R-E-P-R-E-S-E-N-T Find Out What It Means to Me
R-E-P-R-E-S-E-N-T Find Out What It Means to Me
Not to cause any identity crises BUT....
Ah, yes—June. It’s that time of year again:
Nothing says “Happy Pride” quite like every corporation dancing on the line of faux activism and a potential hate crime.
This week, in an attempt to kick off Pride Month in a way that feels less performative than Walmart changing their Instagram icon to a rainbow, I talked with Riley Patterson about LGBTQ+ and disabled representation in media, the importance of intersectionality, and what to do about rainbow washing.
Riley is a 22 year old from Georgia who has been living in NYC for almost 6 months. He currently works as a media planner at an ad agency, with hopes of moving into film marketing in the future. In his free time, he consumes all kinds of media from music that he listens to all day, books that he reads regularly (often recommended by Emily), and movies. Riley recently signed up for AMC A-List and plans to abuse those 3 free movies a week for the foreseeable future.
For the purposes of this article, Riley has agreed to disclose that he is both deaf and gay (because there's no way in the world you'd ever know... he never talks about it...). Because of these identities, Riley feels very passionate about how they and all other identities are portrayed in the media, and wants to be part of the effort to create meaningful representations in the media we consume all day every day.
Now That’s What I Call Representation!
As of February 2022, 7.1% of Americans identify as LGBTQ+, according to Gallup. This, by the way, is up from 5.6% in 2020 and 3.5% when Gallup first started polling for this question in 2012.
While we got into this in greater detail back in March, the most updated numbers found that “Roughly 21% of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood— those born between 1997 and 2003—identify as LGBT. That is nearly double the proportion of Millennials who do so, while the gap widens even further when compared with older generations” (X).
Today is not the day to get into why that might be, but it’s important information as we reckon with the never-ending growth of rainbow washed PR bullshit:
Emily: What is rainbow washing?
Riley: Rainbow washing is when, every June or during a notable event in the LGBTQ+ news, corporations show their ‘support’ for the LGBTQ+ community as a ploy to get more money from us. Basically, they use us as a marketing device for a whole month and ignore us the rest of the year because it’s convenient for them.
It’s important to remember that rainbow washing is not actual representation, although that is also on the upswing. A recent study from GLAAD found that
of the 775 series regular characters scheduled to appear on scripted broadcast primetime programming for the 2021-2022 season, 92 characters (11.9%) are LGBTQ. This is an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the previous year and marks a new record high percentage of LGBTQ series regulars on broadcast. There are an additional 49 LGBTQ recurring characters on the platform for a total of 141 LGBTQ characters on broadcast.
GLAAD has added five new streaming services to its count this year—Apple TV+, Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Peacock—in addition to its ongoing counts of scripted originals on Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. On original scripted programming on those eight platforms, GLAAD counted 245 LGBTQ series regular characters and 113 LGBTQ recurring characters, bringing the total to 358 LGBTQ regular and recurring characters.
With the percentage of LGBTQ+ characters on television higher than what is documented in the American population—along with the releases of movies like Fire Island and Bros which feature predominantly or exclusively queer casts—it feels as though media overall is almost overcompensating for literal centuries of under- or misrepresentation.
But is that the right thing to do, or are producers just learning how to commodify the community instead of marginalizing it?
I asked Riley:
Emily: What is the line between representation and overrepresentation in media? How does overrepresentation differ from tokenism?
Riley: It can be hard to delineate a specific line because representation means something different to everyone. To one person, meaningful representation can look like an interracial couple but to someone else, it can look forced.
Overrepresentation is when a form of media wants to enlist the help of every kind of identity for the sake of it. Not to be confused when the basis of the show is centering around a certain group of characters and their identities.
Tokenism is when a singular character or group of characters are used often as the butt of the joke or the comic relief. You see this with the one Black friend in the Disney sitcoms, or the gay friend being a caricature of the gay identity.
Emily: Can overrepresentation be helpful?
Riley: Overrepresentation can be a good solution to overcompensate for years of lacking representation, but it could also come across as throwing a bunch of things at a wall and hoping something sticks. It’s also much more time-conserving to include multiple identities in the same media to show the interactions with those around them as it’s more accurate than having a single token character in a sea of cishet characters.
Emily: What would you say to companies whose “representation” ends July 1?
