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
Soldier 76 is confirmed as Overwatch’s 2nd gay character.
Truly the team’s best dad. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
She/her
Ali shouldn’t be the focal point here. Where’s the pieces fact checking Nick Vallonga, the guy who wrote the screenplay (and got a golden globe for it, what the hell)? Cause it looks like he made up a lot of flagrant bs.
There's been a lot of biopics making up flagrant bullshit lately… Like Bohemian Rhapsody pretending that Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS before the Live Aid show (it was actually two years after) or The Greatest Showman carefully ignoring that its hero was a bit of a scumbag in real life.
Edited by Lyendith on Jan 7th 2019 at 9:52:37 PM
The Unknown Unknown
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Good on you, Blizzard.
Helps they show it in material on top of the Twitter Word of God.
A cruel, sick joke is still a joke, and sometimes all you can do is laugh.
Oh, bother.
Don't often see an older gay man in fiction, especially not one with a relatively prominent role.
And of course the comments have a few idiots who are complaining that this is pandering. They don't even seem to realize that they're exposing themselves as homophobes.
Edited by M84 on Jan 7th 2019 at 9:16:22 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Which it also show how is the nature of pandering.
"Pandering happen when is other people, never me" which it show how guillable gamers can be.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"
I honestly hate that a lot of people seem to want to give Bohemian Rhapsody a pass. I had a friend literally say, "I don't care if it was made up and that Singer directed it, it was about a prominent gay figure, and that's good." Okay. So because it's a mediocre film about a gay man, it gets a pass to make shit up and it's fine that it was directed by a pedophile? Seriously? How does that in any way help the LGBT cause?
"In 900 years of time and space I've never met anyone who wasn't important."
Transcender of Gender
I've seen the Overwatch reveal spark discussions and criticisms relating to intersectionality, since- despite the highly diverse cast- the only two confirmed lgbt+ characters are white. This is also coming off of Blizzard introducing three white women and a hamster as new characters in succession when there still isn't a black woman in the game.
On the other hand, this does mean that two of the most prominent heroes in the game are gay. And everyone is laughing at the gamer dudebros who are mad about it.
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob
There are indeed a bunch of missed opportunities where they could integrated black women into the game but didn't. Perhaps Brigette; Zarya's already got the "buff white woman" niche. Or Ashe, Widowmaker's already got the "cunning white woman sniper" niche. Or allowing Orisa's creator Efi to be interacted with through hologram or emotes.
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Ugh. My fellow hispanics are acting like if being gay means that said Overwatch Cool Old Guy isn't a real hero anymore.
Edited by KazuyaProta on Jan 7th 2019 at 11:09:43 AM
Watch me destroying my country
Oh, bother.
A race war in an MMO. Lovely. /sarc
Disgusted, but not surprised
I wonder if it adds to the detractors' cries of latent homophobia in BoRhap that if you genderflipped Paul and Jim, you get your usual 'gets-corrupted-by-harpy-before-getting-with-good-girl' biopic cliche.
Also looking at the people who are unironically calling it one of the best films of 2018 makes me realise there are more people who like the idea of Queen(/Freddie Mercury) than the actual band themself.
Oh, bother.
I wonder how many of those "fans" have actually listened to songs like "Princes of the Universe" or "The Show Must Go On" or "Killer Queen".
Disgusted, but not surprised
As someone not very familiar with Queen, is there something about those songs that should be noted?
Oh, bother.
Not really. They're just kick-ass songs. But then again, most of Queen's songs are kick-ass.
"The Show Must Go On" is notable for being their last song. And it was recorded while Freddie Mercury was dying. And he still nailed the vocal.
Edited by M84 on Jan 8th 2019 at 5:27:08 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
There is a scene where the band members go something along the lines of
"You know that loser back in the crowd of that concert? Well we wanna be a band for the rejects like him" And I admit I didn't think much of it... until I thought about it over the next few days/weeks and got kinda pissed at this self-hagiography they were trying to do (this film getting the thumbs up from 2 of 3 of the surviving members)
As M84 kinda implies, they're not really a misfits band any more than, say, Led Zepellin is now, their an absolutely popular band and that's okay but the way they try to spin them superstars off as these bunch of misfits that 'speak to the rejects' is just pure boilerplate biopic cliche. Bleargh
...now I'm wondering if we could give "Trouble Boys" the biopic treatment (but not like this of course) - now there's a band that was truly for the rejects
Oh, bother.
One hardly needs to be a loser or a reject to appreciate Queen's songs, after all.
Seriously, they're all pretty amazing songs with awesome vocals.
Even the songs they themselves disliked weren't too shabby. For example, there's "Gimme the Prize", which was used as the Kurgan's theme.
Mercury didn't like it, but it's still pretty good.
Edited by M84 on Jan 8th 2019 at 5:37:27 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
I'm watching you!
The fact they took a topic as mundane as riding a stupid bicycle, and made it sound awesome should give any newbie an idea of how cool this group is.
With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation
What I didn't mention is that Emily Young wasn't the first time she'd played an NA character and she's been posing as a Native American woman to book Indigenous roles for over a decade.
Oh, bother.
I was going to crack a bad joke about how maybe she confused being Indian (she was born Harsha Patel and her parents were from India) with being Native American...but no. This is just disgusting.
She's also Canadian. Given Canada's infamously bad treatment of First Nations people, maybe it's not too surprising that she somehow grew up with the idea that it's okay to exploit natives.
Edited by M84 on Jan 8th 2019 at 7:02:41 PM
Disgusted, but not surprised
Cringe but free
nvm
Edited by eagleoftheninth on Jan 8th 2019 at 3:13:48 AM
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
x9. "Killer Queen" is pretty much a classic rock staple so there's a chance they could have heard that (personally, I wish classic rock would be a little more adventurous with what Queen songs they play, but thats a problem with most classic rock staples) at least.
Of course, Martin would never do such a thing. He’s the one that brought her the case in the first place, and they worked on it as partners. These producers had no problem with Ruth going to Martin’s classes for him and typing up his coursework when he was diagnosed with cancer, but they apparently couldn’t come to terms with him cooking their family dinner while she works. (Something the real Martin Ginsburg did regularly.)
According to Daniel Stiepleman, the Ginsburgs’ nephew who also wrote the script for the film, this issue “came up a lot.” He told the Times, “I remember at some point saying in a meeting, There’s a 5,000-year history of narrative, of men coming home from battle, and their wives patch them up and boost their egos and send them back out to fight again. You write one supportive husband, and everyone’s like, such a creature could never exist!”
So for Hollywood, the idea of a man being kind and supportive of his wife is still more fantasy than reality.
Lots of respect to Mahershala Ali for that.