8 Comments

And I felt represented just now when I read your piece and it resonated with me. Thank you.

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Love this one. A very important essay given the way so many schools buy into the need for kids to "see themselves in" literature, history, etc. Eduardo's Superman reminds me of the fact that as a kid my favorite cartoon hero was Mighty Mouse. I think perhaps because I was the younger of two brothers and my brother often lorded it over me in various ways. Mighty Mouse's small size but invincible courage anyway made him someone for me to be represented by. As an adult now, I often think of my gritty hometown neighborhood, in Norwalk CT in the 1950s, as the very essence of who I am, along with New England-America-Polish-Russian Jewish heritage. Never have seen anyone in literature or film exactly like that, which is itself only a bare-bones outline of my "identity." Guess I will just stick with Mighty Mouse -- even if he is just a mouse.

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Thanks for saying this so well, with respect to various viewpoints on the meaning and value of "representation", but not pulling your punches on your main point.

The first fictional character who came to mind for me was Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice (despite me being male).

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I (a white male) remember identifying with and admiring characters portrayed by Jet Li, Keanu Reeves, Samuel L Jackson, and Tom Jane... as well as female characters. My favorite American hero as a kid was Harriet Tubman, and I sometimes liked to pretend to be her (and no, this doesn't make me trans, either!).

Now, this isn't really about being 'represented,' but it's more like, the characters they were playing were representing people I wanted to be like.

Representation should be about ideals, not about trivial things like looks.

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Yes! Thanks for this. I've seen white women on TV and in movies my whole life, but I don't relate to most of them. I relate to Anita Hill, Rosa Parks and others who have challenged a narrative or pushed against the status quo.

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Yes this!!! Superficiality seems to be everywhere these days or maybe it always was.... just seems more.

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Thank you for this thoughtful and insightful piece.

As an author, I used to pressure myself to include a diverse cast in the most superficial ways. I distinctly remember looking at the cast of my now in-progress novel when I first built the setting a few years ago and changing the character designs to make sure I had enough people of certain races. I don't feel as though any of these changes were inherently bad or needed to be reversed. What bothers me is that they were done out of pressure.

We had this question in my English class in high school but with gender. It was supposed to be some great tragedy that I couldn't find a woman who "represented" me. I've had a rare life experience, so the male character who did was a gift, but not anything I resented writers for not including.

I'd argue it's more sexist (and racist) to insist we need these shared "identity" characteristics, it sounds that way when you flip the scenario around. By my English teacher's logic, men can't see women as a role model, men must only look up to other men. That's not something I want to promote!

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I'm a black Canadian male (56) and my favorite hero was Superman too-he was everything a hero was supposed to be. I read the comic book (including a book collecting all of the comics from 1938 to the 1970's), I saw the George Reeves TV show, the 1966 animated series, SuperFriends, and all of the Donnerverse [the Superman movies made by Richard Donner] Superman movies with Chris Reeve, the 1988 animated TV show, the Lois & Clark thing, the 1997 animated series (the only reason to have cable to get The WB), Justice League, the Donnerverse Superman movie, and now recently My Adventures With Superman. Not once have I felt not included because he wasn't black, I still admired him (and I still read the Superman comic books, too.) I'm an agreement with you, Angel, completely-you've nailed it.

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