The Pitfalls of #Plastic Revolutions
The Pitfalls of #Plastic Revolutions
Black representation, as it’s been understood in a popular sense, has been dominated by the circulation of mediated imagery yielding deleterious effects for the groups depicted. The fear of the effects of such “poor” representation has resulted in a set of binary, nonscientific, underdeveloped metrics—positive and negative—that constitute a nebulous catch-all system wherein the characteristics that define each pole on the spectrum shift depending on the era and the expectations and needs of the audience. In this current era where institutions are in existential crisis, Black audiences seek comfort by supporting meaningful representations of themselves on screen. The catchphrase “representation matters” circulating in conversations around diversity in film, television, and theater has gained traction from social media campaigns that aims to remind and activate consumers to demand and celebrate more representative visual imagery from the entertainment industries. For men and women of color, this visual diversity serves as an indicator of progress as well as an aspirational frame for younger generations who are told that the visual signifiers they can identify with carry a great amount of symbolic weight. As a consequence, the degree of diversity becomes synonymous with the quantity of difference rather than with the dimensionality of the performances. This kind of representation, what I call plastic, exploits the wonder that comes from seeing characters on screen who serve as visual identifiers for specific demographics in order to flatten the expectation to desire anything more. In this instance, then, progress is merely the increase of black bodies on our cultural radars. The goal of this talk then is to explore how even as a regressive mode, plastic representation emerges as a coping mechanism for Black audiences. Through case studies like the release of Marvel's Black Panther, Jay Z's Moonlight, and Meghan Markle's engagement to Prince Harry, I will illustrate how the celebration around these texts lies primarily around the visual imagery with little thought toward how its meaning is also shaped by larger structural historical, industrial, and economic concerns.