#Diverse media

[sjbattleangel]

Whenever discourse around cartoons like Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, The Legend Of Korra, video games like Spider-Man 2, Life Is Strange, Alan Wake 2, Forspoken, Usual June, Dustborn, comics like Ms. Marvel, Ironheart, Champions, Unstoppable Wasp and other diverse media pops up...

I'll leave this here:

Lisa Simpson presentation: 'Diverse Media made by and/or staring women and marginalized groups are always held to way higher, harsher, unrealistic standards compared to media made by and starring non-diverse groups of people (especially cishet white men).'

[psychedelic-charm]

If You Don't See It, Be It!

I just watched yesterday's new episode of Blue's Clues & You, and I'm impressed with its story and message. Josh, Blue and their friends are making their own Super Wonder Team movie, but Slippery Soap questions if Periwinkle can really play Rocket Blast, a role that's usually played by a dog. Hearing this, Periwinkle doesn't know what to do.

To cheer him up, Josh shows him a handmade comic book about how Josh wanted to play a superhero, but his friends doubt that he can because he had brown skin, and every superhero they saw were white. Josh's Lola tells him that just because he didn't see any Filipino superheroes, it didn't mean that he couldn't be one. With these words of encouragement, Josh decides that he will be Song Man. The next day, Josh's friends apologized for hurting his feelings, realizing that what they thought before wasn't true.

I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen it, but I will say that it reinforces the message that anybody can be a hero regardless of their race/gender/sexuality/disability/etc.

If you don't see it, be it!

[toastling]

A pride month PSA to any queer kids and teenagers who may be following me

If you've heard of a show with queer rep and a lot of diversity, be it within the show or in the crew, but that show has a lot of discourse about it - ESPECIALLY if it's aimed at a younger audience like yourself - then automatically assume all of said discourse is bullshit.

I mean it, every single time. Assume that literally none of it is in good faith. Don't acknowledge it *at all*. But if you really feel you must, then at the very least, watch it for yourself and make up your own mind first, *before* you read any of said discourse.

There is a history just as long as the recent uptick in queer representation and diversity in media of agitators who very intentionally cloak their bigotry in leftist language and progressive terminology to muddy the waters and prevent as many people from engaging with said media as possible.

The intent becomes nakedly obvious the older you get, or the more you interact with older queers and progressives offline. If they can sour the conversation enough that your first thought when hearing that show's name is "Oh, that's racist/homophobic/questionable", to a point where you won't try it yourself, then they have successfully prevented you from any potential catharsis in seeing your community represented, or have turned you and your fellow queers against each other over a made up issue that never actually existed.

Steven Universe suffers greatly from this to this day. So much so that there is a good chunk of you who, just now, just for seeing that name, have rolled their eyes and are now considering disregarding this entire post, and that is exactly my point. Have you actually watched it yourself, to form your own opinions? If you have, did you go into it as neutrally as possible, or with the intent of trying to spot the discourse you've already heard about it?

It's fine if a piece of media just isn't for you. But if ANYONE is telling you to not think for yourself, to not make up your own mind, to not engage and not acknowledge anyone who does, then that person is not your friend, and they are not trying to help you.

This doesn't just go for shows, either. Movies, books, music - if it's known for being queer and/or diverse in any way, but all you ever hear about it is discourse, then I guarantee you, almost none of it is genuine whatsoever. See for yourself and think for yourself. You'll never know what it might have to teach you otherwise.

[alpaca-clouds]

The "Get Woke, Go Broke" Crowd is so funny to me

Watched another video of another take down of one of those guys who whine about "wokeness in media", with the usual "get woke, go broke" stuff. Which is even more timely, given the entire shitshow with Variety over the last week. And honestly... I used to get so angry about these people, but by now I mostly just find them funny. Because other than most marginalized folks, they do not seem to understand one central thing: Companies do not care about marginalized folks. They never did. The one and only reason why they invest in media that is "woke" (aka diverse) is, that the guys at the top decided, that it is what will make them most money on the long haul.

There is not gay people in so much media right now, because the big studios want to be "politically correct". There is gay people, because the gay shit is what is making them money.

No, not all diverse media succeeds. Because predicting audience response is not easy. But guess what, there is a lot more failing projects about straight, cishet, white dudes, than about queer folks or non-white folks. (Just so we are clear: Because still a majority of media is about this group - so just statistically it will more likely fail.)

