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I watch a lot of TV shows. A lot. And inevitably, when you watch as much as I do, after a while you pick up patterns. It's understandable, because certain things just work. Some things will almost always entertain a large portion of the population, so I can't blame the various players in the entertainment indistry for following the known success recipes. Which brings me to the gimmick.
I prefer watching shows where I get invested in the characters. So, predictably, there are a lot of character plots in my favorite shows. Which means that sometimes a character is the plot. And certain types of people are always a plot in themselves. Meaning that certain people are cast simply because their looks is the center of a plot. It has taken me a long time to realise this, but now that I have, it grates on me.
I guess it's what people think of as sterotypes. And yet, not always, unless the term "different" is a stereotype in itself. Semantics. The point is that I recently caught myself expecting a certain plot when the "different" person appeared on the screen. I was somewhat mortified with myself because I thought I was more open than this. I thought I was beyond the point where I expected something extra from anyone not fitting into the fairly narrow category of mainstream entertainment characters. White, slim, heterosexual, confident, pretty. That seems to be the formular to be a character in most TV shows. If you're anything but that, when you appear on screen, people know you're the gimmick. They know that you're about to get special treatment. The gay man, the fat kid, heck- even a woman is still occasionally the gimmick. You'll know it when you see it.
And it saddens me.
I'm not saying that non-gimmick "different" characters don't exist, but you can't deny that they're rare. And more often than not, when "different" people are not the gimmick, it's most likely because they appear in a show where the entire cast are various shades of "different." The entire show can easily be the gimmick.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that a lot of TV shows base their entire existence on focussing on something "different" but even in those shows, there is a template for being a character, as opposed to a gimmick. And honestly? I'm starting to hate the gimmick.
It's a distinct possibility that my recent hatred of the gimmick is born from my own "difference". I'm the fat chick. If I wasn't fat, I'd probably fade back into obscurity quite nicley, but I'm in a weight class now where I get noticed for it. If I were a character in a TV show, I'd have a plot. Most defintely.
I think what I'm getting at is that it bothers me that people aren't just people. Some people are people. Others are gimmicks.
TL;DR? Wake me up when Gene Roddenberry's future arrives and all Humans are just Humans. When the world includes black war heroes, female admirals, gay presidents and alien noses of the week.
KTXBAI.
I prefer watching shows where I get invested in the characters. So, predictably, there are a lot of character plots in my favorite shows. Which means that sometimes a character is the plot. And certain types of people are always a plot in themselves. Meaning that certain people are cast simply because their looks is the center of a plot. It has taken me a long time to realise this, but now that I have, it grates on me.
I guess it's what people think of as sterotypes. And yet, not always, unless the term "different" is a stereotype in itself. Semantics. The point is that I recently caught myself expecting a certain plot when the "different" person appeared on the screen. I was somewhat mortified with myself because I thought I was more open than this. I thought I was beyond the point where I expected something extra from anyone not fitting into the fairly narrow category of mainstream entertainment characters. White, slim, heterosexual, confident, pretty. That seems to be the formular to be a character in most TV shows. If you're anything but that, when you appear on screen, people know you're the gimmick. They know that you're about to get special treatment. The gay man, the fat kid, heck- even a woman is still occasionally the gimmick. You'll know it when you see it.
And it saddens me.
I'm not saying that non-gimmick "different" characters don't exist, but you can't deny that they're rare. And more often than not, when "different" people are not the gimmick, it's most likely because they appear in a show where the entire cast are various shades of "different." The entire show can easily be the gimmick.
Now, don't get me wrong, I know that a lot of TV shows base their entire existence on focussing on something "different" but even in those shows, there is a template for being a character, as opposed to a gimmick. And honestly? I'm starting to hate the gimmick.
It's a distinct possibility that my recent hatred of the gimmick is born from my own "difference". I'm the fat chick. If I wasn't fat, I'd probably fade back into obscurity quite nicley, but I'm in a weight class now where I get noticed for it. If I were a character in a TV show, I'd have a plot. Most defintely.
I think what I'm getting at is that it bothers me that people aren't just people. Some people are people. Others are gimmicks.
TL;DR? Wake me up when Gene Roddenberry's future arrives and all Humans are just Humans. When the world includes black war heroes, female admirals, gay presidents and alien noses of the week.
KTXBAI.
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