A thread for discussing representation and diversity in all kinds of media. This covers creators and casting decisions as well as characters and in-universe discussions.
Historical works and decisions are in-scope as well, not just recent news.
Please put any spoilers behind tags and clearly state which work(s) they apply to.
This week, producer Ross Putnam started a Twitter account called "femscriptintros", where he puts up examples of how women are introduced in the screenplays he's read. And nearly all of sound like terrible porn or are too concerned with emphasizing said lady is beautiful despite whatever traits she may have. Here's a Take Two podcast made today where he talks about it.
(Edited April 19 2024 to add mod pinned post)
Edited by Mrph1 on Apr 19th 2024 at 11:45:51 AM
I do remember stories about executives pushing back against this, saying that they were practically begging creators for more representation, but creators were being too cautious about their work or just plain unwilling to take perceived risks with their writing. I think there can definitely be a degree of self-censorship involved.
That is rather easy to say when it's not your livelihood on the line. Few of these creators are willing or able to put their career on the line like that. They're not all millionaires who can just force the issue because they are financially independent. When the question becomes "Am I going to push for more representation and risk losing my job and throwing my family into poverty?", the equation becomes rather different.
Edited by Redmess on Jun 9th 2023 at 10:48:02 AM
Optimism is a duty.Ruby and Sapphire were publicly kissing, hugging, dancing and flirting with each other and their Garnet fusion made it undeniable what they were doing. And for those that tried to get away with She's a Man in Japan Ruby, the wedding episode pretty much put a stop to that by putting Ruby in the dress. And it was also in the middle of a very plot required episode, so it couldn't be skipped without a jarring jump in the plot as that's when the Diamonds showed up to wreck the place.
Unfortunately, Russia did the last one.
As for Korrasami, maybe there was more evidence, but it was clearly too subtle for me to pick up if it was things like blushes and glances.
Optimism is a duty.another issue with korrasami is that the previous romance was...bad, like horrible bad and probably one of the worst triangle than make everyone where like asshole(specially korra who come as violent asshole at times). it was clear the writer have this tendency of "chararter flit and look cute but them love equal drama so they fight for everything".
So people just thought they just stop romance and korrasami just blindfield them.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"Yeah, it also didn't help that the same season that had build-up for Korrasami was also doing a will-they-won't-they arc about Mako and Korra hooking up again. And while we think the result is obvious in hindsight, back then people thought the series would just go for Korra Mako in the finale.
Like, this wasn't a clearly telegraphed conclusion to the show. This was a huge plot twist in the finale.
Optimism is a duty.I was doing a crossword, and it had the clue "some queens, but not kings", and I thought the answer would be DRAG (it was BEES).
But that made me wonder: are there drag kings? And if not, why?
Optimism is a duty.That picture is amazing.
I wonder why you don't hear as much of those. Are drag queens just that much more interesting to people?
Optimism is a duty.Probably for the same reason you only hear about men wearing dresses and not women wearing pants, or issues relating to trans women, but more rarely issues relating to trans men, or why there are more main characters in WLW relationships than MLM relationships. The reactionary backlash seems more concerned with AMAB non-conformity than AFAB non-conformity when it comes to concerns of degeneracy. Concerns about AFAB non-conformity are usually associated with how attractive or sexually desirable they are or are no longer to targeted demographics.
Edited by HeyMikey on Jun 9th 2023 at 8:03:26 AM
I once read somewhere it's a matter of misogyny. A woman wearing pants is lifting herself up, a man putting on a dress is degrading himself.
Generally, society is more tolerant of girls doing boy things than the reverse.
Like, for example, a girl who is into "boy" hobbies is a tomboy, and this isn't viewed that negatively. A boy who is into girl things is generally viewed in a much more negative light.
Another thing is also that men are considered the default and there actually aren't that many things that are as strongly associated with men in the same way a dress is associated with women.
