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Tag: representations

28 May, 201713 April, 2017

No more ‘product of its time,’ please

An alarm clock.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Content with terrible themes is often defended as a ‘product of its time,’ but this argument holds no water with me.

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27 May, 201713 April, 2017

Do we really need to see graphic violence to ‘understand’?

A fenceline casting dramatic shadows on the grass.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Creators sometimes justify graphic, troubling scenes with the claim that we need to see to ‘understand.’ Well, do we?

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13 May, 201724 March, 2017

In storytelling, context matters

People walking through a crowded transit station.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Criticising representations and challenging embedded attitudes in text is common, but what happens with authorial context is introduced?

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23 April, 20177 March, 2017

Book review: Ramona Blue, by Julie Murphy

A swimming pool at night.
Posted in reviews by s.e. smith

Julie Murphy’s Ramona Blue was criticized for its handling of bisexuality—I explore complicated tropes and narratives Murphy wrestled with in her latest.

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22 April, 20177 March, 2017

Diverse experiences are about more than hardship

Two young children lying on a couch with a book.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

With an increase in diverse fiction, can we finally get some representations that are about something other than hardship?

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25 March, 20177 February, 2017

What we mean by characters who ‘just happen to be…’

A still from a dancer performance, showing a wheelchair dancer flanked by two people without visible mobility devices, all in fluid poses.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Calls for diversity often reinforce the belief that depictions shouldn’t center around marginalisation, but instead show characters aren’t defined by their identities. That doesn’t mean their identities should be ignored.

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18 March, 201725 January, 2017

Even in pop culture, the oppressed can become the oppressor

Two people at the Berlin Trans*March holding up a sign saying I WON'T CHANGE TO GET ACCEPTED.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

It’s time to bust the myth that it’s impossible to depict a marginalised group poorly when you’re a member of that group or understand marginalisation from a different perspective.

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14 January, 201729 November, 2016

Lost Girl brought the bi and the kickass to one convenient location

Bo on Lost Girl, chained to a wall.
Posted in pop culture by s.e. smith

Lost Girl is smart, sassy, thoughtful Canadian fantasy television that shows it’s possible to have kickass women, queer content, and great stories all in one!

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3 December, 20164 October, 2016

‘Before’ shots aren’t an excuse for nondisabled actors

Two wheelchair users playing tennis.
Posted in disability, pop culture by s.e. smith

Disabled people are often told that cross-casting is necessary for disabled characters because people need to see them ‘before.’ Here’s why this argument doesn’t hold water.

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22 October, 201625 August, 2016

Stranger Things craftily subverted a classic female archetype

Actor Winona Ryder with a fistful of Christmas lights.
Posted in gender, pop culture, television by s.e. smith

In Stranger Things, the hysterical, crazed, desperate mother turns out to be the most leveleheaded of the adults around her, in a brilliant subversion of pop cultural and social tropes.

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