Are you like me and find it difficult to find representation of people like yourself? Or, you look all over on Google, Instagram, TikTok, etc., and it takes you so long to find communities you want to hear more from. You're not alone. Representation matters.
Representation in popular media is usually centered around dominant culture and their prevailing thoughts on how society should be. We still haven't dealt with our history of using white people in blackface to portray stereotypes of black people. Remember when no one would dare cast an out gay male in the role of a gay character? I still see old movies listed online protraying white women as Asian and Indigenous American characters. Of course, that's not all representation is about. It's about ignoring diversity amongst us. It's about silencing the minorities with whom we work and live. We are hearing more about erasure - bi-erasure, trans-erasure, ace-erasure - defining whole communities out of existence.
The result is that society likes to pidgeon-hole communities into "they're all like this" or "this is how they behave." We know this is not true. I'm sure you can name names and all that but really let's look deeper. This goes beyond gays with great hair, way beyond. It is normal for society to make assumptions in the vacuum of invisibility. It takes courage to be vulnerable and force ourselves to be visible in the face of scrutiny. Perhaps, you find yourself saying "I'm not very representative of ______ community." Let me remind you that the media does not get to define what our communities look like or who is representative of them. Sometimes, they try but most often fails.
The past year or so, we've seen a nice increase, though still slow, in representation for marginalized communities. Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander, Janelle Monae are just a few. For me, I look to Yasmin Benoit and Cody Daigle-Orians for asexual representation. Who do you look to for encouragement and a motivation boost when you don't feel good enough? Who do you follow and appreciate that makes your version of human visible? If no one can truly represent our collection of experiences and identities, who can represent us? We represent ourselves and our highly intersectional area the world. No matter how you identify you are valid. You are wonderfully, sufficiently, and appropriately representative of your community - and thus our community.
Representation in popular media is usually centered around dominant culture and their prevailing thoughts on how society should be. We still haven't dealt with our history of using white people in blackface to portray stereotypes of black people. Remember when no one would dare cast an out gay male in the role of a gay character? I still see old movies listed online protraying white women as Asian and Indigenous American characters. Of course, that's not all representation is about. It's about ignoring diversity amongst us. It's about silencing the minorities with whom we work and live. We are hearing more about erasure - bi-erasure, trans-erasure, ace-erasure - defining whole communities out of existence.
The result is that society likes to pidgeon-hole communities into "they're all like this" or "this is how they behave." We know this is not true. I'm sure you can name names and all that but really let's look deeper. This goes beyond gays with great hair, way beyond. It is normal for society to make assumptions in the vacuum of invisibility. It takes courage to be vulnerable and force ourselves to be visible in the face of scrutiny. Perhaps, you find yourself saying "I'm not very representative of ______ community." Let me remind you that the media does not get to define what our communities look like or who is representative of them. Sometimes, they try but most often fails.
The past year or so, we've seen a nice increase, though still slow, in representation for marginalized communities. Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander, Janelle Monae are just a few. For me, I look to Yasmin Benoit and Cody Daigle-Orians for asexual representation. Who do you look to for encouragement and a motivation boost when you don't feel good enough? Who do you follow and appreciate that makes your version of human visible? If no one can truly represent our collection of experiences and identities, who can represent us? We represent ourselves and our highly intersectional area the world. No matter how you identify you are valid. You are wonderfully, sufficiently, and appropriately representative of your community - and thus our community.