I kimd of am, why are so many relationships in media strsight? We need more lgbt representation

This is dumb and I’m probably getting offended for no reason but here’s a small experience I dealt with recently

So like 30 minutes ago my grandmother wanted me to smile so she told me to think of a pretty girl and while I didn’t react at all my first thought was literally “why not pretty boys” Its silly I know.

I’m not out but I literally couldn’t be leaving anymore hints that I’m bi. Its funny how nobody noticed yet

  • PostmodernPythia@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    The discussion is on underrepresentation. Why would bringing up the percentage of population that’s queer be off-topic? The numbers (and sense that we’re overrepresented) may be wrong, but bringing it up absolutely makes sense. How does one seriously talk about being underrepresented or not without bringing what percentage of the population we might make up? How would one even gauge representation levels without such a framework?

    • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.orgM
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      1 year ago

      I’m trying to gauge the intent of this person’s reply. It could be bad faith so I’m asking them to clarify. The fact that they only mention the percentage and it’s clearly wrong have me wondering why they left this comment.

      • mouth_brood@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        I’m not being disingenuous, it’s a statistic I looked up not too long ago when I was digging into something else. I couldn’t care less what someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity is. I am just making an observation based on my knowledge that the marginalized group being referred to is appropriately, and probably overrepresented in public.

        Maybe I’m in a bubble living in one of the most liberal places in the country, but I see representation on TV, while shopping, in print media, on lemmy (formerly reddit), etc.

        The OP is making a claim that there needs to be more representation based on the opinion of a old timer that is clearly conservative. No amount of representation is going to change that person’s mind.

        • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.orgM
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          1 year ago

          And this is a queer space, it’s not exactly nice to barge in and offer your opinion, especially when it runs counter to what experts have to say about it. You also didn’t provide any analysis of whether overrepresentation is a bad thing. Furthermore, your comment was reported by multiple people - which is why I stopped by to ask you a question about your intent. I would suggest quietly participating if you’re unsure how to act in minority spaces.

          • mouth_brood@lemmy.one
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            1 year ago

            So is the instance just meant to be an echo chamber? I didn’t say anything derogatory or insensitive. I just offered a dissenting opinion on something that came up in my feed on All. I didn’t seek this thread out and barge in, I just made a comment on something I saw. Here’s the most recent poll I found stating 7%, which isn’t really that far off from 5%.

            • chelsea@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              It’s not that this instance is meant to be an echo chamber, it’s that it’s meant to be welcoming, inclusive, and queer friendly. Saying that we’re over-represented, ackshually, isn’t really contributing to the discussion other than to tell us that our lived experiences of being under-represented are wrong. It implies that a statistical/percentage-based over-representation of a minority group is a somehow a bad thing. Less charitably, it sounds awfully similar to being told to sit down, shut up, and be happy with what we’ve got.

            • alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgM
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              1 year ago

              So is the instance just meant to be an echo chamber?

              literally nobody has ever asked this question in good faith on this instance, so to say the least it really does not endear me to your continued participation here. this is almost always a dogwhistle from people who think censorship is when they’re not allowed to dominate conversations with bad or unnecessary takes—and in this context, you’re not really breaking from that pattern.

            • Gaywallet (they/it)@beehaw.orgM
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              1 year ago

              Nope, but there’s a right way to do things and a wrong way. I’m offering you suggestions on how to interact the right way in the future. You didn’t see an issue with your comment and I’m trying to help you understand why others did. If you’re not willing to put in the time and effort to show that you’re knowledgeable on the subject (in this case population statistics, which you proved you were not), then you need to at least put in the effort to use your emotional intelligence to understand how you’re not being particularly helpful and in fact pushing away minorities by offering a “dissenting opinion”, one which most marginalized individuals around here have likely heard ad nauseam in their lives from all sorts of folks, bigoted and not.

            • nicholasyager@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              This is still sus, however, since that same source points out 10.5% of Millennials and 20.8% of Gen Z identify as LGBTQ. So, if anything, the 5% number thrown around is vastly underestimating the proportion of people in the US who are, strictly speaking, not cishet. So, if we’re creating media for the dominant consumer demographic in the US, we should see at least 1 in 10 characters in media with queer identities, if not 1 in 5.