The Flopdred

If you have spoken to me, ever, you probably know I have quite strong opinions / feelings about The CW's show: The 100. You may also know that this show, whilst seemingly incredibly progressive a few months ago, in the span of about 3 episodes, became the most horrifying network show for minority representation.

So, The 100... Here's the low down. Basically, this event has become so much more than "just a TV show." It has become a movement for nontoxic LGBT representation in media.

For more information, which is where I have copied a lot of the text in this post from, visit:

A webpage directly in response to The 100:

http://wedeservedbetter.com/

Or, their partner webpage, which highlights the broader issue:

http://lgbtfansdeservebetter.com/

Head’s up: This is about 3000 words, but I cover pretty much everything, from what happened, why it's bad (including statistics), and what we can, and are, doing to make change.

<< Content / Trigger Warnings >>

LGBT death, POC death, SH/Suicide, Torture, Violence

<< What triggered the outcry: >>

"The tipping point was the unnecessary death of Lexa (Alycia Debnam-Carey) on The 100, a series on the CW Network which caters to genre shows and teen audiences. Since the airing of episode 3×07 on March 3rd, 2016, forums and social media outlets have been flooded with outcry over the mishandling of a beloved fictional character who served as a beacon in the lives of many young LGBT and non-LGBT persons. In that episode Lexa – the powerful and openly lesbian leader of the show’s post-apocalyptic society – had just consummated her long-simmering relationship with the show’s protagonist Clarke Griffin. In the very next scene (64 seconds later), Lexa was accidentally shot dead by a stray bullet intended for her lover."

<< Some statistics: >>

"Lesbians are not unfamiliar with dying—and dying violently—in the media. An alarming 31% of lesbian or bisexual characters on American scripted TV shows between 1976-2016 ended up dead. A further 38% were simply guest characters or written off with no resolution, whilst only 10% got a “happy ending”. With the list of dead lesbian/bisexual characters now at 152 (and counting), LGBT fans demand better from media creators."

This is compared to the "26 lesbian and bisexual characters who got happy endings."

Source: http://www.autostraddle.com/all-26-lesbian-and-bisexual-tv-characters-who-got-happy-endings-331601/

Source for dead count: http://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/

"as of tonight with the lesbian couple from empire dying, here is the list of lesbian and bi women characters killed on tv in the first just over 3 months of 2016

zora - the shannara chronicles

carla - code black

julie - mao the expanse

rose - jane the virgin

ashleigh - janet king

lexa - the 100

kira - the magicians

denise - the walking dead

nora and mary louise - the vampire diaries

mimi and camilla - empire

that’s 12. in just over 3 months. this report (http://www.glaad.org/files/GLAAD-2015-WWAT.pdf ) from 2015 says there were 35 lesbian or bi women characters on television. so far in the first quarter of 2016, over one-third of them have been killed off."

Source: http://universequartz.tumblr.com/post/142386269243/as-of-tonight-with-the-lesbian-couple-from-empire

<< What was so bad about Lexa's death? >>

"Many fans expected Lexa to appear in a limited number of episodes due to the fact that Debnam-Carey is a cast regular in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead. However, they were led to believe, over the course of a year, that the character wouldn’t be killed off, that they could have hope, and that this show would make an effort to avoid known tropes and mistakes in telling Lexa’s story. The message sent out by the showrunner was that this show was different, groundbreaking and progressive, that they loved the character, and – most importantly – that CW and AMC were able to work out a good deal that would allow Debnam-Carey to continue her work on The 100."

This plays into a concept called queer-baiting: wherein you promise positive representation for the LGBT community, but don't deliver. And this is obviously an extremely toxic mechanism to utilize against an already vulnerable community.

You can go check out the receipts on the webpage for just how far this queer baiting went. But it went as far as one of the writers going into queer safe spaces, and saying (paraphrased) "if you don't trust that we wont kill Lexa by now, then you need therapy."

<< Who is Jason? >>

Jason Rothenberg is the showrunner of The 100, this means he gets to make all final decisions regarding everything. He is directly responsible for this. But he refuses to take responsibility, and instead defends his decision to have killed Lexa. We all hate Jason.

<< But shouldn't we blame the writers? They wrote her death. >>

Yes, but the death was Jason's idea. Some of the writers have been extremely supportive, and apologetic after episode 307. Javi has been exceptionally sincere. Kim? Well... It really depends what day. Shauna? Absolutely horrible. She's the one who was going into queer safe spaces... (To be honest with you, I don't know how many more writers there are. But these three all have a really big online presence with the fans.)

