Backlash

Should a superhero actor get caught dead doping, it would reveal a damning secret for superhero films since they’re so reliant on muscular actors that one wonders if there are any shortcuts to get such a body. He would speak out about how men are increasingly objectified and why he wants to see more body diversity, though not without an accompanying backlash to what he’s saying. Male fans would say he’s become an SJW cuck and both straight and bisexual female fans say that he’s harshing on their squee or slut-shaming them for liking hot, buff men. He will get a lot of flack for saying this, should he get caught dead doping beforehand.

This would pressure companies to add more bodily diversity, if it does happen at all or something like that. But I think the backlash would form the most infamous part of this phenomenon, not just because straight fanboys will complain about how he’s encouraging emasculation but also because straight and bisexual fangirls will complain about their sex objects being taken away in some form or another. If he’s black, he’ll face twice the backlash. Whoever he may be, whatever ethnicity he is he will face backlash for complaining about something both fanboys and fangirls like very much.

One would wonder what would happen if somebody were to put out a video game full of muscular men now that this actor got outed for doping, it would be a very controversial game but one that attracts his detractors. Fanboys would have their non SJW heroes and fangirls would have their hot guys, it would be the perfect game for those two groups. Though to be fair, considering video games have a long history of objectifying women a lot, coupled with that there’s not a lot of hot guys in Western games so this game (if it ever comes to fruition at all) would fill in the gap.

Even then, I think if this actor ever gets caught dead doping and starts ranting about muscular guys coupled with such a video game coming out, on one hand it’s at the wrong place at the wrong time but on the other hand it would benefit a lot from his detractors.

Ways of representing

Representation does matter but I do think it can go beyond representing those of a different body shape, ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation. For instance, there are many other things in the real world that don’t get represented much in fiction whether if it’s farmers or sailors and their cats (it’s a thing in the real world enough to warrant separate webpages), feral dogs hunting prey and rendering some of them extinct (it’s even there in some academic studies) or witch turkeys (it’s even the subject of one anthropological study in Mexico at some point).

I feel like when it comes to representation, there are things which I’ve read that don’t get represented in the fictional media I consume or have consumed. Not just due to a lack of representation of ethnicities and disabilities but also because there are many things that I like that don’t get represented much in fiction. Up to the point where I think the people who make these media tend to have either limited experiences or interests (pardon if it’s ableist to those with autism but it does feel like it).

Representation matters but it’s also important to represent things people don’t expect to, otherwise we’d get a repetition of more of the same things all over again. To put it this way, black hunters do exist and they do exist in relatively great numbers in Africa where they’re either hunters from a settled society (most African countries and ethnicities) or hunter-gatherers. Black farmers exist in Africa as well, so in a sense they do warrant and need representation in the media as do black cat owners (they do exist, I’m part of a Facebook group for Kenyan cat owners).