fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2926 ]

[ SECRET POST #2926 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2926 ⌋

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i hate the obsession with representation in media. it seems like all anyone ever talks about anymore, and i just don't care. i just like good characters, i don't care if they're all white or all black or women or men. i identify with character traits, not skin color or genitals or whatever.

I think the right representation is especialy important for kids. I.e. girls seeing BAMF girl characters and not just a GF of a main hero.

Yes, this! Kids need to see people like them in positive roles.

I kinda disagree. Some of the most badass women I know... all of them, in fact, grw up on a diet of Princess Peach and Zelda and Girlfriends and damsels and bland personality free ponies.

People, in particular these women needed nothing from their media other than it be entertaining.

Thiiis.

I come from a generation where almost all kids' entertainment was aimed at boys, and anything aimed at girls was still coming from the angle where you were either a simpering Barbie or a housewife. I still remember a book series I loved where that was the culmination -- all these great adventures and achievements, all a total waste of time, now you have to conform to what society expects of a nice young woman, get a ladylike job (usually a secretary) and settle down and be responsible.

Does that mean every single woman of my generation grew up to think that was a great idea?

Uh, no.

Is it really so weird to think that maybe not everyone is exactly like this specific group of women you know, and maybe they have different needs because they're different people?

Re: fandom opinions

(Anonymous) - 2015-01-08 16:45 (UTC) - Expand

They get that in real life, and it's better that they do. Seeing their elders do great things is way more powerful than seeing it in the media. Fantasy doesn't have to be ANYthing for ANY reason.

Hooo, speak for yourself, Anon. I honestly am hugely grateful for the fiction I ran into growing up because it saved my LIFE, teaching me that families didn't have to be like mine. (Even though I had to go to sci-fi or fantasy to get it.)

Also, basically all my stuff gets sold to people desperately wanting to see someone like them in fiction. So there is some demand. I'm not bashing sheer entertainment or people who DO get good role models in real life, but not everyone gets that.

This. Hell, I don't even identify with characters or traits, I just like them.

YES.

DA

There are times -actually most of the time- when the last thing I want to do is escape into fiction and fantasy just to be confronted with me again. I've been turned off characters I identify too closely with, precisely because that's not what I'm watching/reading etc. for.

+1000
I have noticed, though, that this might be the difference between needing to have someone you can identify with and not. I have never projected myself into any character ever so I don't need anyone to look/think like me (even remotely). But, some people seem to really need that to enjoy something.

But I am sick of hearing about it. It really does seem to have seeped into all aspects of my fandom experience. :(

I absolutely cannot get with "identification." I've never identified with a character. I don't need to. I want nothing more out of my fictional media than interesting personalities doing interesting things.

I don't understand it at all, honestly. I don't self-insert on characters or identify with them. I want to read/watch their struggles, not try to relate them to my own.

I want nothing more out of my fictional media than interesting personalities doing interesting things.

Yes, this exactly.

SA

That does seem to be the case, and I can't really wrap my head around it. Sometimes I heavily identify with characters, sometimes I don't. It doesn't have any bearing on whether I like something. One of my favorite shows is Downton Abbey, and I identify intensely with Mary (even everyone in my family thinks it's bizarre how many traits we share), but while I do love Mary, if she left the show I would still love it just as much. She's not even my favorite character. So, yeah, don't get it.

Wow, textbook white privilege responses in this thread.

Representation isn't everything, but it is something.

I'll be over here enjoying my PoC and female leads, thanks.

I'm so tired of this white privilege bullshit cop-out response. It's like people genuinely believe that people aren't capable of thinking outside of their circumstance. I mean, obviously YOU don't, but many people can and do.

So then you shouldn't complain about white people only wanting to enjoy media with white people in it because hey, they just want to identify with the characters.

The problem is that they whine when the protag FOR ONCE isn't white or straight. So sorry, but no sympathy. I've had no one to identify with who isn't the butt of a joke my entire goddamn life.

You'll still have white, straight characters. Those won't disappear. There'll just be something for everyone. But heaven forbid there be anything else, right?

congrats, I'm glad you don't. to everyone who isn't you and like you, representation matters. it matters especially to kids growing up seeing absolutely no one like them on TV and wondering wtf is wrong with them.

it's hardly an "obsession" with representation if a) representation is still so far behind it deserves to be talked about at length and b) how critically important that representation is to normalizing minorities.

Meanwhile, I wouldn't have had as much trouble or self esteem issues if I'd had at least one positively-shown fat woman or a positively-portrayed lesbian who wasn't the butt of jokes.

Then go write your own story. Go support writers who write about fat lesbians in a way you like. Why should writers have to write about anything they don't care to write about? It's beyond ridiculous that people think that should be the case.

Yes, how dare I want people to write diversely because something besides a white male matters.

How dare you want somebody to write something they don't care to write? Genuinely. That's fucking stupid and extremely arrogant. Nobody should be required or even encouraged to cater to you, that is NOT what writing is about. People write what they want to write, and if you enjoy it, good for you. If you're complaining that you don't enjoy anything, then you need to get off your butt and do something about it. If you don't write, try sponsoring somebody who does want to write things you want to read. But no, you'd rather just complain.

[ SECRET POST #2926 ]

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+1000 to your 1000

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