The last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about representation...
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| Title: | The last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about representation... |
| Creator: | suaine |
| Date(s): | March 13, 2013 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Teen Wolf |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | The last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about representation... |
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The last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about representation... is a 2013 essay by suaine.
Some Topics Discussed
- representation
- Teen Wolf
- Derek/Stiles
- character stereotypes and narrative stereotypes
Some Excerpts from the Essay
The last couple of days I’ve been thinking a lot about representation and what I mean when I talk about it, what others mean, what different types there are, and how maybe some of the arguments we’re having are because we’re not really working with the same assumptions based on vocabulary.
I do occasionally mention representation as one of the reasons why I want Sterek in particular, but I have been told more than once that I shouldn’t. Now, there were people who’ve said that who didn’t know that I was part of the group to be represented and thus came at me with some pretty nasty assumptions of their own. As a lesbian, I didn’t particularly appreciate being accused of aching for the cocks, you know.
But I do understand why we fight.
I think the problem I keep running into when I mention representation is that I look at it not from a character point of view, but a queer narrative point of view. While I am absolutely tickled to have queer characters and lots of them, to me the context of these characters is incredibly important. If it’s just about checking a box on the character sheet, it doesn’t really do anything for me. And frankly, I think this is true for most everyone else, because this is the reason Danny should have a boyfriend or more screen time. Right now, he’s little more than potential. He is awesome potential, but what we know about him can probably fit on a post-it note.
... there are character stereotypes and narrative stereotypes – the campy gay best friend can still be the hero of his own story, the cool jock can still die at the end. The interplay of these factors is important. If your queer character is the villain of a piece, maybe the ever popular serial killer or the effeminate cunning usurper, they are literally set up to be killed or defeated, demonized in a way that makes us internalize that queer is not just other, but evil to be vanquished.
Anyway, pipe dreams aside, when I talk about Sterek in the context of representation, all of that up there is at the back of my mind. Sterek would be good for representation, especially the narrative representation I tried to explain earlier, but it’s not an exclusive – it’s just an easy way to get a lot of those little things adding up (but Jeff could pull off Scott/Danny and I would have much the same feels re: narrative representation [even though my shipper heart would weep bitter tears, because Scott/Allison forever]). Part of the reason why I want them to be together is because of that. The other part is of course that the specific dynamic they have, the specific interplay of their characters and their place in the narrative is something that deeply appeals to me on a personal level.
And none of this, none at all, is complaining about a lack in Teen Wolf in particular. Complaining about a lack in media in general, maybe, but at no point is it an indictment of what Teen Wolf may owe us. It is merely a wish for more.