another word for character representation

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noun as in individuality

Strongest matches

aspect , cast , humor , kind , nature , personality , quality , sense , spirit , style , tone , type

Strong matches

appearance , attribute , badge , bent , caliber , complex , complexion , constitution , disposition , emotions , estimation , ethos , frame , genius , grain , habit , makeup , mettle , mood , morale , mystique , record , reputation , repute , set , shape , singularity , sort , specialty , standing , streak , temper , temperament , trait , turn , vein

Weak matches

crasis , frame of mind

noun as in integrity

courage , intelligence , name

arete , fame , honor , mind , place , position , rank , rectitude , rep , report , reputation , repute , standing , station , status , uprightness

noun as in odd person

Strongest match

personality

card , clown , crank , customer , eccentric , freak , nut , nut case , oddball , oddity , original , weirdo

noun as in written symbol

figure , type

cipher , device , emblem , hieroglyph , letter , logo , mark , monogram , number , numeral , rune , sign

noun as in portrayal of another

impersonation , part , personification

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Example sentences.

When I was offered this, I was extremely pleased because he’s an interesting character.

In preparing to play the twisted character, Paulson studied the novel and the film in detail and even borrowed some gestures from the movie.

A recent survey from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, for example, found that 38% of characters featured in advertisements at the 2019 Cannes Lions festival were people of color, compared to 26% in 2006, the earliest available data.

While for the video titles, we don’t have too many characters to work with, the video description field allows more characters than enough, so take the full advantage of those.

Female speaking characters have only marginally increased over the last 13 years, reaching 34% in 2019.

Taraji manages to bring an equal measure of truth to the mother in her character.

I still do find it a tremendously useful device to invent a character and have the character sing the song.

You were basically the guy to do every dictator or crazy character, from Gaddafi and Ahmadinejad to Bin Laden.

Our fans have seen all our sketches, so we wanted to give them something a little deeper about each character.

Forget those silly “games played with the ball”; they are far “too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind.”

I, therefore, deliver it as a maxim, that whoever desires the character of a proud man ought to conceal his vanity.

It is the development of character, the triumph of intellectuality and spirituality I have striven to express.'

She never realized that the reserve of her own character had much, perhaps everything, to do with this.

Messa urges the king to send a new governor, and gives his advice as to the character of him who should be sent.

Some peculiar lines between these contracted brows gave a character of ferocity to this forbidding and sensual face.

Related Words

Words related to character are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word character . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in person who performs, entertains by role-playing

• barnstormer
• entertainer
• impersonator
• pantomimist
• straight person
• ventriloquist

noun as in air

noun as in outward aspect, characteristic

• countenance
• presentation

noun as in moral excellence; fulfillment of purpose

• fulfillment

noun as in general feeling or mood

• environment
• local color
• surroundings

Viewing 5 / 177 related words

On this page you'll find 272 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to character, such as: aspect, cast, humor, kind, nature, and personality.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

Synonyms of 'representation' in American English

Synonyms of 'representation' in british english, additional synonyms.

Browse alphabetically representation

• represent someone as something or someone
• represent yourself as something or someone
• representation
• representative
• All ENGLISH synonyms that begin with 'R'

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Synonyms and antonyms of character in English

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tape measure

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a strip of plastic or metal used for measuring that can be rolled up when not being used

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Synonyms of representation

• as in depiction
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Thesaurus Definition of representation

Synonyms & Similar Words

• illustration
• resemblance
• delineation
• finger painting
• hieroglyphic

Thesaurus Entries Near representation

representation

representational

Cite this Entry

“Representation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/representation. Accessed 6 May. 2024.

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Nglish: Translation of representation for Spanish Speakers

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Character-to-Word Representation and Global Contextual Representation for Named Entity Recognition

• Published: 15 February 2023
• Volume 55 , pages 8551–8567, ( 2023 )

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• Jun Chang 1 &
• Xiaohong Han 2  

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The essence of named entity recognition is to mine entities with specific meanings in the text, which is the basis for some downstream tasks in the field of natural language processing. Currently, deep learning-based methods have further improved the accuracy of named entity recognition, and most methods are based on word-level and character-level embeddings. However, these methods ignore the effectiveness of global context for entity recognition, so this paper proposes to use an attention mechanism to obtain comprehensive information of the same word from different contextual information. Meanwhile, character-level representations affect not only the accuracy of recognizing unseen words, but also the extraction of contextual representations. Considering this issue, we propose to extract character-to-word representations using label attention mechanism. The proposed model uses CNN-LSTM-CRF as the baseline, which is effectively integrated into the above two representation extraction methods, named CNN-CWR-LSTM-GCR-CRF. On the basis of this model, we further integrate the language model BERT. Experiments show that our model achieves the results competitive with the state-of-the-art records on CONLL-2002 Spanish dataset, CONLL-2003 and Ontonotes5.0 English datasets, respectively.

