Jemal Polson
twitter @JemalPolson
IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY
THERE SEEM to be many people who discount how important it is to identify with a character on-screen. Diversity has always been a problem in TV and film, but I never fully realised how big a problem until I finally saw someone on screen that happened to look, dress, act and sound like me – a young black, gay character in the fun MTV series I Just Want My Pants Back. This was only in 2012.
Those who feel there isn’t a problem tend to try and prove their point by rattling off a number of shows in an effort to prove that things are a lot more advanced than they are. Certain shows that I’ve seen and love like Looking and Empire and ones that I haven’t seen but heard great things about such as Queer as Folk tend to come up quite often. But the thing is – these are the same shows that are named almost every time the argument is made, which just proves the point that these ignorant mouthbreathers are so vehemently trying to deny.