Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Representation in Media
“But one does not liberate people by alienating them” (Freire 79)
Buried within a paragraph in the middle of Pedagogy of the Oppressed chapter two is this statement which stuck out to me. Outside the classroom, banking is inadvertently used by revolutionaries, boundary breakers, and even well-intentioned supporters who try to “liberate” oppressed groups. Freire refers to such liberal propaganda and slogans as “banking methods of domination”, where attempts at being inclusive and progressive are ultimately dehumanizing.
As a woman involved in the gaming community, I immediately recognized how this idea of alienation applies to my field. A few months ago, I read Adrienne Shaw’s paper Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity. Shaw examined why many people who play video games don’t identify as “gamers” due to racial, gender, and sexuality factors. The typical gamer audience is full of straight white men, but recently there have been efforts to be more inclusive of minority groups, primarily women. Through interviews and research, Shaw reveals that these attempts actually achieved the opposite. By taking a somewhat inconsiderate banking approach, they’ve only made women feel more isolated.
Making games for girls isn’t the same as making girls a part of the audience for games. It only strengthens the notion that women aren’t in the typical gamer demographic.
A game with a female protagonist shouldn’t have to be an explicitly feminist game. Sony was so worried about having a female player character in the 2017 game Horizon Zero Dawn that they hired a marketing team to conduct focus testing in the same way core mechanics and gameplay were evaluated. Especially when game director Mathijs de Jonge explained how the character’s gender came after her personality and role in the narrative world, seeing such a concern from those with corporate power demonstrates the oppressors’ fear of changing the status quo. (source)
Additionally, this concept of targeting marginalized groups in media ties very well into a point Freire made earlier in this chapter:
“Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in ‘changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them’. For the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated. To achieve this end, the oppressors use the banking concept of education in conjunction with a paternalistic social action apparatus, within which the oppressed receive the euphemistic title of ‘welfare recipients.’” (74)
Media, like education, is a tool that can be used to break barriers of oppression. Similarly, it can be misused in shallow attempts at progressive representation. Instead of actively working towards broadening target demographics and amplifying minority roles in production, we’re handed movies like The Prom.
It feels wrong to have James Corden’s poor American accent be the face of LGBTQ+ equality. Issues of homophobia aren’t solved by singing “love thy neighbor” with a bunch of conservative teens in a midwestern mall. Much of the audience, both queer and straight, is lead to believe that this tokenized representation is a sign that we did it! We’ve solved homophobia!! While at the same time, The Prom plays into queer stereotypes, trivializes LGBTQ+ teen struggles, and doesn’t address the issues of diversity and representation in production and casting.
We need more media made with marginalized people, not just about marginalized people.
The latter is still very important. Telling stories about overcoming racism, sexism, ableism, and other kinds of intolerance is crucial, helping bring such issues to the mainstream eye. However, they run the risk of promoting narratives like the white savior, both in the content itself and in production behind the scenes. Then the consciousness of the oppressed is changed, not the situation which oppresses them
There are more to oppressed people than the stories of their oppression. Groups claiming to be progressive often only portray the narratives which have already separated minorities from their view of “typical” society. There is a need to normalize minority representation in media, so they can be understood as actual people- not just their tropes.
Instead of using The Prom for your queer content, maybe look towards something like the episode “Enchanting Grom Fright” from Disney TV Animation’s The Owl House. With a story by Molly Ostertag, Rachel Vine, and showrunner Dana Terrace, we have another narrative about a WLW couple at a school dance. This time, however, their relationship compliments the plot rather than defines it. The relationship isn’t a superficial addition either, allowing this scene to feel powerful and meaningful without being forced in for diversity points.
