LondonFog

Loving that this sort of content is being researched. I’m also glad you used both queer and heterosexual examples!

As someone who has studied the representation of female bodies in Game of Thrones your article was interesting to read. What was interesting in the previous seasons (season 5 I feel breaks away from the old formula) was that women visually were still being used as visual props. So while there were certainly strong female characters they were often off set by the overindulgent displays of female sexuality. There is a concept that Kress proposed where even if someone vocally conveys power, if the signs in the environment point to a certain power level they tend to override the words.

It’s similar to the idea of body language composing of so much more of our ability to communicate than words alone. I feel like while many of the women in the show talk in a very feminist way, they are still being used and cued in their environment as sexual objects.

I think season 5 broke away from this and did away with the overuse of sexuality (thankfully) due to complaints. It’s a very interesting topic to look at exploitative filming techniques versus a feminist veneer.

Valid point! Though for the Stiles and Derek specific example it is more to demonstrate the “baiting” that goes on by creators because they know (a lot in part thanks to social media including Tumblr/Twitter) people want it. They then use social media to prop up these “couples” and make them seem valid and represented only to deny them.

I totally agree that a large sect of these populations are cis females but validating queer experiences and then denying them does affect the LGBTQ sect of the fandoms, who do very much exist. Also in general its just in pretty bad taste. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Oh 100%. I think this form of interaction and power over media suffers from having to walk a fine line. On one end it is great for holding creators accountable but on the other end fans can be terrifying and what they desire is not always smart for a story.

Social media is great for making diversity representation more transparent but that does not always mean it is great for storytelling. There are instances of creators caving to fan’s wishes and letting fanservice dictate aspects of the story… and that just muddles an otherwise great show.

This. Netflix and other streaming services means you don’t have to cater your life around how a network schedules. Shows like NBC’s Hannibal would have done much better on a streaming service without network restrictions and schedule shifting. Some shows are just meant for streaming!

Adding my two cents about characters I’ve connected with. I really connected with the characters from Life is Strange on a deep level to the point that I’m still not really over the ending!

Adding my two cents about character I’ve connected with. I really connected with the characters from Life is Strange on a deep level to the point that I’m still not really over the ending!

Until Dawn was a solid game and I totally agree that it was sad that Josh didn’t have a happy ending. After all that boy went through that’s all I as a player wanted to give him.