<< The cast? >>

Leave them out of it. They are bound by contracts. But have for the most part, sided with the fandom, as opposed to Jason.

But they can't do much, for risk of ruining their careers. Ricky Whittle literally had to leave his job on The 100 because of the bullying he was experiencing on The 100. (I'll talk about Lincoln's death later.) And Lindsey Morgan's character, Raven, has also experiences horrible treatment, which I will discuss.

<< Can this show redeem itself? >>

No. The show has toyed with concepts of immortality, afterlives, and reincarnation, but bringing back the dead, does nothing to fix how wrong it was to kill them so unjustly in the first place. Especially, given that the showrunner has shown no remorse, and any "progressive" changes in the future would only be attempts to regain ratings. We won't be used again.

<< So how bad is it? >>

Really bad. We were used [for ratings.] We were given false hope. We doubted for so long, could it be real? Were we really going to see powerful women-loving-women (wlw) on our television screens, and not have it end in tragedy? We didn't believe it. But then, Jason made a tweet late last year, inviting fans to the set where they were filming the finale, and low-and-behold, Alycia DC was there, and her character was seemingly very much alive. We believed him. And then it was ripped from us, brutally, by way of an overused and (historically) very harmful trope, of "bury your gays." (Which I'm to believe was once a propagandist slogan, that was used to bully and teach fear to the LGBT+ community, by showing their representation as evil and wrong and deserving of death.)

But //how// bad you may ask? What do you think happens when you destroy the only hope of young queer people? I have witnessed the online devastation. I have seen stories of people reverting to self harm. I have read suicide notes. (Note: If any of you have seen Chloe Clark's, it is false. She is alive. Someone [abusive] in her family wrote it.) I don't think this world understands how vulnerable the LGBT community is; how vulnerable the youth are.

But if anything, by now the world should understand the impact of media, and the affect that constantly killing us has on screen, in reality.

<< What are we doing about it? >>

Firstly, we are doing everything in a power to reveal the true nature of the show. This means down voting it on platforms such as IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. It means not watching live, or on official networks. It means not tweeting using official tags. It means reaching out to publications for coverage. (You can find a list of articles regarding this issue, on the sites I linked at the start.) We have been recognised by some really major outlets; most recently Forbes. This isn’t just a dead character. This is a revolution (or as some have termed: queervolution, but I understand not everyone is uncomfortable with the word “queer.”)

We are reaching out to sponsors of the show (the companies that advertise during it.) Target and Maybelline have already pulled their sponsorship.

But perhaps our biggest accomplishment, is in under a month we raised over $100k for The Trevor Project, the only national (US) organization providing suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth in crisis. The Trevor Project serves more than 100,000 LGBTQ youth every year with their life-saving programs that include the Trevor Lifeline, TrevorChat, Ask Trevor and TrevorSpace.

Donate at: https://www.classy.org/fundraise?fcid=625415

<< What can you do? >>
Every week there is an official twitter trend, organised by wedeservedbetter and lgbtfansdeservebetter. Jump on twitter, during the airing of The 100 (9|8c Thursday), which is a bit after midday on Friday for us, and post as many tweets as you can, that include the trend, with any relevant information. Keep it respectful and educational.

You can also write and send emails to sponsors, asking them to revoke their sponsorship of the show. I believe, there is a list of sponsors and contact details, as well as [maybe] an exemplar letter on one of the sites.

<< You mentioned another death earlier? >>

I did. Lincoln. Now this hasn’t sprouted as big of a movement, that I am aware of, but it certainly deserves one. I think the reasoning for the lack of it being that our resources are focussed elsewhere. But the brutal death of people of colour is just as terrible. Lincoln was one of the purest souls in The 100 universe. He was raised in the harsh “grounder” environment, yet still turned out to be a gentle and loving person. But Lincoln was never treated well on the show, right from the beginning. His scenes included being whipped and tortured. Being turned into a raging zombie.  Dying. Being brought back to life. Being outcast by his own people, and then the people who gave him refuge. And then dying again. His death wasn’t so bad, the FIRST time. It was only for a few seconds, before he was hit by a high voltage and brought back. The second time though, after he willingly surrendered to save his friends, he was publicly executed, and his body was left in the mud. The very episode after Lexa’s death. That’s two minorities unnecessarily killed by harmful tropes.

This was a horrendous atrocity, especially given the treatment of black men in the modern world. Remember Ferguson? The violence and xenophobia never ended. It’s not okay to casually show it on television, like it is “just another dead body.” It’s not.