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A Subword-Centric Character Level Representation for Named Entity Recognition

A Mixed Semantic Features Model for Chinese NER with Characters and Words

Fast Neural Chinese Named Entity Recognition with Multi-head Self-attention

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Acknowledgements

Research Project Supported by Shanxi Scholarship Council of China (Grant No. HGKY2019024).

Shanxi Scholarship Council of China, HGKY2019024, Xiaohong Han.

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Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University, Fenyang, 032200, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

Taiyuan University of Technology, No. 79 West Street Yingze, Taiyuan, 030024, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

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Chang, J., Han, X. Character-to-Word Representation and Global Contextual Representation for Named Entity Recognition. Neural Process Lett 55 , 8551–8567 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11063-023-11168-6

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Issue Date : December 2023

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The Number of LGBTQ Characters in TV Is Declining, GLAAD Study Finds

Of all this season’s series regular characters on primetime scripted broadcast programming, 8.6% are LGBTQ

The latest edition of GLAAD’s “Where We Are On TV” report shows there’s been a recent decline in representation of LGBTQ characters and storylines.

As 2024 inches closer to pride month, GLAAD dropped its 19th study on Tuesday, reporting both dips and stagnancy in LGBTQ representation, particularly as it relates to transgender talent. For series regulars across primetime scripted broadcast programming, 8.6% were LGBTQ. On top of that, of all the LGBTQ characters that were counted (468), 50% were LGBTQ people of color while only 5.1% identified as transgender. The study also found 36% of LGBTQ characters included will not be returning next season.

“The findings from this year’s ‘Where We Are On TV’ study reveals several inarguable truths when it comes to LGBTQ storytelling,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement. “We know that LGBTQ-inclusive series can indeed be successful, as demonstrated by shows like ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘Yellowjackets.’”

“We know it is imperative for the queer community, especially transgender people, to see our lives reflected on screen to counteract the misinformation and harmful rhetoric going unchecked by politicians and journalists. And we know that younger audiences are hungry for shows that truly reflect the world around them,” she continued. “The answer behind impactful and long-lasting television is right there for studio executives, showrunners and Hollywood at-large and the stakes could not be higher.”

The annual study maps the presence of regular and recurring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer characters on original primetime scripted programming. This edition covered the 2023-24 television season.

Here are some of GLAAD’s key findings from its most recent study:

• 8.6% of series regulars across primetime scripted broadcast programming were LGBTQ, which includes a decrease of 31 characters and 2% from the previous year.
• GLAAD counted 49 LGBTQ series regulars and 28 LGBTQ recurring characters on primetime scripted cable, for a total of 77 LGBTQ characters. This is a decrease of 62 characters from the previous study.
• GLAAD counted 208 LGBTQ series regular characters and 119 recurring LGBTQ characters on streaming scripted original programming for a total of 327 LGBTQ characters. This is a decrease of 29 characters from the 2022-23 study.
• Of the 468 LGBTQ characters counted across all platforms (broadcast, cable and streaming), there are 24 transgender characters (5.1% of all LGBTQ characters), a decrease of eight characters and 0.3% from the previous study. Of those, there are 11 trans women, five trans men and eight trans non-binary characters.
• Of the 468 LGBTQ characters across all platforms, 232 (50%) are characters of color. This is a decrease of 72 characters and one percentage point from the previous study.
• There was only one LGBTQ character (0.2 percent) counted this year living with HIV: Tim Laughlin in Showtime’s miniseries “Fellow Travelers.”
• Of all 468 LGBTQ characters counted, at least 170 (36%) will not be returning due to series cancellations or endings, miniseries/anthology format, or a character dying or otherwise exiting the show. Of those 468, 112 LGBTQ characters (24%) specifically won’t be returning due to series cancellation or ending.

GLAAD’s senior director of Entertainment Research & Analysis Megan Townsend said the findings in this year’s report included “concerning decreases” to which the entertainment industry needs to pay attention.

