u/hstarwood

After posting my thoughts the other day, I am still thinking about my relationship with representation and the media.

On the one hand, I'm frustrated that so many romantic coming-of-age stories centered on college, first love, and sexual awakening overwhelmingly feature white women. Popular shows like Maxton Hall, Tell Me Lies, and Off Campus (which I'm currently watching) all tell stories about young white women navigating romance, intimacy, and self-discovery, yet women of color are often absent from those narratives.

On the other hand, when I think about shows that are praised for their diversity, like Grown-ish, I still don't necessarily see myself reflected there either.

So I asked myself: am I contradicting myself? After thinking about it more, I don't think I am.

I don't want a Black character inserted into an existing story simply so a studio can check a diversity box. It's just tokenism, and it rarely produces characters who feel like fully realized human beings.

But I also don't want an entertainment landscape where romantic coming-of-age stories continue to imagine white women as the default protagonists, while women of color are expected to be satisfied with whatever "diverse" show happens to exist or a "token" character.

Something else I've realized is that I don't want our stories to always be defined by our race.

Stories about racism, discrimination, and identity absolutely matter, and they should continue to be told. But I don't want those to be the only stories we're allowed to exist in. Why can't people of color simply fall in love, make mistakes, explore their sexuality, have complicated friendships, chase their ambitions, or have a quarter-life crisis without their race being the central conflict driving the narrative?

White characters are often allowed to simply be. They get to be messy, flawed, insecure, funny, selfish, romantic, ambitious, and complicated without having to justify their existence on screen. I want that same narrative freedom for women of color.

At the same time, I don't think every story with a Black woman automatically represents me. Black women, and people of color overall, are not a monolith. We come from different families, cultures, communities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and lived experiences. No single character can or should represent all of us.

I'm curious what other people think. Do you ever feel like representation can fail in multiple ways? Are there any shows or films where you genuinely felt seen, or that you think got this balance right?

TL;DR: Representation is not just about seeing people of color on screen. It is about giving us the freedom to exist in all kinds of stories. I do not want token diversity, but I also do not want white women to remain the default in coming of age stories.

I've been thinking a lot about representation lately. The media is always talking about representation and diversity, but as a Black woman, the representation I see rarely feels like it actually represents me.

Take Grownish for example. The show was praised for being diverse and for representing Gen Z college students from different backgrounds. I know it's a comedy, so I'm not expecting it to perfectly reflect my life. But even then, it felt so far removed from my reality as a young Black woman in college. I never really saw my experiences or the things I was navigating reflected in the show. I can think of so many other examples that leave me feeling the same way.

It often feels like Hollywood has reduced representation and diversity to race and appearance. As long as someone who looks like you is on screen, the box is checked, and for me, that isn't enough.

As I've gotten older, I've realized I want representation that goes beyond appearance. I want stories that capture the complexity of people's lives, their cultures, the way they move through the world, the things they struggle with, and the things they find joy in. I want characters who feel like real people, not just beacons of diversity.

I'm curious what other people think.

What does representation mean to you? Is seeing someone who looks like you enough, or do you think it has to go deeper than that?

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, and I'm curious how other filmmakers handle it.

How do you know when a film is actually done? At what point do you stop tweaking and decide it's ready to share?

Do you still worry about whether it's good, or have you found a way to trust your instincts? How do you know if something is working versus just doubting yourself?

I guess what I'm really asking is: how do you learn to rely on your own judgment instead of constantly needing outside validation?

I'd love to hear how filmmakers think about this, especially if your relationship with self-doubt has changed over time.

I love the two of them together, especially how they hyped one another up during movie night!

I am not too big of a fan of this year’s Aftersun host, but in the future, if I know it’s Trinity and Kayda, ooh they would be so good!

Granted, if two guys and two ladies had to leave this week, my picks would definitely be KC and Titi. I know a lot of people would also want Corbin gone, and I won’t mind that either, but I'm just tired of seeing Zach on my screen.

To me, Zach has been disrespectful not only to Kanda, who deserves so much better, but he's constantly inserting himself into everyone else's business. I know he's close with Bryce, but sometimes it feels like he doesn't respect Bryce and Trinity's connection because he's always being overly affectionate towards Bryce.

Someone in another thread mentioned that Zach gets involved in other people's relationships because it gives him and Kayda a better chance of making it to the end, and I can see that. I just hated listening to him gossip with Dylan about Kenzie exploring a connection with him, yet I haven't seen him have that same energy when it comes to Sincere or the other guys doing the exact same thing. Even his conversation with Aniya in the kitchen when she was feeling down came across as disingenuous to me.

So if two guys and two ladies were leaving this week, my picks would be:

Guys

KC — get this vile piece of crap off my screen.
Zach

Ladies
Titi
Parmida

I also think if Corbin lost both KC and Parmida, it would be a blow to his ego, and we'd end up seeing a little less of him on our screens.

Obviously, Azealia has had so many feuds over the years that you could probably teach an entire college course on. A lot of them have become internet lore at this point because of how memeable they were including myself. This was before I knew the context behind a majority of these feuds, like her LDR one, TI, Igloo, and etc.

But after revisiting some of these situations, I've started wondering if people sometimes reduce them to "Azealia being crazy" without really engaging with what the original disagreement was about.

For example, the Lana Del Rey feud. From time to time, I come back to this post. People usually remember Azealia's insults and Lana telling her to pull up, but when I went back and looked at it, Azealia was originally responding to Lana criticizing Kanye West over his support for Trump. Azealia's argument, at least from what I remember, was tied to race, especially LDR collaborating with ASAP Rocky, who has beaten Black women, politics, and who gets to position themselves as the moral authority in those conversations. Whether you agree with her or not, there was an actual point being made there.

Instead, the conversation immediately became about the spectacle of the feud itself. Lana responded with insults and threats, Azealia fired back, and everyone treated it like another episode of Azealia Banks being messy.

To be clear, I'm not saying she's always right. In many cases she isn't/wasn't. But there are several feuds where it feels like people are more interested in turning the exchange into a meme than engaging with the underlying criticism. Sometimes her arguments touched on issues of race, cultural appropriation, celebrity activism, industry politics, or power dynamics, and those conversations seem to get dismissed.

I'm curious which feuds people think have actually aged well when you separate the argument from the chaos surrounding it.

I know this film isn't on Criterion Collection and I see minimal discussion of the film online. I was wondering if folks had seen and their thoughts on it? I saw it last night and can't stop thinking about it.

I enjoyed how Charlotte had both likeable and unlikeable traits. I felt bad for the world around her and really wished that things with Clara came to fruition.

The acting was mere perfection as Charlotte Gainsbourg (who played Charlotte) and Julie Glenn (who played Lulu) did a phenomenal job.