also fits television / movies.

>> Do you find representation important? <<

Yes. It helps me tell characters apart. If they're all white men, I'll mix them up. If there's a white man, a white woman, a black man, a black woman, an Asian, and a genderqueer person then I can tell them apart. Also, I find stories more interesting when characters have diverse traits and backgrounds. The problem-solving is better because they have wider resources. A homogenous group won't fare well against the kinds of challenges I like to watch.


>> When did you feel represented in a TV show? <<

Very rarely. I'm not much like the kinds of characters I typically see. But Nimona in the movie of the same name is very much like me if you leave out her depressive tendencies. The reflection was startling because I'm not used to it.

On the other hoof, I don't have a problem relating to characters who are not me or imagining myself in their stories. So I can access things that other folks might not feel a connection with. I do like diverse stories though. Those are easier to find in literature than television. But I've seen some Afro-futurist television recently that was awesome, and Lovecraft Country was so brilliant that I watched it even though I'm not actually a horror fan.

[firecat]

I’ve never seen a character with my entire collection of identity labels in a TV show. I’d probably find it terrifying. Most of the time characters with subsets of those labels are mocked or othered.

I enjoy seeing under-represented people (I.e., ppl other than young, thin, cis, het, white Americans). The more the better.

Given the current political climate, I’m worried that the days of peak diversity in TV shows are already over. :(

I also enjoy the kind of representation where the characters’ concerns and motives aren’t all common mainstream ones. As someone without a spouse or kids or much blood family left, shows about mainstream 21st century families with the typical concerns of same make me feel isolated. I still sometimes watch shows about families but I prefer them to have historical or sf/fantasy or non-American settings

[tinny]

Weirdly, the only time I ever went *wow, my people* at a tv screen was this:

Hannah Gadsby's Gender Agenda on Netflix.

And not even because I'm queer (my friends call me queer-adjacent, I guess I'm an ally), but simply because so many of the comedians there are butch women, and seeing a group of them backstage just made something open up in my heart. I felt like I belonged.

There's often one token person on tv who looks like me, but more often than not, they're the comic relief, or maybe they're the tech specialist (implying "not really a woman", which hits twice as hard), or maybe the lone super hero who everyone admires but nobody wants to be. Women who look like me are few and far between.

Do I find that important? Before last year, I didn't realize that I wanted a different representation than the one I was getting. There are good female characters everywhere these days, you don't have to look very hard. But apparently that hadn't been all I was craving. Huh.