<< What about the other character? Raven? >>

Raven represents several minorities. She is a girl in a STEM field, she is Latina, and she is disabled. Raven wasn’t disabled in the beginning though. That took a bullet to her spine to disable the use of one of her legs. Raven has also been strung up and publicly tortured. She has been tied down and tortured. It doesn’t sound like it could get much worse for Raven. I mean, she took one of the magical happiness pills, despite her better judgement, to free herself of her pain. But if got worse. (These magical happiness pills are actually keys for an evil Artificial Intelligence to gain access to your mind, thus removing all your pain, and bad memories.) But Raven snapped out of it. She realised losing her pain, wasn’t worth losing her memories. She figured out how to get the AI out of her head. The AI didn’t like this, thus removing itself, and returning all of Raven’s pain at once; more torture. The AI then came back and said “I can make it better.” Raven gave in, and the AI started using Raven to manipulate those who cared about her into submitting, including causing Raven to attempt suicide. I think you understand how bad this is.

<< I’ve heard about a guy called Bellamy. >>

This is a sensitive topic. Bellamy fans are pretty intense, very loyal. Bellamy didn’t start out so great in season 1, but he had some amazing character development in the second season, which was all tossed away in the third season, when he became coleader of a hate movement.

<< Isn’t Bellamy a person of character? >>

This is a controversial topic. Bob Morley, who portrays Bellamy, is half Filipino, and therefore a POC. However, something called “white-washing” is going on, where-in an actor’s ethnicity is ignored, in order to make their character white. Bellamy’s sister, Octavia, is in fact white, and so was their mother. It is in fact possible they had different fathers, hence Bellamy being a POC. However, in flashbacks, little Bellamy was portrayed by a white actor, giving reason to believe, that Bellamy is supposed to be white, but again, this is a controversial topic.

<< Are all the minority representations in the show tortured and killed? >>

No. The others are villainized.

<< If it’s such a bad show, why do you still watch it? >>

It’s called addiction, darling. No, but in all seriousness. I keep watching because I am emotionally invested in the characters. Clarke, Lexa’s love interest, and the main character, is bisexual, and badass. Raven is incredibly smart. And Octavia is unbelievably kickass. The actors do a phenomenal job of bringing their characters to life. Especially Lindsey.

<< It sounds like it has always been a bad show… >>

You are absolutely right. The issue is, so many of us were so blinded by the possibility of positive lesbian representation, that we ignored the struggles of the people of colour characters, and disabled. We accept that that was wrong of us. We campaigned so heavily for this third season, to see our beloved Lexa more. But this isn’t our fault. It’s Jason’s. We were silent when we shouldn’t have been. But we didn’t kill them, or torture them. Jason did.

<< I read all of this. >>

I hope you learned something. I hope you understand why I won’t stop talking about. I hope you understand how harmful tropes like “bury your gays” are. I hope you are sympathetic to this cause. I hope you understand that this issue is bigger than just “The 100” and encompasses all forms of media, and the homophobic attitudes ingrained in it. I hope you understand that the LGBT community are fighting for more than just a TV character. We are fighting for ourselves, to stop having the idea that we should die, perpetuated by films and television.

<< Why haven’t I heard about this before? >>

I don’t know. It’s a pretty big deal. We are getting some really amazing coverage. We are making change.

<< The future… >>

So, what are we going to do to make this a full-on revolution? Keep up the media hype, keep up twitter trends, all the stuff I mentioned earlier. The leaders of this movement, who run those webpages, are arranging to advertise our movement on billboards near the CW and WB studies in LA. They can’t keep ignoring us.

We won’t see change for a while. 2016 has been a bad year. But it has already been written, filmed, edited. But as new content is created and aired, we hope to see change, but we can’t be certain, we can’t hide behind blind faith. We won’t let hope make fools of us again. We will keep fighting.

<< Where can I watch LGBT characters NOT die? >>

So, I saw that list of dead wlw characters and their respective shows, and that list of 120+ dead lesbians.

Where can I see good representation?

Honestly, I am tired right now. I am not an expert.

This is the only list I know off the top of my head:

7 Lesbian Films That Actually Gave Us Happily Ever After

http://thefeminismproject.com/entertainment/7-lesbian-films-that-actually-gave-us-happily-ever-afters/

Personally, I would also recommend Sense8, on Netflix. It has lesbian characters, gays, trans, people of colour… Really good show.

<< Disclaimer >>

I don’t claim to be an expert. I apologize if I get some things wrong. I also don’t know enough about all the other shows whose audiences have experiences similar trauma to Leksakru and Clexakru.