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It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upse
by solarhoma 4y ago
It becomes a problem though when shows are catering to what 1% (or less) of the population looks like or is diagnosed with. This is what people are getting upset with. Representation is fine. But when every new show you turn on has half of the cast as a trans person, a non-binary person, and a whatever else it gets old. It gets old when historical shows and films have distorted facts or figures to, again, fill some quota. Having people in key roles where they would have never been introduced to those parts of the world at that time. Or, shoehorning some form of sexuality into a historical figure for no reason other than to check a quota box.
- dillondoyle 4y agoGen-z identifies as 20% queer. Each new generation is more willing/able to live their truth. Wouldn't surprise me if we land somewhere around 25-30%. In large part thanks to representation in shows and movies. The us is rapidly diversifying too in terms of race, yet still even more under represented in media. Glaad says only ~10% queer characters on broadcast, and was a decline from previous study. Specifically comparing streaming netflix had 155 queer characters and HBO max 71. You do the math on the massive amount of original content on netflix compared to hbomax. The world doesn't look like HN's demo. [1] https://www.glaad.org/sites/default/files/GLAAD%20202122%20WWATV.pdf https://www.glaad.org/sites/default/files/GLAAD%20202122%20W... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/arts/television/tv-lgbtq-glaad.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/arts/television/tv-lgbtq-...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- user3939382 4y agoGen Z isn’t the world. US lgbt pop is 7% according to Wikipedia and that sounds high to me, maybe college kids experimenting with their identity in response to woke culture. I’d guess it’s more like 3-4%
- Spivak 4y agoOh come on, are you really going to look up data about populations expecting it to be low, and then because it doesn’t conform to your world view make up some reason why it must be wrong? And the point about Gen Z is that this is where we’re heading. Millennials are 10% lgbt and growing, Gen Z is around lgbt 20% and growing. My all time favorite concert was Girl in Red who sold out a 5000 person venue in less than 30 minutes packed with young queer women in a red state. This is way way bigger than casual experimenting in college.
- dillondoyle 4y agoGood concert!?
- Spivak 4y agoLook, I like music and just used it as an example of something that simply couldn’t happen two generations ago. The idea that artists like her can sell out shows in every city to a fanbase of queer women used to be unheard of. If you want a less niche example my hometown’s pride used to be less than 1000 people in the 80’s and now is half a million.
- dillondoyle 4y agoI'm with you. I was genuinely asking.
- Spivak 4y agoIn that case, hell yeah! She’s really funny and down to earth live. The whole crowd going nuts screaming “they’re so pretty it hurts” gave me so much life. Sorry this thread is swinging so hard between folks who clearly have an axe to grind with the lgbt community and people who are shocked it’s still this bad in 2022 that I’m just defensive by default.
- 4y ago
- solarhoma 4y agoIs it truth or is it being force fed down children’s throats? How can the Western world go from a ~2% homosexuality rate to 20% in two generations? It appears we both have a different perspective on how we got here.
- scotu 4y agoBy having homosexuality violently oppressed, ostracized and ridiculed in the past, and slowly reversing that attitude towards it? People were literally criminals for loving people of the same sex...
- solarhoma 4y ago20-40 years turnaround in a civilization is anything but slow in my opinion.
- philjohn 4y agoA lot can happen in 20-40 years, and has happened in 20-40 years throughout history. Industrial Revolution, being a prime example. We've also become far more interconnected in the last 20 years, which plays a large part - whereas before people may have kept quiet because they thought they were the odd one out they now know they aren't.
- solarhoma 4y agoI do not agree that the industrial revolution is equivalent to changing sexuality within a society. I could agree that modern technology and the industrial revolution are very similar. But even with that it has taken 60+yrs for our society to have a computer in the majority of homes after the Manchester Baby was created (and I think this change happened extremely quickly). And, analog and electromechanical computers go back even further. So, again, I think even these things have been a very gradual change happening over many decades once the leading technology was invented. To further expand on my thoughts, to imply everyone was using ‘industrial revolution’ technology overnight would be heresy. I’m sure it took factories many decades to build and retrofit equipment including a technology run up to the revolution itself. With this said, you peaked my interest in this area and I have some researching to do this weekend.
- solarhoma 4y ago
- Espressosaurus 4y agoLike most things in biology, sexual attraction is a spectrum. It's not binary. Given wider acknowledgement and acceptance of that I can see more folks coming out as bi.
- evocatus 4y ago
- swivelmaster 4y agoThis has been studied for decades. The number of people who have had some kind of sexual experience with the opposite sex is far higher than many expect. I recommend doing some more reading on this subject before coming to the (ridiculous) conclusion that people are claiming to be bisexual because they somehow enjoy feeling oppressed. https://kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/historical-report-diversity-of-sexual-orientation.php https://kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/historical...
- emptysongglass 4y agoActually, if you go to /r/teenagers many teens complain that LGBTQ+ has become a mark of status such that teens who proclaim loudest their bonafides as trans/bi/whatever are those who reap status. Teenagers have always pushed against the prevailing narrative, it's how we get new ideas into the world. It becomes problematic when viral vectors of trends are disseminated at the speed of thought globally. Humans aren't hardwired for this. See also the recent HN post that more teens are depressed than ever. It has nothing to do with actual geopolitics: remember that the Cold War was extremely bleak for Americans and go back just a little earlier and you have World War II and the Great Depression.
