Media Representatiom?

[soup]

It seems to me that the young new left's biggest struggle these days is fighting for more minority/women representation in movies, video games, comic book, TV, etc.

What is the socialist stance on this? Of course I don't think there's anything wrong with more minorities in media, white men are definitely quite overrepresented. Still, it can't help but all feel quite hollow. Part of the idea is that more media representation will lead to empowerment for minorities but this seems pretty idealistic. Hip hop is one of the most popular music genres yet blacks are still heavily discriminated against.

Brutal neoliberal macroeconomic policies are being put into action by the ruling class, yet everything's good so long as we have our black Spider-Man and female led ghost busters?

Thoughts?

[#FF0000]

What is the socialist stance on this? Of course I don't think there's anything wrong with more minorities in media, white men are definitely quite overrepresented. Still, it can't help but all feel quite hollow. Part of the idea is that more media representation will lead to empowerment for minorities but this seems pretty idealistic.

P. much how I feel about it. I don't think it's bad, and Miles Morales is a more interesting Spiderman than Peter Parker, but at the end of the day, "representation" can only do so much.

But it's good, I think, that people talk about it. The fact that they're talking about it at all means it's easier to make real-world connections to the issues they're talking about in the context of pop culture. So I don't get annoyed by it either.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

I wouldn't say this is an active representation of the struggles of the left today.

Race and gender are far bigger issues today in the left than they were in the past. And that is a good thing. I don't think that the radical/revolutionary left fights for 'media representation', though. I think we are all well aware that the media, in the mainstream, is not on our side and there is no point trying to win that PR war. Working on the basis of gender and race, as well as class, is just sound politics in the modern world.

[Rafiq]

Brutal neoliberal macroeconomic policies are being put into action by the ruling class, yet everything's good so long as we have our black Spider-Man and female led ghost busters?

Thoughts?

The spontaneous mechanisms of capital, not some kind of pressure from the "left" are what is encouraging this. And it's simple: A wider demographic is being appealed to. This is all the same for feminism - what distinguishes feminism today isn't that there are a lot of feminists, but the REACTION to it. As more women enter into fields previously reserved for men, for example, it becomes a logical conclusion and in the process they became intertwined as a target audience for various media outlets.

It's not as though we waste our energy on demanding film makers put this or that in their movies. It's that they're doing it anyway: And there IS a vile, and sick reaction to it, and yes we will fight the reactionaries to the bitter end here. It's true identity politics is a symptom of our impotence, but that doesn't mean the objects of concern are trivial. Racism and sexual oppression are all the more present today: the point is that identity politics has failed to combat them.

[Quail]

I don't think media representation makes up a massive part of the left's struggle, but I think it can be good to have positive representations of marginalised people in the media. A sympathetic portrayal of queer people, for example, can draw attention to the issues they face and maybe challenge people's assumptions. It's also nice for the people in those marginalised groups to see positive representations of people like them in the media they consume. There must be a reason why I seek out books, films, comics, etc., that have decent female characters (bonus points if they're queer), and I think other people do too.

[Danielle Ni Dhighe]

It seems to me that the young new left's biggest struggle these days is fighting for more minority/women representation in movies, video games, comic book, TV, etc.
I don't think that's the focus of the revolutionary left at all.