Riley: You can make the superficial changes of changing your company logo back to black and white but if you are not continuously supporting those within your organization who put in the hours throughout the year, then you’re exploitative.
As a troll, I obviously had to ask:
Emily: As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, have you ever personally washed a rainbow?
Riley: Being gay, it’s so easy to write sociology papers because you can talk about anything through the LGBTQ+ lens. Also, we should be able to wash any rainbows we want. We’re the ones that should be holding the power.
Humbled but in awe that Riley took my C+ comedic attempt and turned it into a meaningful response—but I digress!!!!
The Point I’m Trying to Make
It’s undeniable that more (accurate) representation and even overrepresentation of maligned or marginalized groups is critical. The trailer for the documentary Disclosure, which highlights the history of trans representation in media, shows two statements that make this fact abundantly clear: first, actress and executive producer of the doc Laverne Cox shares that “according to a study from GLAAD, 80% of Americans don’t actually personally know someone who is transgender. So most of the information that Americans get about who transgender people are, what our lives are, and are about, comes from the media.”1
Later, actress and writer Jen Richards says, “There is a one-word solution to almost all the problems in trans media: we just need more. And that way, the occasional clumsy representation wouldn’t matter as much because it wouldn’t be all that there is.”
These sentiments can be extrapolated to all underrepresented groups and calls to mind the Parasocial Contact Hypothesis study I mentioned in E4P’s notoriously least read installment: MIT professor Edward Schiappa used the show Will & Grace to see “whether exposure to gay men on Will & Grace can influence attitudes toward gay men in general.” Ultimately, Schiappa found that “increased viewing frequency and parasocial interaction were found to correlate with lower levels of sexual prejudice.”
With that in mind, I asked Riley:
Emily: In your own words and experience, why is representation in media so important? What are some good examples of representation that have stood out to you recently?
Riley: Being able to see yourself in the media is a validating/affirming moment and it helps you feel less alone at times.
The movie CODA comes to mind in terms of representation because not only was it a movie about the lives of deaf people and those close to them, it was nominated for an Oscar which only heightened its popularity.
Emily: Where are the places in media that are lacking in representation or getting it wrong?
Riley: I think most forms of media have gotten into the conversation of increasing representation in the visible aspects, but I'd like to see what companies are doing behind the scenes. I want to see the creatives and strategists who are making these moments of representation happen.
Emily: As someone who is a part of two different historically underrepresented communities, what are some differences in both communities’ progress to equal representation?
Riley: Sexuality has been a hot topic for years because some people think that their interpretation of their religious text should negate or trump the existence of any sexuality that isn't straight. Because these religious groups have been so vocal and powerful in politics, it's been a tougher battle.
Apart from religion, the existence of other sexualities have made people uncomfortable in their own sexuality (because they see their unexplored sexuality as the one and only option for them and not on a spectrum, which is a conversation for another day) and that often manifests into animosity.
But, while sexuality isn’t visible, you can obviously act/dress/speak a certain way that leads viewers to assume. Being disabled, however, is also not always visible and there’s no way to show those on camera unless you explicitly, or I guess implicitly sometimes, state it.
On the other hand, the existence of disabilities hasn't been 'questioned'—it's just been a matter of increasing knowledge and empathy towards these groups. People don't always know how to speak about or feel towards disabled groups, so they sometimes brush us off to the side and ignore us.
Through media, if we can inform audiences about all of these identities, then they can become normalized and hopefully people become not only accepting but empathetic towards our struggles.
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Emily: When will you feel balanced representation is normalized? Is there a specific milestone for this?
Riley: I feel like when balanced representation is normalized will be when the conversation ends. Similarly to how D&I [Diversity and Inclusion] jobs exist to become obsolete.
However, just because representation has been ticking up doesn’t mean America fully aligns with Schiappa’s hypothesis: according to the American Library Association’s annual State of America’s Libraries 2022 report, there have been 729 book challenges in the past year, which is the highest since the ALA started collecting data in 2000.
Of the top 10 books being challenged, half are because the book features LGBTQ+ content.
Bills like Florida’s Parental Rights in Education (“Don’t Say Gay”) Bill are indicative of how powerful representation is in furthering conversations about identity and why it is only just the first step in any fight for equality.
