AICE MEDIA A BLOG: Representation Analysis

As time progresses, and the media is in the hands of various groups, representation of those groups better. A stark increase in representation in popular media is a trend that my generation, Gen Z, is experiencing firsthand. There are more shows that have casts with the majority being people of color, rather than the normal white people. A few examples would be Netflix's On My Block & Dear White People, ABC's Black-ish & Fresh Off the Boat. And well representation is not only being shown in productions targeted to older audiences: Disney's Andi Mack showed a young boy's journey coming out as gay on their Disney Channel. However, the majority of "good representation" is not accurate and is still largely based on stereotypes.

Reliance on stereotypes undermines the purpose of a movement towards representation, as it does not always accurately portray a certain group. Gay men are still largely depicted as flamboyant, Hispanic and Latinx women are still depicted as scandalously dressed and loud, mental illnesses such as depression are often romanticized and are typically shown in an extremely inaccurate manner. The show Thirteen Reasons Why, based on the novel with the same title, was supposedly produced in an effort to increase awareness of suicide; however, the show featured the idea of leaving cassette tapes, instead of a typical suicide note, to personally blame other characters for the main character's suicide. Not only does depression lack a definitive cause most of the time, but the way the high school age characters were portrayed depicted my age group as vehemently malicious.

This 2006 Axe commercial is an example of inaccurate representation. The ad depicts a stampede of women, dressed only in bikinis, running towards one mad on a beach that is spraying Axe body spray; it ends with the tagline “Spray More – Get More – The Axe Effect”. While there is evidently more women than men in the commercial, they are all depicted as animalistic, desiring the man with the body spray. Not only are they depicted in such a manner, but the body types the women have is also an inaccurate representation of what typical women in the world look like - they all fit the cookie-cutter, extremely thin and toned body type that is praised by media. Women do not pine after men based on their scent, and not all women look the same.

An amazing example of well-represented media is H&M's "Close the Loop" commercial. The ad promotes the company's sustainable efforts in fashion through recycling, but the real star is the large variety of groups that are shown, and how they are shown. People of all races, religions, able-bodiedness, genders, sexualities, ethnicities, and ages are shown breaking what has been marketed as the rules of fashion. Women over 40 and men are shown wearing skirts, blondes are wearing yellow, people are dressing in "outrageous" fashions, etc. Combatting the representation of women in the Axe ad, women are shown of all ages, body types, forms of self-expression - even with their hair, everywhere - and backgrounds that are not seen as "conventionally" beautiful, but nonetheless are. Just like there are no rules to fashion, there are no rules on how a person can express themselves.