My Netflix queue is not so different from that of any other 20-something white, gay male who is also incidentally awesome. "Because you watched 'Parks & Recreation.'" "Because you watched 'Orange is the New Black.'" "Because you really want to finally get into 'Parenthood' but you're afraid you'll never stop crying."
But after we've bonded over the usual suspects. you're bound to uncover something--or many things--that I'm told by friends is not age-appropriate. "Because you can name more than 5 TV shows currently airing on Nickelodeon." "Because you still actively seek out Disney Channel original programming." "Because ABC Family, even in its most problematic productions, always seems to hit you in the purest(and pulpiest) sweet spot of your soul." And there's no need and no means to deny it; for every Meryl Streep Oscar-nominated performances in my collection, there's some cultural product that was produced for 10-14 year-old girls to consume. I started it. I loved it. I stayed up til 3am to finish it in a one-man slumber party of my own making.
As you might imagine, people challenge me on my choices. And people laugh.. It's at odds with my love of critical darlings and arthouse films. It's a troubling--but "ha-ha" troubling--delusion for someone my age, someone who could feasibly have kids of his own. And what those progressive, often feminist, always supportive voices could never bring themselves to say is that they find it a flabbergasting contrast to my masculinity, or at least my being a man. The concern and bewilderment and judgment glimmers behind their eyes and waits eagerly atop their tongues; I'm being a huge girl.
And to that, the only appropriate response is "FuckUGuyz" because
a) "The heart wants what it wants"-- Selena Gomez, Disney darling; and
b) I guess if men and boys can enjoy girl's and women's media and girls and women can enjoy men's and boy's media, then these are contestable, if not troublesome, categories; and
c) I don't understand how that functions as a problem or as an insult; and
d) WHAT RACE, CLASS, SEXUALITY, AND GENDER RELATIONS MIGHT LOOK LIKE IN 20 YEARS IS BEING, AT LEAST IN PART, WRITTEN RIGHT NOW, SO SHOULDN'T WE ALL BE INVESTED IN THE STORIES WE'RE TELLING THE NEXT GENERATION?
I get that the ALL CAPS is dramatic, but I'm not fucking around here. Young people consume media at an alarming rate. Media messages dramatically shape their perceptions of how the world operates and what identities and positions of power are possible for them in that world. Plus, featured characters in media model behaviors for young people that they will in turn seek to emulate, effectively structuring a reality for young people by creating a generation of "well-behaving" or "bad-behaving' young people, depending on the model. I'm over simplifying the process here, but I'm certainly not fabricating it. We've heard it. We've lived it. I'm happy to supply evidence-based references that attest to this for anyone who requests, but for now, I'll have faith that you've read a book or two before and that neither one of us is interested in this reading like a dissertation.
As someone who grew up in a small, conservative town, I have movies to thank for introducing me to a reality where I could be gay. Where I could have friends who were not white. Where masculinity could be experienced and demonstrated through rituals that didn't include shooting deer or scoring touchdowns. My local rental store not only introduced me to the world outside my town--a window to an existing world--but it created a world within my town that didn't exist before. It brought the outside in and it redefined what the inside was.
And that experience is not unique to me. We all live articulations of race, gender, and sexuality that are in part defined by "The OC' or "Dawson's Creek" or "The Cheetah Girls." They told us how to feel about sex, how to act around boys, and who to respect and listen to and who to overlook and ignore. They shaped us both in our direct engagement with these cultural products during our formative years, as well as through the indirect effect of interacting with peers who were themselves shaped by these products.
For me, I heard so many stories about what it meant to be white, straight, and male. I wouldn't have heard many compelling stories about what it means to be a woman, or black, or Latina, or gay if I hadn't been struck with the sense that I wasn't, and people I cared about weren't, reflected in what was most readily available to consume, compelling me to seek other options. All the stories I heard and did not hear shaped me; most scholars concur that the same can be said for all of us. While these stories are mediated through the lens of our life experience, family, friends, churches, and schooling, they nonetheless had a profound impact on how we see the world, especially as a generation that was so saturated with TV, movies, and eventually, internet media.
So, I'm invested now in what stories and what identities and what possibilities we're sharing with young people, particularly when it comes to girls and young women. I want us to be nurturing a generation of people who believe in and fight for gender parity; who meaningfully value diversity and seek to understand and engage intersectionality; who believe in the power to be whoever they want to be and who will become a generation of storytellers married to the ideal that the merit of someone's story is not a product of their gender, race, class, sexuality, citizenship, or any other identity category.
I believe that this--or an approximation of this--is an achievable world. I believe the producers of children's entertainment are often invested in a similar vision of that world but they are limited by the prejudices of our generation and must succumb to the great amorality of capitalism, of sticking to what sells. The past couple years have demonstrated that strong, positive portrayals of women absolutely can be profitable, but capitalism is a slow and conservative animal. It's going to take a little bit of consciousness-raising and a lot of screaming to get the attention of storytellers that girls and minorities are not only worthy subjects but marketable ones; I'm hopeful if not naive that this project could be a modest beginning to my getting involved in that.
But I don't mean to paint myself as some martry or sacrificial watchdog for children's and teen media . Or to even suggest that my interest in the programming is purely intellectual. The truth is, beyond my investment in its messaging, I just love it. For some products, it's the sugariness and silliness and simplicity. For others, it's the melodrama and the pulpiness and the weird alternative universe where literally any sexual coupling seems possible since every actor appears to be within 20 years of age. So, I hope as I comment on things, I'll maintain a watchful eye on the messaging and the identity politics, but above all, I hope my love comes across. And I hope that you can value the enthusiasm that me and a generation of girls can hold for these shows; the fact that it's a "show for 12-year-old girls" may be precisely why it's awesome and precisely why it matters.
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