Do you care about "seeing yourself" on screen?
 

In the last few years people have talked a lot about representation in the media and how people want to "see themselves" on screen, meaning they want a decent amount of "heroes" representing their race/nationality/religion/sexual orientation/etc. in the media.

Do you, personally, care about that?

I really don't tbh. If that was the case, I'd only watch TV show productions from my own country... and no thanks. TV is garbage in my country for the most part. :lol:. Also, I don't think a character needs to be "similar" to me in order for me to like it or relate to it. I mean, some of my favourite fictional characters ever are from Japanese video games and animation/comics. They probably never ate many of the dishes I have nor have I eaten much Japanese food(haven't even tried Sushi...) but that doesn't mean I cannot relate to them in other ways. :P

What about you? Do you actually care about "being represented on screen"?

Not really. It's fun when a character creator in a video game lets me play as a big fat guy though, since it usually clashes with the setting / other characters.

But yeah I'll watch stuff starring whoever from wherever, I'm not watching a movie for a vanity trip or whatever. For kids it's probably a little more important that they can sometimes see someone like them doing important/good stuff though.

i'd like to see more john candy's and john goodmans representing fat people on screen and less mcarthy's and farleys....but other than that, I could care less who's on screen. just make the damn movie naturally and be good.

Nope. I'm not so insecure that I need that. I can relate to characters based on their ideas and personality and what they go through, not what they look like.

Personally, it never mattered to me as a kid either. Nor did it seem to matter to most kids I knew back then. I mean, everyone loved DBZ, Pokémon and such. And my favourite Street Fighter character from day one was Ryu. I played that game for the first time ever when i was like 5 years old. I like him because the hadouken was cool.

Also, this being a TMNT website, is proof that we can relate to different people than us, even to those of different species. I mean, it's not like I've ever stopped on my tracks one day and wondered "Hmmm... I wonder what the Turtles would look like if they were human".

I see myself everyday on TV since it's usually turned off and I can see my reflection :P

Me personally? Nah, not really.
More variety of people in my media? Oh hell yes.

No. I'm face blind so I am literally blind to idea of something like this. So for me I have to relate to a character other than what they look like.

heck the two character I relate to the most are

Tomoyo from Card Captor Sakura. The idea of being so in love with someone so much but in the end you know you have to let them go...That there is nothing wrong with it and that you can be happy when someone else is happy. It believe it is something that everyone can understand.

and

Cerise Hood from Ever After High. The thought of having to wear a mask and put up a front to make sure you are just you, it's a hard thing for many to deal with.

Funny I thought that was why we had imaginations. If we want to pretend/relate to being some superhero, we can imagine being like Superman and flying around stopping disasters, not trying to imagine HE was more like US. Where's the fun in that anyway? Heroes and villains are supposed to be larger than life, more of the paragons of their race/gender/etc. Not average Joes like everyone we meet- because a protagonist in a comic, movie or animation is by their very nature of being the "hero" of the story someone who is ABOVE and BEYOND the average schmuck. That's why we aspire to be like them in the first place! It's why we dream.

sadly we live in a time and place that for people to "relate" a character will have to be literally "humanized" and by that they would often be of the same color/gender/sexuality/etc.

For us of technodrome, it shouldn't be that common afterall we had to learn to related to four mutant turtles.

So...if this stuff doesn't matter, why do people get so bent out of shape when Sam Jackson is cast as Nick Fury?

Because they never read the Ultimate Avengers universe comics where Fury was MODELED on him??!! Just a guess. I thought it was cool.

I'm more than sure that was a minority. Especially when Ultimate Nick was literally SAM jackson in design. Though I can understand from a perspective since it did seem forced since the redesign to Ultimate Nick Fury was for in case they could get Sam as Nick in the live action movies. Plus the majority of those people at the time didn't even know who Nick was as against "nerd" wasn't really the hip thing to be about.

It's like changing Sadako into Samara. No one gave a **** save for just a couple few.

I don't think people care that a show has a black guy or two, but when they try to change an established character's identity just for the sake of being PC or something. I't not just a matter of turning a white dude black. When Shredder was meant to be white in the Bay films people were pissed as well.

Want characters of other races and such in the media? Fine, but don't change already established ones. That's not doing anyone good. It only screams "LOOK, WE ARE TURNING THIS GUY BLACK/BROWN/GAY/WTV JUST TO PROVE WE'RE NOT RACIST!".

That being said, I have no idea who Nick Fury is nor what the context beyond that change is. So therefore, I couldn't care less if they make Nick Fury a different race or not. I don't follow whatever franchise he belongs to.

I'm a white male so this has never been a concern of mine. Assuming I were the same me in a different body, I'm not sure I'd care either way. I don't connect with the masses for a long list of reasons that goes far beyond superficial stuff.

I don't like when established characters are changed, I can say that much. White-washing being the worst offense, generally speaking.

careful, you make too much sense. that's not welcome in some parts :D:thumbsup:

Did anyone seriously complain?

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/nick_...ck-fury-a26081

https://www.reddit.com/r/marvelstudi...ckson_playing/

Admittedly no where near as much as people did when Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall

https://www.theguardian.com/film/201...s-boycott-thor

http://comicsalliance.com/racists-th...s-ebla-racism/

I remember there being a whole lot of confusion when Ryan Reynolds was announced as the lead in Green Lantern, because for a whole lot of people John Stewart was the GL they knew, and not Hal Jordan.

Representation matters.
I think it's cool that there's way more variety in female characters now than there was when I was a kid.

Well, people seriously complained about Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm.

to be fair, there was more bitching about Thor's actor