A Very Unhappy Pride to [redacted]
As I mentioned last year, I often think about a history class I took on the parallel developments of the Gay Rights Movement and Religious Right in the 1970s that was taught by a professor who, when I and others asked why we were really only focusing on history by and about white gay cisgender men, told us that intersectionality was “not within the class’s purview.”
First, a very Unhappy Pride to those whose progressiveness only pertains to their own identity. I wish you sunburns, split drinks, and no peace as you keep up that racism and transphobia, my guy.
Second, this is such a dumb claim because no one in this world has just one identity—not even you, cishet white men!!!! There are 3 identities in that moniker alone, in addition to whatever sports team you’ve signed away your firstborn child to (fun fact: I actually am the property of the Boston Bruins).
I get it: intersectionality has a kind of spooky, really complicated vibe about it, but it’s actually a very inclusive concept. Coined in 1989 by lawyer, professor, and Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw,
Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, weight, physical appearance, and height. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. (X)
Simply put, every part of your identity intersects with a different part and those intersections determine how you are perceived in society. Many people who benefit from their identities (like my professor, for example) will either find intersectionality abrasive or will instead cling to their marginalized identities—such as how he clung to his sexual orientation without recognizing his privileges.
No one actually wants to be a victim of society but everyone likes to play one because it’s more comfortable to do that than it is to admit entrenched institutions like white supremacy actually benefit you.
With that in mind, I asked Riley:
Emily: Why are some people so scared of equal representation? Why are some people so scared to even talk about our differences?
Riley: People hate having difficult conversations because we live in a world of comfort and convenience so if you're born in a way that allows you to not have to worry about being ostracized, it makes your life more comfortable and convenient.
If people aren't exposed to other identities, they only become more close-minded and as the longer they go without exposure, the harder it is for them to open up and have conversations.
Emily: What are your thoughts on intersectionality?
Riley: Not everyone deals with intersectionality in an explicit sense—like how I'm both deaf and gay—but everyone has multiple identities within them that combine into making a person who they are. Because the combinations of identities are infinite, it's impossible to represent all of them but having conversations about intersectionality on its own can be informative.
Emily: How do your major identities intersect with one another?
Riley: The moments when I see both identities come out are when I'm in a loud gay bar and I keep yelling "What?" over Kim Petras' Slut Pop blasting on the speakers. Other than that, I typically see these identities as pretty separate and being salient in more times than the other.
It’s Giving Progress???
I did want to end on a positive and forward-looking note rather than anything that had to do with R*n D*S*ntis. There are obviously so many actionable steps to take, such as consuming media with equitable representation and holding off until July to go back to Chick-Fil-A.
It’s also important to increase representation amongst those creating media. As we learned from Riley’s last E4P appearance, he is someone who (and Lin-Manuel—please don’t sue me for this) is in the room where things happen.
With all this said, I asked:
Emily: How can representation be addressed in different forms of media? Should it look the same between TV shows, movies, commercials, advertising, etc.?
Riley: They should all be treating these groups with the same amount of respect but obviously the stories they tell are going to be vastly different. Commercials don't have the time to delve into the layers of intersectionality and are often more shallow representations whereas TV and film have the time and can focus more on those groups.
Emily: As someone in the advertising industry, what are some ways your peers could create more equal representation? Have you noticed any progress in your industry so far?
Riley: I think the conversation of representation in advertising is already so loud and great progress has been made. I also feel like we have gotten past the surge of representation for representation sake. Now, advertising feels much more natural in that companies realize that not every single ad needs to have an insane amount of representation.
Emily: Was finding a community in real life or seeing representation in media more valuable to you during formative moments? Do you think others would agree?
Riley: I was lucky enough to have a community find me naturally in college so I never felt out of place. It definitely was more valuable for me because I came out at the end of senior year of high school, and found this group on my first day of college. I really got to be more of myself and discover how I fit into this world with them.
Others may or may not agree as some might have media representation as their only solace and may not have those friends in person. Thankfully, the internet and social media have allowed people to find community even if they're long-distance.
Finally, and most importantly, I asked Riley:
Emily: How much hole on main is too much hole?
Riley: Never too much hole on main, unless it’s 7 in the morning.
A billion thank you’s to Riley for all of this!!!!! He is one of the best people to share book recommendations with so if you’re looking for something new to read, check out his GoodReads!!!!
According to a 2021 report from Pew Research Center, 42% of Americans know someone who is trans, which has increased from 20%.