{"id":15252,"date":"2020-02-03T20:02:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T04:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=15252"},"modified":"2020-02-03T20:02:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T04:02:58","slug":"opinion-representation-in-media-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/opinion-representation-in-media-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Representation in media matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caity Healy\u00a0<\/strong> | Managing Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

The other week, I was binge-watching the second season of Netflix\u2019s \u201cYou.\u201d Part way into the season, they introduced a d\/Deaf\/Hard-of-hearing character \u2014 it\u2019s not obvious how he identifies, which is why I use both forms of the letter \u201cD\u201d as well as \u201chard-of-hearing\u201d \u2014 as the late husband of a main character.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I could write a whole other piece about the way that the other characters addressed the d\/Deaf character, but that\u2019s not the point I\u2019m making today; rather, I want to focus on how viewers addressed this character, and characters alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I sat down to watch the episode, I had a friend with me. Afterwards, they said something along the lines of, \u201cthe problem with having so many d\/Deaf characters is that it just isn\u2019t realistic. It throws off the balance.\u201d My reaction? That\u2019s absolutely ridiculous.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be clear, this isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve heard someone say something along these lines. I\u2019ve heard it regarding disabled folks in TV\/film, LGBTQ+ in TV\/film and I\u2019ve heard it about other minority or other-identifying groups. I\u2019ve heard people say that it bothers them how unrealistic the \u201coverrepresentation\u201d is, and it leaves me with a few questions: is it really overrepresentation or throwing off the balance? Also, in most cases, does it really matter how \u201crealistic\u201d a film or TV show is? Finally, is it really the \u201caccuracy\u201d of the representation that bothers you, or is it internalized bias?<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the question of whether it is or is not realistic. According to cdc.gov, 61 million adults in the U.S. have a disability \u2014 roughly 1 in 4. So, in order for media to be \u201caccurate,\u201d 1 in 4 characters would need to have a disability. Of course, not all disability is visible. But that\u2019s what\u2019s important \u2014 representing folks who identify with all different kinds of disabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s answer question two: if realism is really important or not. Unless you\u2019re watching a documentary, or watching a historically-based program, I would argue that it doesn\u2019t matter. We can\u2019t pick and choose when realism is important or not. If it doesn\u2019t bother you that an impossible plot is occurring, it shouldn\u2019t bother you that there is a larger number of minority characters, which brings me to my final point.<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-reflection is an important practice. If you are bothered by something like this, you might want to ask yourself why. If you can\u2019t whole-heartedly say that it is due to the fact that you find it unrealistic, then it probably has something to do with your internalized bias against folks who identify in ways that you might not. We all have our biases, and if you aren\u2019t reflecting on them, you\u2019ll only perpetuate them.<\/span><\/p>\n

A change in perspective could do viewers a lot of good if they find themselves upset by this representation in media. The only way to normalize representing the underrepresented, is to simply give them screen time \u2014 played by actors who actually identify with their character\u2019s identities. It\u2019s time to become comfortable with the fact that these folks deserve the roles they\u2019re earning. It\u2019s time to realize that these characters are here to stay, and they\u2019re just going to keep coming.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caity Healy\u00a0 | Managing Editor The other week, I was binge-watching the second season of Netflix\u2019s \u201cYou.\u201d Part way into the season, they introduced a d\/Deaf\/Hard-of-hearing character \u2014 it\u2019s not obvious how he identifies, which is why I use both forms of the letter \u201cD\u201d as well as \u201chard-of-hearing\u201d \u2014 as the late husband of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":10024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}