“GLAAD’s ‘Where We Are on TV’ study found a number of concerning decreases across the board in the past two years, alongside a changing industry on all fronts which is seeing increased vertical integration and contracting budgets and staff. We know that LGBTQ storytelling is powerful and a priority for key audiences,” Townsend said. “It’s clear that networks and streamers looking to maintain relevance and brand longevity with the growing LGBTQ audience should be developing their future slates with an eye towards stabilization. This includes multiple season orders, prompt renewals and a sustained investment in inclusive storytelling through meaningful marketing, promotion and production budgets given to new and returning titles.”

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‘Shardlake’ is a Tudor-era mystery series. It’s also a win for disabled characters, its star says

Matthew Shardlake steps out of the pages of late author C.J. Sansom’s popular Tudor mystery novels and into a Disney+ show, bringing with him disability representation. The character is played by Arthur Hughes, alongside co-stars Anthony Boyle and Sean Bean. (April 29)

This image release by Hulu shows Arthur Hughes in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Martin Mlaka/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

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This image release by Hulu shows Arthur Hughes, left, and Anthony Boyle in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Adrienn Szabo/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

This image release by Hulu shows Anthony Boyle in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Adrienn Szabo/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

This image release by Hulu shows Ruby Ashbourne Serkis in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Adrienn Szabo/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

This image release by Hulu shows Sean Bean in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Adrienn Szabo/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

This image release by Hulu shows Babou Ceesay in a scene from “Shardlake.” (Adrienn Szabo/Disney+/Hulu via AP)

LONDON (AP) — Matthew Shardlake steps out of the pages of the late C.J. Sansom’s popular historical mystery novels and into a new show, bringing with him disability representation.

“We don’t see a lot of leading disabled characters,” says Arthur Hughes, who plays the title character. “Well, we might, but they might not be played by disabled actors.”

Shardlake is a clever lawyer who solves puzzles and problems during the reign of King Henry VIII. He is also disabled. The character is referred to as a “hunchback” by a rude rival in the books — an example of the attitude of the Tudor period, with no allowance or acceptance of differences.

“I really hope the disabled audience can see that and see maybe some of the parallels with the world we live in today. And also just to show that that a disabled actor can play a leading part,” says Hughes, who was born with radial dysplasia.

Joining him in the show are Anthony Boyle, as codpiece-wearing rogue Jack Barak, and Sean Bean portraying Thomas Cromwell, the notorious and real-life political player who sends Shardlake on a mission to solve a murder at a monastery. The show airs Wednesday on Disney+ in the U.K. and Hulu in the U.S.

The cast spoke to The Associated Press about the importance of casting, the comfort of a codpiece and coldness of old castles. The interview was conducted before Sansom’s death Saturday at 71. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

AP: So who read the books?

BEAN: I read the first three but a long time ago. Forty years or so.

AP: Was the appeal that you already knew this world?

BEAN: Yes, when I found out it was based on C.J. Sansom’s books, I thought, I’ve read those, you know. It was something I really wanted to be involved with and when I was offered the role of Cromwell, (I was) delighted.

AP: Shardlake himself, he’s a great role.

HUGHES: It was a really, really enjoyable role. He’s a complicated guy. Kind of strong but vulnerable and compromised in many ways within himself, within the job he’s got. But I think, ultimately, a really good, just man. And a great story to go through and an interesting world to navigate. It was a lot of fun. We had a ball.

AP: He’s also a very cool character.

HUGHES: Yeah, I found reading the books, he’s a very interesting character, but there’s something a little weak and afraid and meek in him and actually, I wanted him to be stronger and stoic. Still vulnerable and lonely and isolated and maybe somewhat awkward, but I wanted him to have a kind of inner strength. This is a disabled man navigating a really difficult world for him and I think he’ll need that kind of inner strength burning inside him.

AP: Codpiece.

BOYLE: Yes, let’s talk about it. It’s something.

AP: Was it comfortable?

BOYLE: I sort of had to go to myself — this is the leather jacket of the era. It was like getting your codpiece on and going out, like, this looks all right. Once I got over that hurdle, I loved it and I actually felt a bit naked without it. So I did take one from set. It’s in the wardrobe. I’m hoping if the show does well, people will watch it and it will be the new sort of fashion statement this summer. You know, everyone’s knocking about with codpieces.

AP: You’ve been jumping around historical periods quite a lot recently.

BOYLE: Someone said to me, I’ve done so many period dramas, it looks like I’ve got a face that just can’t comprehend the internet. And they just keep putting me in these sort of random period dramas because I look like I don’t know how to work Deliveroo.

HUGHES: That’s brilliant.

AP: Thomas Cromwell is a really interesting historical figure — what was your take on him?