The people managing the companies, who create this stuff do not care about either artistic vision OR marginalized people. Their decisions are fully and entirely based on often a very superficial understanding of what audiences like. And, well, numbers say, that audiences do like the diverse shit more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

part of the problem with hotd is that sure, the cast is visibly diverse but they didn't do the work on the characters while adapting to not make every single person around them batshit racist

and that's really the problem with a lot of "diverse media" nowadays (see: rings of power which uses throwaway characters as tokens but like didn't bother racebending legacy characters and kills off/tortures characters of color for white characters alot).

OHHHH I thought of another more blatant example: (RNM)

mod ali

[fictionaddiction2000]

When I say I want queer representation, I mean I want the most mundane shit. Deadass, just a cheap romantic subplot in your action or fantasy story.

Make the international super spy man flirt with the male bartender instead of the sexy lady. THAT’S ALL.

[aro-barrel]

i’d like to read about non-white aro experiences (as well as experiences of aro people from outside the US and UK). i don’t think there are enough explicitly non-white conversations about aromanticism. i remember seeing a demographic poll a long time ago, with a majority of aromantic tumblr identifying as white, but non-white aros exist!

i want to hear from people who can’t/won’t come out because of cultural expectations or language barriers. people who use different words to describe their aromanticism. people who experience isolation from the aro community because they aren’t white (enough). i want to hear about aromanticism from new angles!

of course, no one is ever obligated to reveal their ethnicity or race online. but if anyone has seen writing on diverse aro experiences or if they want to share their own experiences, i’d like to read about other perspectives! (pls send stuff my way)

[amaranthdahlia]

they are teenage lovers, they are girlfriends, they are old man yaoi, they are ancient yuri, they are nb4nb, they are a situationship, they are married, they are divorced, they are remarried, they are forbidden lovers, they are best friends to lovers, they are biblical partners, they are queer, they are eldritch abominations in love

[iwouldkickahorse]

hey gang, in the event of project 2025 coming about, make sure to archive media that will literally be illegal if it were to happen.

ARCHIVE

ARCHIVE

ARCHIVE

Please for the love of god archive

Now WHY should you archive? Well…

according to page 36-37 of project 2025 it states the following

To quote, “P*rnography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered”

ok…well what constitutes as p*rn? The answer is

THEY DONT GIVE ONE

so please archive media

[onyx-collective]

Black fashion on screen, from the '60s to now: always slaying, always setting trends 📺

[imstacks]

crazy thing about shows is that if you don't like the premise you don't have to watch them

[sjbattleangel]

Edited from Hiding In Private's fantastic video which you can watch here.

Hiding In Public: "It's unreasonable to attack Rebecca's character as if the most malicious interpretation of everything in the show was their personal idea. The writing and storyboarding team of Steven Universe is one of the most diverse in cartoon history. On a show that pushed diversity and inclusion, a lot of this criticism starts to stink of right-wing co-opting of progressive language, without understanding context and sentiment, in order to have a "gotcha" moment. Considering a lot of videos pushing this also include racist and homophobic jokes (as I've covered in my own series).  Even then, the argument that you're trying to make is that there was a malicious characterization of minorities made by those same minorities...so the next question I guess is: Why Steven Universe? A show about pushing diversity, inclusion and acceptance was being specifically targeted by countless takedown videos (and posts) on this specific thing. It seems to me-at least-that even if someone were to concede all the bad things being said, that it would make more sense to target-more loudly-the shows (and other media) that do the same thing more often with less tact and who are also not led by minority communities rather than one of the only shows intentionally trying to support these communities. Especially when most the people making the criticism, show by virtue of their own comments, are neither coming from these communities or are at worst actively vilifying them with homophobic and racist comments. Say there are two shops: One that sells apples and the other that sells grapes. The apple owner overhears a customer complaining about the grapes not tasting good. Does the Apple owner then run a campaign pretending to be a grape fan in order to make grapes better? Or is it more likely that they stoked a flame to ensure that their business had less competition?"

[biceratops7]

I feel like we don’t really acknowledge the absolutely unhinged levels of moral superiority people hold over fans of ofmd. Like I’m not gonna get into specifics but it’s so completely bonkers to me that people will see enjoyment of MUCH more problematic media and skip along their merry way… But then when a show with a diversity of skin tones, sexuality, gender, ability, AND writers gets popular, suddenly you’ll have people practically telling you to get a red hot poker up the ass if you dare to still like it when it’s not the most virtuous bastion of media to every exist.

Yadada yada yada that Sarah Z video asking why we hold diverse media to a much higher moral standard than we do anything else

[alwaysbewoke]

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[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?