Edited by Protagonist506 on Jun 9th 2023 at 8:36:00 AM
"Any campaign world where an orc samurai can leap off a landcruiser to fight a herd of Bulbasaurs will always have my vote of confidence"Unless it inhibits their views of how attractive they are or the misogynistic belief that a women's greatest goal is motherhood. Thus why trans men are viewed as lost souls who have been tainted and tricked to deny their true selves (compared to trans women who are considered predators trying to force themselves into women's spaces). Or why having less curvy or petite figures is considered unattractive, like when the alt-right commentators complained about new She-Ra, or anyone with a Marissa style body is considered manly by certain portions of the community (I usually hear most of it from East Asian demographics) or a Taliyah style face is considered boyish.
Well, there's the three piece suit, I guess. Even in this day and age, I never see any woman wear that particular style of suit, it is always feminized in some way when they do wear a suit.
Men's clothing is also a lot more boring in general. I was buying a shirt a while ago, and the sales girl said she could have offered me a whole rainbow of colours if I went for the girl version, but the male one only had like three colours.
Edited by Redmess on Jun 9th 2023 at 6:53:22 PM
Optimism is a duty.Unless you ask Urobuchi or Fujimoto in general.
Let me guess. White, beige, and black?
So.. I was looking under my Facebook memories, and last year on June 9, 2022, Kristen Stewart had posted a link saying she was helping produce a paranormal series with an LGBTQ+ cast.
Did anything ever come of that or come to fruition? I haven't heard or seen anything since.
If I had a nickel for every film where Emma Stone falls off a balcony... I'd only have two nickels, but weird that there's two of them.According to Vice it is rumored to come out this year.
Edited by Synchronicity on Jun 9th 2023 at 1:02:40 PM
Almost at the same time as Five Nights at Freddy's?
You can't kill art. No, it was yellow, red, and blue. They were actually pretty nice, a Japanese brand called Edwin. But it was just those three.
Edited by Redmess on Jun 9th 2023 at 8:06:12 PM
Optimism is a duty.RE: Men and women's clothing, the history is a bit more complicated than that. For one thing, men used to mostly wear dresses and skirts (tunics) until the 1500's ish with the Swiss mercenary group I don't trust myself to spell right now. And when women did start wearing bloomers and pants, it was faced with massive resistance and push back saying they were 'too manly'. Heck, it wasn't that long ago that female politicians faced push back for wearing pants suits.
There is misogyny and homophobia tied into it, but there's also a lot of activism for women pushing to be able to do more/wear more. There are also men trying to push boundaries, but as it's mostly been associated with queer men, homophobia ties into why it's not considered socially acceptable for men to wear skirts in western culture, despite long lightweight skirts in summer being the superior clothing option.
My AO3I never understand why some people (read: TERFs) make such a stink over who wears what. I think Suzy Eddie Izzard said it best:
It's hardly just TER Fs. This is a very deeply ingrained thing in pretty much all cultures, regardless of how progressive they are. Even otherwise very progressive people can have a strong sense of what is proper male and female fashion. It doesn't make them TER Fs, it's just how fashion works in human culture.
Optimism is a duty.Yes, clothing accessories and gender perceptions have been linked for a lot of time, regardless of which is which.
And I don't think that will change anytime soon. How long have we had feminism? And yet the girl section in every toy store is still bathed in pinks. And I'm sure there are plenty of feminists running these toy stories and making these toys.
Even Barbie, which is ostensibly a feminist toy line these days, still does the pink thing all the time.
Edited by Redmess on Jun 10th 2023 at 10:39:54 AM
Optimism is a duty.
" but I heard networks censored them. Into cousins."
Yep, but hilariously they never tone down the interactions between then that can be quite filtry because they clearly are a open lesbian couple. like that time they tell that the first kiss was by adam and eve.
Meaning they werent just cousins but borderling incestous lesbian cousins.
Boy I never tired of ponting that out, is probably the most hilarious case of unintending censor side efect ever.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"