minorities deserve better

Sunday, 13 March 2016


MINORITIES DESERVE BETTER..why I hear you ask; well this is why: (although if you are genuinely asking why then you need to take a long hard look at the world around you and open your eyes a little bit)

~Minorities deserve better because out of hundreds of tv shows and hundreds of characters the only ones who keep repeatedly getting killed are the lgbtqia characters and the characters of colour and we have had enough!

~minorities deserve better because we are people who have lives and dreams and hopes and ambitions

~because I am more than a plot device to gain views and statistics

~because although it is just a show to you, to us it is the only time we see ourselves portrayed and represented

~because my friends have never had to watch their onscreen representation get killed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

~because there are fourteen years between Tara's death on Buffy and Lexa's death on the 100 and people are asking why we are angry instead of shocked.

~because we are people

~because most people don't have to look for hidden messages or meanings or subtext in their onscreen representation; most people don't have to take everything they see with a pinch of salt and a hint of queerbait.

~because this has been happening FOR YEARS.

~because this is what we meant by 'the fight doesn't end with equal marriage' when you asked why we weren't satisfied.

~because a happy ending shouldn't be solely reserved for the straight white couples on the show

~because we are people

~because it isn't just one show and it isn't just one character; it's most of the shows and the majority of the characters.

~because if I have to die then at least let me die with honour and some originality.

~because even in the stories where my sexuality is the main plot point the two characters will often end up apart, dying, dead or going back to their husbands.

~because I can count the number of onscreen lesbians who are alive, happy and in a female relationship by the end of the show/film on two hands. two. hands. less than ten female same-sex relationships that last the duration of a show and last happily

~because we are people


~because shows and films are meant to be entertaining and a form of escape but I don't feel very entertained when my representation ends up dying..again.

~because. because. because. because. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE. BECAUSE.

do we really need a because? do we really need a reason? do we really need to feel so completely let down and unsurprised everytime we turn on our tv. do we really need another generation to grow up thinking they will never fit in and they will never be happy and they will never find love because that's all they ever see?



"Minorities Are Not Disposable" is currently trending on twitter and I ask that you at least take a look at the tweets even if you don't post one of your own; because although yes- this was sparked off by the death of a fictional character; the truth of the matter cuts much deeper than TV and runs for much longer than a season.  This uproar, this outrage has been building and building and we could now have the power and the possibility to make a start; make a change; make ourselves heard and refuse to let this terrible treatment of our represented selves go on.  It started with fiction but it shall end with reality; and if we make enough noise, make enough mess and refuse to be contained in the trope boxes in which we have been placed then it shall end with a positive reality.

                                         -we are not disposable . we deserve better -

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