BEAN: I’m not sure I quite liked him, but I admired his resolute character. He’s very headstrong and very, very sure about himself, about what he was doing. But he obviously takes a lot of pleasure in the dissolution of the monasteries and the robbing and everything that goes on changing the religion completely, to accommodate Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. And he sees Shardlake, he knows he’s a very intelligent, very gifted man and it’s an interesting relationship that we have.

AP: There was talk about doing something with this before, but with an able bodied actor. How important is it for you that Shardlake is represented properly?

HUGHES: I think having those leading roles, especially in this Tudor world that Shardlake lives in, which is built in ableism every day, but which is backed up by God and by everything that everyone’s taught. And also to show that that a disabled actor can play a leading part. And he’s written as a disabled man and even some of the smallest things about growing up a bit different, looking different — Shardlake will feel all those things and I’ve felt those things. Maybe I don’t have to kind of manufacture that so much.

AP: What was it like filming the 16th century? It looks really cold.

BOYLE: It was very cold. We were up there in freezing Budapest and I was wearing tights and a codpiece. All I can remember from the whole shoot, how cold it was. I remember riding horses, which was a laugh. We had a good fun on those didn’t we?

HUGHES: We did.

BOYLE: It was a good craic. Riding into Scarnsea on the back of these horses. The sets were amazing. It really did make you feel like you were in that time period. Looking round you didn’t really have to act that much because it was 360. We were on set. We were in the muck. We filmed these amazing locations, these castles and monasteries. And you didn’t have to do much thinking, you were just in it.

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36% of LGBTQ TV Characters Won’t Be Returning Next Season, Says GLAAD

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GLAAD ‘s annual “Where We Are on TV” report — which tracks the inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual+, transgender and queer characters — is out, and a key finding is that 36% of TV’s LGBTQ characters will not be returning next season, for several reasons including series being cancelled.

What’s more, LGBTQ-inclusive shows such as The Rookie: Feds , once cancelled, are not being replaced with similarly inclusive programs. As one result, LGBTQ inclusion on broadcast-TV series declined to a six-year low.

The GLAAD report acknowledges that a “fraction” of the decrease in LGBTQ characters on TV can be attributed to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that shut down Hollywood last summer and led to returns and premieres being delayed. But also, new inclusive programming was not ordered to replace cancelled series such as Feds , Legends of Tomorrow and Gotham Knights . “In fact,” the study says on Page 11, “there is not a single series currently on broadcast TV that has an LGBTQ character as the sole protagonist.”

Why does inclusion matter? GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in her executive summary cites surveys that say “LGBTQ inclusion in entertainment is important to more than two in every five of all American adults, and “super majorities of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ 18-24 year olds actively seek out queer-inclusive media — but only 38% are satisfied with how LGBTQ people are presented.”

And according to Gallup, Ellis says, “more than one in five adult Gen Z Americans self-identify as LGBTQ”; across 30 counties, the number is 18%.

Here are a few curated bullets from GLAAD’s Where We Are on TV report, which looked at primetime scripted series that premiered or are expected to premiere a new season between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024:

THE HEADLINES

▶ Out of 454 series regular characters across broadcast TV, this year 39 (or 8.6%) are LGBTQ — a decrease of 31 characters/2% from last year. Among recurring characters, 64 are LGBTQ, down 37. On cable, there are 77 total LGBTQ characters (series regular and recurring), down 62 vs. last year. Streaming meanwhile tallied 327 total LGBTQ characters, down 29.

▶ Out of all LGBTQ characters, 48% are men, 47% are women, and 5% are nonbinary; 36% are gay, 25% are lesbian, 24% are bisexual, 10% are queer and 5.1% are transgender.

▶ Quite notably, 36% of the LGBTQ characters accounted for in GLAAD ‘s latest report will not be returning in the next measurement period, due to series ending or being cancelled, the character dying or leaving the show, or a program’s miniseries/anthology format.

Just a few of the LGBTQ-inclusive shows not returning are A League of Their Own , The Other Two , Single Drunk Female , Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies , Gotham Knights (cancelled in June, shortly after the last Where We Ae on TV report came out), La Brea , The Good Doctor , Minx , Billions , Hightown , Our Flag Means Death , Star Trek: Discovery and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series . (Very recent cancellations such as NCIS: Hawai’i and So Help Me Todd are not accounted for in the new report.)

BROADCAST TV

▶ Broadcast TV recorded its lowest LGBTQ representation (8.6% of all series regular characters, down 2% YOY) since the 2017-18 TV season. With recurring characters folded in, broadcast TV had 64 LGBTQ characters — less than half of the 2021-22 TV season total.

