Women and LBGTQ+ people vs. Hollywood

Generally speaking, men, heterosexual, and cisgender people usually enjoy the upper hand when it comes to role models and representation in the mainstream media. I’m frustrated in a way, that it is 2016 and there is STILL a considerable lack of representation regarding the LGBTQ+ and strong, independent women in the TV and films we watch. When have you ever seen a film in which the protagonist struggles with their gender identity, and saves the world, at the same time, single handedly? Probably never. Of course, I’m not trying to say that there is absolutely no representation of LBGTQ+ characters at all. For example, an openly gay main character in ABC Family’s show ‘Pretty Little Liars’  is ‘Emily Fields’, played by the lovely Shay Mitchell. Throughout Emily’s realization of her sexual identity, we see her struggles with accepting herself and coming out to her family. This was indeed a positive step forward in producing role models of LGBTQ+, but it still just wasn’t enough.  Overall, Hollywood has a fairly interesting, if not controversial, way of portraying women in films and television. Apparently, a woman cannot be independent, beautiful or badass all at the same time. Its a very “pick one or maybe two, bur definitely not three” kind of attitude. Who says girls can’t have beauty and brains? I’ll take them both, thanks. Especially when we’re talking female protagonists. Let girls be beautiful and badass, for goodness sake’s, its what we know all girls can be anyway, regardless of where we started off in life.

Growing up, I didn’t have any LGBTQ+role models, or even any female role models. It has only be extremely recently that I’ve started to discover successful lesbian role models, such as Kate McKinnon, who is gay and successful and super awesome. I’m sixteen, going on seventeen, and its taken me this long to find a positive role model. I feel like something isn’t quite right about that. I definitely believe that if I’d of had a gay female role model to look up to when I was struggling with my sexual identity, it would have made the whole process so much easier on me and on my mental health. I guess I always knew that I was different from the other children at school. I developed a crush on a girl who sat across from me in some classes when I was eleven, and consequently took three days off. I felt so abnormal, I’d never met anyone else who had the same feelings as me. I felt alone and ashamed of myself, as bad as that sounds. I guess this was because I’d never had anyone to tell me “hey, these feelings are totally normal!”. I was deprived of an LGBTQ+ role models in my younger years,  but that doesn’t mean other little girls have to be, too.

I don’t think we really understand how influential and how important a role model is to a young person. I think that often, we take them for granted. Especially where heterosexual, cisgender boys are concerned. They never have to think twice about not having a role model, because they’ve always had one. It isn’t really fair that some people get role models and some don’t. There is evidence that badass portrayals of women are super successful. Take the 2016 reboot of the iconic 80s classic Ghostbusters – four strong, super clever scientists busting ghosts around New York City. It was such an epic movie, and inspired girls everywhere (and me) to be as badass and as successful as they wanted to be. However, the movie did receive some really negative backlash. One of the main  characters, Leslie Jones, was the victim of nasty racist opinions on twitter. Jones’ character, Patty, is probably one of the most important in the film, and she portrayed the role fabulously, but still received hate, just because she’s not caucasian. Sexist comments were thrown around like confetti at a wedding. People were skeptical about the reboot, and I have to admit that I was too, but it turned out to be the most pro feminism, fuck-yeah-woman-power movies I’ve ever seen. Just because the four main characters are girls doesn’t mean the film will be any less epic. It’s clear that many were upset because of the character’s genders, and many were probably low-key upset that they weren’t sexualized to the point of despair. But strong, powerful, non-sexualized female role models are what little girls nowadays really need. It might even inspire some older girls (and me, again) to live their dreams and be the best they can be. Who wouldn’t want that? Some sexist heterosexual white boy, probably.

The twitter community have been coming together to trend hashtags in support of having a gay protagonist in a feature film. For example, the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend, started by twitter user @lexi4prez, sought to campaign to give princess Elsa a lesbian identity in the second Disney film Frozen. Another positive hashtag that’s been trending is #LetHoltzmannBeGay, in an attempt to make Sony Pictures let the Ghostbusters character Jillian Holtzmann, be gay. Imagine what having  lesbian protagonist would do for the education of young people. Imagine what a trans* protagonist would do for the education of young people. This could be a broad statement, but having more LBGTQ+ representation in films could help children to grow up to become more accepting and loving of one another. It can’t hurt to try, can it?

In summary, Hollywood needs more positive representation of LGBTQ+ folk in the mainstream media. Why is it considered the norm for a straight boy to have a positive role model, but not a gay girl? A protagonist struggling with their gender identity, to with coming out could really help a young person facing the same issues – if anything, it would at least help them see their feelings are totally normal, and that they are not alone. The LGBTQ+ youth in our society deserve strong, powerful role models, just as anyone else does. I just struggle to understand why Hollywood does’t see that, too.