- swivelmaster 4y ago
- asdff 4y agoI think people wouldn't have so many issues with this if it didn't feel so patronizing. Sometimes castings feel more like HR checking all the boxes than representing a demographic, and on top of that the marketing will still typically put the white character's head front and center with the token characters on the sides. Los Angeles County where most stuff is filmed and produced is majority latino now. Let's see some movies where the cast is entirely that demographic vs. just one character in the swiss army knife of a cast demography for a change.
- zmgsabst 4y agoI think people object to the bad faith with which these actions are done: - sharply criticizing the US on race, but hiding black characters in Chinese movie posters (eg, Star Wars) - sharply criticizing the US on sexuality, but removing gay scenes from Chinese and ME versions (eg, Harry Potter) To me, it’s like men who beat their wife because they’re angry someone at the bar was rude — but are too cowardly to confront him, so they take out that aggression at home. Similarly, movie companies aren’t standing up to real bigotry in China or the ME — they’re coming home to abuse us domestically, over things we don’t even do. I think that abuser mentality is abundant among the “Wokerati”.
- evocatus 4y agoWhy are you focusing on LGBTQ+ which, as some other posters have noted, appear over-represented in media (relative to their occurrence in the population), and not transracial people who receive effectively zero representation in media? Do you think it's acceptable to punch down like this?
- mccarvo 4y agoAs well as still being used as an offensive slur against gay people and thus not really an appropriate term to use in these sorts of discussions, 'queer' is so ill-defined that it could include pretty much anyone if they feel like it, regardless of actual sexual orientation. For example, 'demisexual' people are included in this categorization, even though all it means is that a person prefers to form an emotional bond with their partner before engaging in sexual activity. Not only is there nothing particularly unusual about that, this includes people who are heterosexual. Who are not a marginalized sexuality by any means.
- zmgsabst 4y ago> Who are not a marginalized sexuality by any means. Heterosexual couples are underrepresented on TV due to institutional bias against them. That’s the definition of “marginalized”.
- mccarvo 4y agoAre they really though? People are generally considered heterosexual by default if not stated otherwise, and most TV shows don't reveal this aspect for most of their characters or performers.
- dillondoyle 4y agoHi. I'm queer. I can use the term however I want. It is an umbrella term of inclusion and any bias you have that it is somehow an insult is on you.
- oxfordmale 4y agoGen X might be large Netflix consumers, however, they are not yet a large percentage of Netflix subscription payers. One problem for Netflix seems to be that their algorithms are favouring Gen-z content, however, Gen-z are not yet having much influence if the subscription gets cancelled or not
- Spivak 4y agoSo if representation is fine what do you want it to look like? Because by your rules black people aren’t allowed to have fun fantasizing about being a pirate sailing the high seas in colonial England, a trans man can’t be in a WWII fiction fighting nazis, a woman can’t be in a medical drama about stopping the cholera outbreak. So if they can’t be key roles (i.e. important at all to the plot) minorities should be relegated to background characters even in historical fiction? Also what show has half the cast being trans or non-binary or whatever? I could use something interesting to watch.
- russelldjimmy 4y agoI agree with the other poster. It’s not relatable. No offence to the minorities. It feels like forced messaging to the rest of us. Why represent only minorities in race, ethnicity and sexuality? Why not represent people such as war widows, people with skin diseases, mental disabilities, people with above average heights, obese people, etc.? For those of us not living in the USA, it feels like cultural imperialism. “We think this is the most important thing, so everyone should also think this is the most important thing.”
- ikr678 4y agoShows produced outside of the US are generally better on the diversity of appearance front. UK content particular is much more watchable for me, as actors are closer to regular people you'd see on the street vs the very thin, athletic, impossibly white toothed American casting ideal.
- lovemenot 4y agoI approve of the use of talented non-white actors in British period dramas, such as David Copperfield. It is obvious that the person's skin colour is ahistorical for the role. But it doesn't matter. We the audience are tacitly invited to look past this detail. It seems a little incongruous for about ten seconds, then just disappears into their fine performance.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- prawn 4y agoLike when in decades past they'd make pre-historic films but characters had American accents or even just spoke English. Or a sword and sandals epic with very white actors, etc? Productions cater to an audience because they're ultimately commercial ventures. Streaming is more global than ever so it seems shrewd to incorporate a diverse range of actors to me.
- petre 4y agoThat's part of why we watched almost exclusively Korean and Japanese series and movies for the last two years. Got bored of the representation as a substitute for interesting content bs. They are fighting against different issues such as school and workplace bulying, arranged marriages or the cover up culture. The actors are also very good. On the minus side, they almost never use older actors in lead roles. Or actors who represent what most regular middle aged Korean men or women actually look like (hint: Park Jae-sang or Psy of Gangnam Style fame). I've even seen a show with a trans person and a black guy who spoke fluent Korean. Yet it all made sense, it was not just there to satisfy a representaion requirement.