A “fraction” of that loss is blamed on the strikes, which among other things bumped The CW’s All American: Homecoming and Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star to summer and fall of 2024, respectively, and delayed other returns/premieres. But new inclusive programming has not been ordered to replace cancelled series such as The Rookie: Feds and Gotham Knights .

▶ ABC boasts the highest LGBTQ inclusion (15%, thanks in part to its acquisition of Fox’s 9-1-1 ), followed by CBS (which typically places last in this report, but this year registered 9.2%), NBC (7.3%), The CW (6.3%, and, under new management, for the first time in seven years didn’t rank No. 1), and Fox (5.2%, with 9-1-1: Lone Star pushed).

▶ Primetime scripted cable programming tallied 77 total LGBTQ characters, down 45% from last year. Nearly 40 of those LGBTQ characters will not be returning, due to series being cancelled/ending, characters dying/leaving, or the miniseries/anthology format.

▶ FX and Showtime led the cable-TV pack with 15 LGBTQ characters each — thanks largely to seven on What We Do in the Shadows and nine in Fellow Travelers . GLAAD notes that with WWDITS entering its final season, Breeders cancelled, and FEUD , Justified: City Primeval and American Horror Story having miniseries/anthology formats, FX is bound for a steep decline. Starz had 11 LGBTQ characters, though eight will not be returning, and Freeform and HBO had eight and five LGBTQ characters (down from last year’s 16 and 26).

▶ HBO’s decline is in part due to The Last of Us , Euphoria and Somebody Somewhere all being between seasons. As for Freeform, this marks the first time in a decade that it did not land in cable’s Top 3 — and with the network scrapping scripted fare, GLAAD laments the “end of an LGBTQ-inclusive era for Freeform.”

▶ Scripted streaming series had 327 total LGBTQ characters, down just 0.8% YOY — though 119 of ’em won’t return this year.

▶ Netflix leads with 47% inclusion, thanks in part to Sex Education , Young Royals , The Fall of the House of Usher and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World — and with Stranger Things , The Umbrella Academy and XO, Kitty between seasons. But of Netflix’s 155 LGBTQ characters, 59 won’t return.

▶ Prime Video had 54 LGBTQ characters (up 11 YOY, though 16 won’t return); Max had 38 (up four, 19 won’t return); Hulu had 25 (down 12), Paramount+ had 21 (up 11), Apple TV+ was steady with 11, Disney+ had 10 (down four, and due for a drop-off with HMS:TM:TS now dunzo).

RACE AND ETHNICITY

▶ Four years ago, GLAAD challenged the networks/streamers to have 50% of their LGBTQ characters be of color. Broadcast (with 48%) and cable (48%) fell short this year, while streaming dipped a point to 50%.

▶ On broadcast TV, 25% of LGBTQ characters are Black, 9% are Asian-Pacific Islander (API), 6% Latine, NCIS: Hawai’i ‘s Lucy was the lone MENA (Middle East/North Africa), and zero were indigenous.

▶ On cable, 30% of LGBTQ characters were Black, 7% Latine, 5% API, 4% MENA and one indigenous.

▶ On streaming, 17% of LGBTQ characters were Black, 10% Latine, 9% API, 3% MENA and 2% indigenous.

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And yet… the homophobes love to claim that there is “too much” LGBTQ representation being “forced” on them.

Yeah. Poor little straight white alpha males, they’re being oppressed!

Do you a substantive point? Or do you just think snotty insults are sufficient?

I object to any casting that goes against the point of the show and is simply designed to fill a quota.

When I get home tonight I’m going to watch Seinfeld, The Jefferson, some baseball and some of the basketball games. And I will not think about the character or athletes’ race or sexual orientation once while doing so.

Strictly focusing on TV, I could not care less about the relationships. If it is a procedural I am fine with the 5 minutes of joking around they do at the start of the episode, but then get to the case at hand. I don’t care about whose dating who, gay or straight or otherwise.

What makes the matter worse is that if you were to measure the libido of characters on TV (weird, yes, but less weird than these people sitting in front of a TV with a spreadsheet and grouping the sexuality of each character) the LGBTQ+ characters are clearly more sexual than the straight ones. That should offend people in that community because they think that is more of a priority to you than non-members and that is the only way they know how to write for those kinds of individuals.

In summary, just write the best show possible. If everyone is gay, that’s fine. If no one is, that’s fine. Just don’t make it so obvious when a character is clearly there to fill a quota and mandate from network execs.

