Why All Representation in Media is Flawed
Stop looking for perfection — you will never find it.
When I was younger, I used to binge-watch shows with a friend. We went through a lot of series together and rarely did I encounter black female characters, let alone queer black female characters who were any darker than a brown paper bag. I got used to watching TV and movies that didn’t give any regard to the inclusion, much less the perspective, of people like me.
While representation in media started becoming a more mainstream conversation with the onset of my adulthood, it also coincided with the internet’s strange, feverish desperation to find “unproblematic” content. Shows, movies, books, etc. that offer “good representation” on all counts at all times.
That content doesn’t exist.
Yet every new thing that comes out with even a modicum of fanfare is either glorified for being a beacon of diverse representation, or vilified for failing to achieve the aforementioned diversity quota. And that’s a problem because we’re setting things up to fail our expectations.
Everything always falls short.
Last year around Christmas, Kristen Stewart gave us her queerest performance yet with Happiest Season. The lesbian holiday rom-com left a bitter…
