It turns out LGBT representation broke a record in 2021, boasting the most lesbian, gay, bi, and transgender characters in tv, movies, video games and comics.
In fact tv shows across broadcast television, cable, and streaming saw a 12% rise in LGBT characters.
In a large part that’s thanks to GLAAD, the Gay & lesbian Alliance Against Defamation organization. In a nutshell their goal is to create a culture shift by working with major film and television studios, to lobby showrunners and filmmakers and increase LGBT representation on screen.
And by 2024 they want to ramp that 12% up to a hefty 50% of all movies.
More diversity in media and entertainment. What’s not to love?
But why isn’t more money being made? There’s no question that Hollywood has plenty to burn, but shouldn’t they be making more money with all this inclusiveness? Why does going woke, make you broke, every, single time?
The answer is simple. Agenda, propaganda and virtue signaling will never beat a well written movie, comic or video game with a well thought out plot and characters.
Now the target audience also comes into play in a big way.
Create something a majority of people find appealing, and it'll make more money. Create something that appeals to a minor amount of people and it’ll make a minor amount of money. It’s not a hard equation to work out.
In other words, to make money, a production needs to feature characters and scenarios a majority of people can relate with on some level. Usually they’re based on well known archetypes and cliche’s most people are already familiar with - yes, they’re usually culture-generic, but people like generic. They like things they know about and understand.
That’s not to say you can’t make a really good movie about a specific type of person, or subculture that still has wide appeal. It doesn’t mean you can’t make it about a particular gender, minority, or identity - and still have it be exceptional.
But if that’s all it’s about, and there’s no real story to carry it, then it’ll fail hard - even with the minorities and LGBT crowd it was intended to represent. Agenda, propaganda and representation alone will be completely dismissed by pretty much everyone, because entertainment media was never supposed to be the vehicle that carried it.
A good story and well developed characters void of woke politics is key to the success of inclusive movies, comics and video games. Story is what ties all of these things together and no matter what, it should be at the top of the list whether the goal is to make money, or to be more inclusive.
Because the truth is, woke entertainment has a bad rep right now. It’s either made fun of, memed about, or simply not consumed in full. It turns LGBT people into sideshow novelties, and uses them to virtue signal.
That’s why the audience ratings are always terrible. Woke productions aren't doing the people they’re intending to represent any favors - they’re giving them a bad name. And before long, anything containing LGBT characters will be associated with agenda, and not taken seriously whatsoever. It’ll simply be dismissed as more propaganda.
Let's contrast that with the comic book and movie ‘Blade’ - a brilliant example of representation.
Blade is a black character. Do we care? No. Is his skin color the main focus of the story? No. But it’s inclusive. He’s a character that everyone can enjoy, regardless of their background or ethnicity. He’s a hero, he’s a vampire - an archetype we can all relate with - not to mention the feature film totally rocked.
Now maybe there was some deeper message interwoven into Blade - and if there was it was successfully experienced by an audience that became fans of an original black character.
Want to do the LGBT crowd a favor? Include them in movies, comics and video games that have a story with substance. Make it so damn good, the audience doesn’t even notice they’re LGBT - because if LGBT normalization in entertainment media is the goal - that’s how it should be. That’s why these productions always fail to achieve their goal. Though it might be a noble one, their execution is flawed.
But hey, that’s just my humble opinion - what I really want to know is what you think - so leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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I’ll see you next time!
-Clayton