Representation is important for two reasons:
1. to shape the way we think about ourselves
2. to shape the way other people think about us
Representation, usually, is discussed in terms of populace demographics, i.e. portrayal of minority groups in media. These include: people from across all races, cultures, ethnicity; people of varying religions and spiritual practices; people who identify as non-heterosexual, and/or non-cisgender and/or non-monogamous (typically generalized as queer or lgbt+, honestly there are way too many labels to list, given that all have their own spectrums); people who identify as neurodivergent, mentally ill; people with physical disabilities, or chronic illnesses; people of varying body types; people of different ages; women; and people from different social classes.
And whilst it's incredibly important to focus on portraying these stories with accuracy, and consulting people from the groups your trying to represent, as well as casting those demographics for the roles, and fluidly including minorities, without drawing too much attention, or making a mockery of, their "otherness" and making the story about their "otherness" in a way that takes away from focusing on their actual situation within the story, and the impact the story has on them, it is also important to be explicit in a way.
By explicit, I mean, make it known that that character is biracial, or that character is autistic, or that character is queer, don't leave everything up to "interpretation."
And now, I want to take the focus away from populace demographics and focus on situations.
These include, alcoholism, drug addiction, rape victims, wrongly convicted criminals, people who are facing discrimination because of their "otherness", victims of violence, victims of physical abuse, victims of emotional/psychological abuse, victims of verbal abuse, victims of sexual abuse, etc.
This is going to seem like a jump, but with all that explained, I want to turn over to children.
Children are incredibly impressionable. Childhood is also when we develop a lot of the principles and values we maintain for the rest of our lives. So it's really important to include positive representation and messages in children's media.
But even more than including it, it's important that it's executed in such a way that children understand.
A lot of children don't read cues as easily as adults, and don't make inferences as well (learning inferential comprehension is in fact a major part of the education system because it's not something that develops as naturally). This is largely why Thomas the Tank Engine (Thomas & Friends, I'm not really sure what it is actually called) is hugely popular with very young children, and often autistic children. The large, extremely emotive faces are very easy to read and understand. Reading social cues, and facial expressions is honestly difficult, and requires a lot of experience, intuition, and understanding of emotion.
The point is, subtly including something isn't always adequate. Sometimes the implicit message won't reach children, and they will only see the dominant message. i.e. think of the idiom "don't cry over spilled milk," to children this will probably just be accepted as a principle of life, that if they spill their glass of milk, they are not to cry. But it's only those who have adequate inferential comprehension who will realise that it means don't panic when something minor goes wrong, or don't over-react.
Now, children are super impressionable, so they will probably believe what you tell them in preference over their own conclusions. However, often children are do draw inferences, and shutting them down, in preference of enforcing "literal" or "preferred" interpretations, you strip them of their independence.
I want to talk about Disney's Tangled. And the psychological (and physical, I guess?) abuse of Rapunzel by Mother Gothel.
Now, I remember watching this in the theatre with my mother and sister, and to anyone who has seen the film, they know Mother Gothel is evil. She kidnaps Rapunzel, locks her in a tower, with very little resources for mental stimulation, isolates her, and forces her to keep her maintain a standard of personal presentation (i.e. keep her hair nice), and forces her to sing to her, all the while convincing Rapunzel that she is a good mother, who does this in her best interests, and loves her, and makes Rapunzel feel wrong for wanting to leave or have other experiences. THIS IS AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP.
However, in some aspects we are made to pity Mother Gothel, such as showing that this flower was her only source of life, and it was taken from her and given to a baby. We are shown a way to empathise with the abuser. Most of us wont. We relate to the princess in the tower, the classic fairytale idol. But whilst children do not identify or pity mother gothel, as she is indeed framed as the villain, they can be convinced to. They can be convinced that the kind of behaviour demonstrated by Mother Gothel is not abuse and is in fact a healthy parent-child relationship.
For instance, I remember sitting in the theatre when "Mother Knows Best" started, and as soon as that line was said, my mother turned to me and my sister and said "Listen up girls."
As an almost-adult (I turn 18 in about 3 months) who has many friends in similar situations to myself, I know a lot about the struggle of psychological abuse.
Namely, it feels really wrong to call it that. "Abuse."
Abuse victims are told that they are wrong to feel hurt. They are told there is nothing wrong with the treatment they are receiving. They are over-sensitive, weak, selfish, petty, and oh boy, do the labels get worse when you actually call it out.
But being constantly told you are unappreciative of your abuser's affections, or that you are a disappointment, are selfish cow, weak, etc, all that, is really damaging.
And by normalizing abuse, and being told that's how it is, makes it really hard to escape, because victims are so conflicted about whether there actually is something to escape from, as well as the complexity of having someone "keep you hostage."
So when you have a children's movie show this relationship, and never have anyone call it out as abuse, or anyone else point out what is abusive, or what to do when you are being abuse, you make victims complacent, and still provide an outlet for abusers to justify themselves.
Sometimes it can be weaved in by a simple 2 second seen of a teacher telling her students on the first day of class, "if anything is difficult at home, if you're having trouble with your parents, you are always welcome to talk to me," because "difficulty" and "trouble" can include internal-conflict, so it doesn't apply a label like "abuse" that immediately makes people avoid, and it also teaches children that their teachers are safety nets that they can talk to.
That's just one example.
It can also be done by trigger warnings. These are really popular on the internet, but super uncommon in published, broadcasted and cinematic items of media.
Why? A number of reasons. A lot of people think trigger warnings are necessary because it's "bubble-wrapping" i.e. over-protecting us.
But a lot of people are more concerned about spoilers.
It's a valid point. (Not that being able to maintain the element surprise is more important than helping someone avoid a panic attack or assault.)
Here's some options: have cinema's include trigger warnings in the descriptions on their webpages. Have television broadcasters included it in the digital descriptions in the guides, have books include it on the page under dedications.
But just warning isn't enough.
It's also important that influencers of public opinion and actions, which include all of mainsteam media, include helplines, and information about what constitutes the negative situation, steps to get out of it, and what you can do if you are in that situation, or see someone in that situation.
I was pleasantly surprised last year, after watching an episode of Reign on The CW to find that this message was aired immediately following the episode, it's in no way a warning, but it does offer assistance to victims of sexual assault:
I really hope I've conveyed my point eloquently enough that it can be understood.
But to summarise:
- Representation of different groups is important
- Representation influences opinions we have of ourselves and others, which influences how we act, behave and feel
- It's important to have accurate representation, that doesn't focus inherently on the "otherness" as the defining trait of that person, (sometimes this is okay, but usually its not)
- Representation of people in difficult situations is important
- It's important to be explicit
- It's important to have trigger warnings
- It's important to demonstrate methods of identifying difficult situations
- It's important to demonstrate methods of coping with difficult situations
- It's important to demonstrate methods of recovering from, or escaping difficult situations
- It's important to include these representations in children's media
- Children are highly impressionable and vulnerable
- Children can also fit "other" demographics and be subject to difficult situations
- Children don't have the same inferential comprehension skills as typical adults
- Children's media needs to be explicit (I mean direct, not that kind of explicit, geez)
- It's important to provide children with systems of support
Disclaimer: If anything in here is factually inaccurate, or offensive, please let me know.
Commenting can be anonymous, and as a PSA, for the Name/URL option, it is not necessary to fill in the URL box. :)
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