Watch a North American television show of your
choosing and/or an advertisement of a North-American brand, and note the representations of gender, sexuality, race, age, class,
and/or able-bodiedness. Write your observations on the comments box and be prepared to talk about them in class.
You can take inspiration from the article "Men's Men and Women's Women" by Steve Craig" (anthology, p.211-217)
You can take inspiration from the article "Men's Men and Women's Women" by Steve Craig" (anthology, p.211-217)
Nowadays, a lot of American Shows are choosing to not be afraid to be inclusive or even talk about real problems of real people.
ResponderEliminar"The Fosters" is a show which talks about the many problems that foster kids have when being assigned to a new family. Callie, one of the protagonists, is raped by her foster brother in one of the families she is assigned to. In the future, Callie and her brother are assigned to a family of two lesbians, Lena and Stef, who by the end of the show have four foster children they decided to adopt and Stef's son. Throughout the show, Lena and Stef have to face their problems as a lesbian couple. Lena is a person of color and especially a woman and because of this she faces many problems which are very common in real life such as when she wants a promotion in her job, which she is extremely good at, she gets denied although everyone seems to want it, and the one who gets promoted is her white male coworker. Jude is one of their fosters and when he reaches his teens he realizes he is gay and we can see the struggle he has to admit it and how people deal with it at school. Being a gay teenager Jude wants to explore his sexuality but he is afraid because nobody teaches LGBT teenagers sex education. Mariana and Jesus are two other foster kids that were abandoned by their mother who was an alcoholic and drug addict that left them alone at home when they were five to buy drugs. When in Stef and Lena's family Mariana faces many problems due to her being a strong and confident person and a leader which many people don't like because she is a girl. Later in the show Jesus, Mariana's twin brother, is working on a project and accidentally gets a nail stuck in his head, which leads him to be in the hospital for a long time and gets some serious brain damage. Because of this, Jesus has to have someone always there to help him because he is no longer able to do things he usually would do effortlessly such as talking and writing.
This show, which talks about very important topics, isn't being promoted like shows that romantize violent acts are. "The Fosters" criticizes the American foster system and people that take advantage of it for money and other interests and simply doesn't truly care about the children; it talks about sexuality and transgender problems we face in today's society and tries to give some ideas on how we should face these problems; it criticizes and shames the gun control system in America on how easy it is for someone to grab a gun and shoot down a school; they show the problem women face when they want to be leaders in their jobs but aren't allowed to or ignored because they are women or just because of their skin color; they talk about body-ableness; it shames the American judicial system and how it is run and many, many other topics that should be talked about in other shows.
Fortunately, nowadays there are many shows that are starting to talk about these problems such as The Magicians where most characters are from different ethnicities, sexualities and backgrounds, Switched At Birth which talks about the life and problems of a deaf girl. But these aren't enough or as relevant as the shows that are the most famous today. We can only hope for more shows that talk about these topics since we can see by these shows that the representation of these problematics isn't that hard.
“How to Get Away with Murder” is a good example of the diversity in North American TV shows that has increased over the years. The drama primarily follows Annalise Keating, who is a law professor as well as a defense attorney. She teaches a class called How to Get Away with Murder, and in from that class she has selected a group of students to assist her with cases, along with her employees – Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom. Keating, the main character, is a powerful black woman who is portrayed as the most fierce and intelligent defense attorney in the world of “How to Get Away with Murder”. Her ambition and intelligence is what has granted her her position, despite the fact that she was born to a modest family. The show starts off by introducing the character as a married woman but as the plot develops, the audience also comes to find out that Keating was involved with a fellow female classmate of hers, back when she herself was a law student. We then have a powerful, fierce and intelligent black, bisexual woman as the main character of this show. Her group of selected students is also quite diverse, a few examples – Connor Walsh is a sexually active gay man who has fully accepted his own sexuality, and whose father is also gay; Laurel Castillo is originally from Mexico and her childhood was scared by her mother’s struggle with mental issues, having to have been institutionalized; Wes Gibbons is a Haitian immigrant who comes from a much poorer background than his fellow students, and whose mother committed suicide when he was only 12; Michaela Pratt is, similarly to Keating, a fierce black student who grew up in a poor adoptive family and was forced to take her ambitious future into her own hands by being incredibly hardworking. Winterbottom, who Keating took under her wing, was a victim of sexual assault by her own father and other men, also representing this very real issue which, arguably, lacks representation in media. Throughout the seasons, several other diverse characters, in sexuality, race and class, are introduced, making “How to Get Away with Murder” a show with complex characters who are not defined by their sexuality, race, gender or class but by their intelligence and abilities. The show is then diverse, and it represents these diversities in a complex way, not letting its characters be limited or defined by their differences but instead by their ambition and smartness.