Excellent commentary, couldn’t have expressed it better myself. I never look at people with sexuality as my first thought about them. I’m there for the entertainment factor…if sex is part of it fine, but I won’t care if it isn’t.

Do you want a medal? Some kind of accolade? A lot of words for “I don’t care”

Truth stings huh

I agree! Don’t like it in every TV series or movies. We watch older shows too! Just don’t like so much sexual scenes by straight or gays!! I have Grandkids so they shouldn’t be exposed until they are much older. It’s even on Cocomelon.

Your grandkids won’t be in any harm watching LGBTQ+ people on TV

Actually what Laurel said was that she doesn’t like her grandchildren seeing sex scenes, “by straight or gays!!”

Her point was that her grandkids are too young for that.

Everytime that Jerry, Elaine, George, or Kramer are in plot where they’re on a date/in a relationship/attracted to someone, you ARE thinking of their sexual orientation. Their heterosexual one.

Do you think it’s just merit that everyone in Seinfeld or Friends is White and straight? Were there plot reasons for them to be White and straight? Why everyone should be White and straight, except there is a very specific plot point? Your comment is, perhaps because of bias you are unaware of, racist. And it’s OK. Racism is systemic. It’s not you, iun particular. It’s society. White and straight are not defaults. But you can learn that. And see if George Constanza were Latino or Phoebe Buffay were bi, you pretty much could have had the exact same series.

Actually, there were little clues dropped throughout Friends that Phoebe was probably bi.

What a complete load of nonsense. Overwhelmingly so called straight characters are sexualised throughout the TV landscape. You just don’t notice it all that much because it is the societal norm. You think LGBT characters are overly sexualised because you are just not used to seeing it on your TV and it stands out more than the overt parade of straight sexuality that is on display in TV land in pretty much every show you see.

[COMMENT REMOVED DUE TO SYSTEM-DETECTED USE OF MULTIPLE USER NAMES]

You’ve got a point here about those reports.

You just wanted to be snarky and call people “homophobes.”

Even though the numbers are down there is still overrepresention on tv based on the real life percentage in the country (as is the case with most diversity on tv and the very unrealistic depiction of a diversity rainbow group of friends or workplace in many shows). So while Glaad may be upset overrepresention is down any claims of underrepresentation is blatantly false.

I just know that my appreciation for Disney/ABC has grown exponentially because as a regular broadcast TV viewer (along with a multitude of streaming outlets) I want and seek out as much diversity and inclusion as possible. That matters to me… representation matters to me. This country is becoming much too Christo-Fascist and right wing but decent folks with open minds, loving hearts and embracing arms aren’t going down without a fight! How can so many hate a rainbow?

There is a lot

As someone who identifies as ‘ gay’ ( I know ; shocking I’m not using a forced upon abriviation! ) this is what’s wrong with the current environment. I want characters reflecting myself to be authentic to the show not a statistic to fill a quotient. So stupid . I dont cate if it’s 37 % or 50% if it’s obviously a token character

I too identify as gay. I don’t think anyone is forcing abbreviations upon you. But aside from that I agree on statistics, but many of the show are writted with LGBTQ (sorry for the abbreviation) writers so they write characters in their show. I’ve never heard of forced % of characters must be gay, can you site your source?

There is forced diversity though, not because there are hard quotas that they have to hit but because the outlets don’t want the potential backlash if there isn’t the amount pressure groups demand. And what that results in is things like lazy remakes with sexuality, race or gender swapped or we get diverse characters that are ultimately really lazily written where they are defined simply by their diversity and thats it. As Dustin said characters need ti be authentic, not come across as if we are watching a PSA. That’s what annoys most people not the diversity but how they often don’t even try and create compelling characters.If you create good authentic characters most people will enjoy and find something to relate to those characters even if they aren’t part of the characters diversity group but create weak characters that are only defined by the diversity and viewers struggle to to find that hook and I would imagine alot of people in that diversity group actually find such paper thin characters condescending also

It is a business. If it sells it will continue, if it doesn’t it won’t. Even characters that have depth (911) will continue to have the naysayers, not because the characters are weak, but because they represent something that someone doesn’t like.

The problem is that any attempts by that character to be compelling immediately gets labeled as “pandering” regardless of whether that character has engaging storyline or not.

The kind of characters many people seem to be calling for are silent blank slates whose sexuality or gender can be ignored. And even then, you’ll still accuse us of being pandering merely for including them.

I write queer characters because I relate to queer characters. That’s it. That’s the “agenda”.

