Content with terrible themes is often defended as a ‘product of its time,’ but this argument holds no water with me.
No more ‘product of its time,’ please
Tag: representations
Do we really need to see graphic violence to ‘understand’?
Creators sometimes justify graphic, troubling scenes with the claim that we need to see to ‘understand.’ Well, do we?
In storytelling, context matters
Criticising representations and challenging embedded attitudes in text is common, but what happens with authorial context is introduced?
Book review: Ramona Blue, by Julie Murphy
Julie Murphy’s Ramona Blue was criticized for its handling of bisexuality—I explore complicated tropes and narratives Murphy wrestled with in her latest.
Diverse experiences are about more than hardship
With an increase in diverse fiction, can we finally get some representations that are about something other than hardship?
What we mean by characters who ‘just happen to be…’
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.
Even in pop culture, the oppressed can become the oppressor
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.
Lost Girl brought the bi and the kickass to one convenient location
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!
‘Before’ shots aren’t an excuse for nondisabled actors
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.
Stranger Things craftily subverted a classic female archetype
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.