ResponderEliminarCriada por Matt Groening em 1989, "The Simpsons" é uma série de animação dos EUA que satiriza a cultura e a sociedade norte-americanas, a televisão e diversos aspetos da condição humana. O programa centra-se numa típica família disfuncional de classe média, composta pelo pai (Homer), a mãe (Marge) e os três filhos (Bart, Lisa e Maggie). A sua influência na cultura dos E.U.A. tem sido tão grande que, ao fim de 30 anos, a série ainda continua a ser produzida. Toda a animação se baseia em simbolismos, como o facto de o casal ter três filhos, o número médio de descendentes nos EUA. Em contraste com o ideal de “família perfeita”, a animação apresenta outras situações familiares como a monoparentalidade de Nelon Muntz, ou o divórcio dos pais de Milhouse, o melhor amigo de Bart. A série expõe diversos temas relacionados com a questão de género, como a dicotomia do papel feminino, confinado ao espaço doméstico, e o papel masculino, com o ideal de homem trabalhador e independente. No que toca à questão racial, a série já enfrentou graves acusações relacionadas com a personagem indiana, Apu, o que levou a que a mesma fosse retirada do programa, devido àquilo que ficou conhecido como "The Problem With Apu". As disparidades sócio-económicas são ainda ilustradas nas figuras de Mr. Burns, um milionário poderosíssimo, e o seu típico trabalhador de classe média, Homer. A série foca-se ainda nos problemas ambientais, uma vez que o protagonista trabalha numa usina nuclear, e nos problemas políticos, fazendo uma dura crítica ao Capitalismo. Estes são apenas alguns dos inúmeros exemplos que poderiam ser dados.
ResponderEliminarJéssica
The American children’s cartoon Steven Universe has in recent years been considered one of the most progressive pieces of kid’s media currently on air.
ResponderEliminarIn fact, just last year, the show made (internet) headlines for presenting the first ever same-sex proposal and wedding on a mainstream children’s show. And while it was certainly a joyous occasion both for the fans and for the writers who had envisioned the plotline years prior and pushed hard to have it green-lit behind the scenes, Steven Universe has been an unusual, perhaps even groundbreaking, show from its very inception.
The series is a coming of age fantasy action adventure in which the main character is a young boy who’s been raised by a remote but doting father and three female-presenting parental figures (I say female-presenting because the characters are in fact aliens made of inorganic matter, but their appearance leans feminine and they all answer by female pronouns). Steven’s two “side-kicks”, so to speak, are a nerdy sword-wielding Indian-American girl and a powerful but disinterested large pink lion.
Now, if the show weren’t female and feminine enough, Steven also ends up developing magical powers, nearly all of which are defensive and supporting in nature (protective bubbles, shields, life-granting regeneration, etc.) – a stark contrast to the more individualistic and offensive powers usually granted to the male lead of an action adventure show and which are traditionally seen as more masculine and “worthy” of the both the genre and its (male) wielder.
