Title: Where Am I? How A Lack Of Representation In Media Is Harmful To College Students | Her Campus
Headings: Where Am I? How A Lack Of Representation In Media Is Harmful To College Students
Where Am I? How A Lack Of Representation In Media Is Harmful To College Students
Sunahtah Jones (USF)
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Content: Similarly, disabled people and the LGBTQ community are more than often placed in roles that perpetuate stereotypes related to their identity. Only 1% of television series include representation of disabled people (Sagaftra.org), while the LGBTQ community is just as unrepresented, and mostly represented in a negative light in the media (glad.org). How does this have a large impact on college students? Firstly, we are the future of our nations. If we’re constantly consuming information that contains oppressive ideologies, stereotypes, and lack of representation; we tend to perpetuate those ideologies because it’s normalized and has been taught to us our entire lives. When the topic of lack of representation is brought up, victim blaming is common and some will say that minorities bring it upon themselves and do not try hard enough to be represented more accurately and more often. However, the lack of representation of marginalized groups is the fault of oppressive institutions and systematic oppression that has been normalized into our society, not the fault of the marginalized groups. A lack of representation creates a lack of opportunities and encourages marginalized youth to believe that they will never be qualified for various positions in the media, politics, student organizations, business and etc. simply because of the way the world views their identity or identities.