“…That’s what annoys most people not the diversity but how they often don’t even try and create compelling characters…” . Oh please, this is just a tired load of BS. I mean there are comments in this section that prove this statement wrong. It doesn’t matter how compelling the characters are, how authentic characters are, or how relevant they are to the story. People like yourself will STILL complain about how diversity is being forced down their throat. Heck, people like you will complain about a pride flag in the background of a SINGLE shot. This comment sounds like nothing but an attempt at justifying hating on people you deem beneath you. But you can prove me wrong by posting a list of LGBTQ+ characters you feel are compelling and authentic.

100% agree. How long as the hetero relationships been forced up those who are not straight? It goes both ways.

I am so sick of the “I don’t hate representation, I just hate forced representation” BS. It’s just a tired and pathetic excuse to hate on LGBTQ+ people and other minority groups. People like Simon and other commenters on this page are nothing more then bigots who spout the same tired talking points to justify their hatred but can’t back up their own BS when they get called out on it.

Re: above article.

Really don’t think you’re gay, boo. I think you’re posing to make a false point.

No one is saying there is a quota. Hush. Lol

Some ask, why does it matter? It matters because I don’t need to know the sexual or other preferences of show characters. Do I need to know that somebody prefers the missionary position over some other position? Why don’t we have more characters representing people who like the missionary position? 54% of people enjoy the missionary position. But I don’t see that being represented in the shows I watch. Why?

Or where is the representation for people who enjoy chocolate milk over regular milk? I need to see more characters representing those who drink chocolate milk.

What happened to the days of storytelling that didn’t involve sexual or other preferences that are so in the face of the majority of the viewers.

I consider myself a tolerant, and accepting person, I just don’t need it pushed at me on every show that I watch.

Okay. But how is it being pushed on you when you see a same sex couple hug or kiss any less than when it’s a hetero couple doing so? If you really didn’t care about it, you wouldn’t feel like it is being pushed at you on every show you watch. Maybe stick to watching Fox News instead.

I hate to break it to you Harry, but just because you view yourself as something, doesn’t mean you actually are. Truly tolerant and accepting people wouldn’t be thinking LGBTQ characters are being “pushed” on them. Look inward instead of at your TV.

Oh this article and everything about it is absolute proof that there’s a desire to “push” it. To actually count them up, give percentages, analyze the changes in numbers, and bemoan that it may be lower from one year to the next….? Well what would you call that?

Also when it comes to pushing (and any leftist push), “it’s not happening” is ALWAYS what’s said right before it becomes “it is happening and it’s good that it’s happening.” Wait for it. (Disney even BRAGGED about pushing it!)

So maybe YOU should look inward instead finding ways to satisfy your desire to insult other people who don’t think what you think.

Try embracing empathy and tolerance for those who are different than us. Those are the real family values.

It’s called pointing out a lack of diversity on TV.

That’s it.

If you feel it’s being pushed on you because there are a few left after this year’s cancellations then, well, that’s your feelings.

Statistics. You would call that statistics.

If you view LGBTQ persons merely present in shows you watch as being “pushed at” you, you’re definitely not a tolerant or accepting person. This report isn’t about LGBTQ characters having sex- it’s about them existing. You need to do some soul searching if you think you’re “accepting”.

Pretty sure Harry esses a lil D on the DL. Internalized homophobia is real!

It all boils down to this, you want more LGBTQ or minority characters? You have to watch the shows. Saying they should X type of person to a show and not watch it kinds of defeats the purpose.

The CW going from catering to young people to owned by a right-wing company really pulls this down. As noted, it led for 6/7 years in a row and now is the second lowest with representation. What percentage of these decreases is on Nexstar’s shoulders?

Right wing company? Fox News is called “right wing” and I can think of at least 3 prominent gay paid contributors just off the top of my head. Plus those I probably don’t know about. Shep Smith was prominent until he left.

Maybe try not using childish cliches as an argument. It’s not a good look.

I don’t care if the characters are gay. I accept everyone. That is part of the show. If it is on the show that I like Cool.

The US population appears to show 7-8% identify as LGBTQ+. If you are looking for actual representation of society, isn’t the 8% an accurate inclusion?