So already from the beginning this a show that presents to its young audience a diverse cast of female parental figures - varied in body shape/size and personality – for them to vicariously look up to and be inspired or guided by (an unbelievably rare dynamic for kid's shows); as well as surrounding its youthful and determined male lead in female-heavy dynamics, environments and even aesthetics (the color scheme of the show itself being awash in soft, stereotypically “feminine”, pastels – mainly pink).
And perhaps most impressive is how defiantly and happily SU’s creators commit to these dynamics.
On the matter of home life, for instance, the series more than once addresses the – unwarranted and misguided- discomfort others may feel at Steven’s lack of a conventional, “nuclear” family (with said characters admitting of course they were wrong before the credits roll).
And, in regard to Steven’s own gender identity, the show goes so far as to have completely genuine and unironic or mocking scenes of Steven dressing up in women’s clothes and makeup; this isn’t necessarily part of a larger arc around him questioning his gender presentation nor is it done on a fluke to poke fun at those who may “worry” for Steven’s masculinity. It is merely another part of Steven’s character and personality; one which is entirely open-minded, empathetic and without any sort of gender constrictions (which, to be clear, isn’t a byproduct of the show creating for itself a completely post-social-construct utopia; there are other minor male characters who would surely not be as comfortable in a dress and heels as Steven is).
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Ana Rebelo
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ResponderEliminarAnd all this without yet addressing the many ways in which the series’s own mythology and world-building allowed its writers, somewhat ingeniously, to more easily approach and share with a young audience questions around gender identity and presentation and sexuality.
In a few quick examples: the alien race of which Steven’s family are part all present and are addressed as females; this means that any romantic bonds that develop between them are visualized and read by the audience as same-sex (such as the wedding/relationship mentioned above, and even a tragically bittersweet love-story between one of Steven’s guardians and his deceased mother).
Beyond that, the show also developed a system it calls “fusion” in which different characters essentially meld together to form a new character, who retains aspects of the personality and memory of each of its parts. This is used as a wonderful allegory for all sorts of relationships between its characters (from the romantic, to the platonic, to the abusive, to, even, the polyamorous); as well as an opportunity - in the case of Steven and his (female) friend Connie fusing – for the allegorical depiction of a non-binary person who goes by the pronouns they/them.
The show is far from being lauded as a mere rumination on questions of identity. Although it certainly is, and it should be (as any coming-of-age story unavoidably must be, and even more-so one with such unique and dynamic world-building) the series also deals with darker themes around loss, war and authoritarianism, which are just as essential to its critical acclaim. And, in fact, some aspects of its “diversity” actively work against it. The show’s depictions of gender and sexuality are not beyond reproach.
There are those who fear that in using these magical plot devices to justify or facilitate the existence of queer experiences, the show risks (even if unintentionally) committing a disservice to real-life queer people who must still be accepted and celebrated outside of convoluted science-fantasy constructs.
A criticism which, while reasonable and understandable, may seem a little overzealous in a global media landscape in which whole sections of the show, if not the series outright, are being censored/banned on the sole basis of its already coded queer content (like Russia, Southeastern Europe, Kenya, etc.). And that’s on top of the more subtle forms of censorship, such as the UK’s, which some suggest has been more sensitive to same-sex than opposite-sex shows of “intimate” affection.
If however, the intent is to praise what SU has accomplished while simultaneously encouraging other shows to take it even further, it seems their prayers are being answered as more and more kid’s cartoons seem to be following in their footsteps.
Said Noelle Stevenson, show-runner for the reboot of the 1980’s She-ra: Princess of Power, which appears to slowly be turning explicit some of the queer undertones of its predecessor while also delving deeper into the dynamics between its many female characters: “we owe a huge debt to Steven Universe for showing that you can have a cast of majority women, a bigger mythology, a space-opera epic feel, and explicit LGBT themes. You can point to that and say, “This can appeal to audiences. Trust me, I can make this work.”
Ana Rebelo