Is the purpose of the article meant to stop studios from cancelling inclusive shows due to cost (business reasons), ending inclusive shows when the story is coming to an end (creative reasons), or outright cancelling inclusive shows with relatively nobody watching (both business and creative)? Because cancelling a show for any reason is never something that its audience welcomes, but it’s happened since the beginning of television. It will keep happening, regardless of whether a show is inclusive or not. So I guess my question is, is the article saying that inclusive shows should be exempt from ending? . Not for nothing, but the headline comes across as intending to cause strife — yes, 36% of characters will not be returning, but another way of saying that is saying 64% WILL be returning. I do understand that it’s mathematically a loss of representation, but it’s not 100% gone, and representation will continue on new shows. There are ebbs and flows to everything in Hollywood. This may be an ebb. There will be flow again. But unless you were expecting 100% of all characters on television to be LGBTQ+, or 100% to be POC, or even 100% to be white and straight, the television landscape is probably the most diverse it’s ever been. The percentages may change, but they’re never going to hit 0% ever again. That should be celebrated, not attacked.

By your reasoning, please give me one third of the money in your bank account, right now. After all, you get to keep the other two thirds!

Sure. But if the numbers bounce back even higher with whatever new shows replace the departing shows, you won’t like the interest I’ll charge when you give me my money back. So let’s all try to maintain some rationality about the situation, hmm?

The article is a report about representation with facts. It matters because representation matters. It matters because sometimes cancelations disproportionately affect TV shows that cater to queer characters and audiences. Because a certain group of people would do anything in their power to see them canceled or worse.

Representation will matter as long as boycotting queer-inclusive companies matters to straight people.

Representation absolutely 100% matters, and I don’t dispute the facts of the article. But hey, sometimes the numbers don do what you want. Would you rather the ration be reversed? Would you rather respresentation drops by 64%, rather than 36%? . Your argument seems to be that 100% representation should be mandatory, and if there is respresentation on a TV show, it should make it bulletproof to ever ending. That will NEVER be the case for ANY show. And there will never be 100% representation, despite everyone’s best offorts, because that’s just unrealistic for a variety of reasons (some reasonable, some admittedly not). Even SVU and Grey’s Anatomy will end someday. Even THE SIMPSONS will end (well…maybe). . If the producers or cast of a show with any representation decide to end their story and move on to other things, should they be villainized? Should a studio be forced to spend on a show that’s increasingly expensive but dropping in viewership, just because some of the characters are LGBTQ+ and/or POC? The representation numbers are down. They’ll come back up. They’ll go down again and come up again many more times. It’s the nature of the beast. Who’s to say that the numbers won’t spike with the advent of the new season in the fall? Or that those numbers won’t drop again this time next year, but far far less than this year? Anyone expecting numbers and results that aren’t ridiculously volatile are, well, being ridiculous.

Most of those not returning are because shows were cancelled. Haven’t you got to see the new shows, and how many LGBTQ+ characters are in them before you can say that representation declined?

Hollywood is a business and a business needs to make money. If you, as a group, want to be represented, you need to represent! If LGBT community can’t be bothered to watch the very shows that cater to them, then why should other demographics?

I refer to the Logo Channel. This was the perfect example of what you are talking about. A channel catering.to a certain group, falls apart and becomes a rerun hub for sitcoms they got on the cheap. Why? Because that group wasn’t watching and didn’t try to attract viewers outside LGBTQ community.

Not totally true. Logo was a pay channel for a long time. I am gay and didn’t watch Logo because I wouldn’t pay what they wanted for it. It eventually became part of cable bundles, but then it had changed.

Seeing Trees but not so much the Forest.

Since much of the decline is based on shows ending or being cancelled, has anyone calculated the percentage of non-LGBTQ charactrs who are not returning? It might be interesting to compare the two numbers.

Latino and other minorities also lack inclusion and representation too. Not to mention that it comes off wrong when you can’t have 1 character be gay in a project because then some call that “being/going woke”. That’s not making it woke, that’s just emulating real life. There are gay people in the world whether you like it or not. There is all this unnecessary fragility happening where people should analyze themselves more as to why it bugs them so much having diverse representation on screen.

And the world will be a better place!

It is unfortunate that the whole group suffers when the reality is the pushback is specifically against the “T” part of LGBTQ. No one wants that and the world is showing it. Hopefully, we can get back to place of common sense, which in fact does have inclusion but not to the point of propaganda.

Many of us have absolutely no issues with the transgender community – they are simply human beings who deserve love and acceptance. I do worry about your attitude as it highlights the constant and unrelenting danger these folks face simply for having the courage to live their truth. Everyone deserves to live in peace and transgender individuals could not possibly affect your existence in any way.

Since i don’t fit into any of those categories, i don’t care to watch programs that PUSH them into my face.

The % of shows containing this subject should be the same as they are in the TOTAL population.

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