RESOURCES FOR REPRESENTATION.

royalrph:

royalrph-deactivated20150325:

“If I get to see myself on screen, then I know that I exist.”
— Gabby Sidibe, star of Precious

Representation is an imperative thing and it needs to be recognized as one. It’s because Laverne Cox and Lupita Nyong’o don’t make the Time 100 list even if they had over 90%, as opposed to the others that made the list with less yes votes than no votes. It’s because Scott McCall isn’t considered the main character of the show and his ethnicity isn’t recognized in any way. (It’s also because Tyler Posey signs everything with his character name because he feels like people forget.) It’s because people are angry that Lupita Nyong’o is on the most beautiful list because everything about her completely subverts white beauty standards. It’s because of all of those things, and so much more.

Write people of color. Write people that are queer. Write people that are trans*. Write people that are bodily diverse. Write people that have disabilities. Write them all.

Write them shamelessly and with pride and develop them beyond the afterthought of hey, Dumbledore was gay. Write characters that are cisgender, heterosexual, abled, fit, white, etc., isn’t the problem. Don’t feel bad for doing it. If you like writing characters like that and it makes you happy, go ahead! The problem is that writing characters like those have become the norm and the default unless otherwise explicitly stated. And even then, the character is usually grossly typecasted and stereotyped. Change that. Research a lot and make sure that you get a personal perspective somehow, but here’s something to get your started.

Gender and sexuality.

• LIST OF SEXUALITIES
• LIST OF LGBT* TERMS
• TRANS* (CHARACTER GUIDE & BIO BUILDING)
• TRANS* RESOURCES
• WRITING TRANS* 
• WRITING LESBIANS
• WRITING QUEERS
• WRITING GENDER
• WRITING WOMEN

Ethnicity.

• MY PERSON OF COLOR FC TAG
• TUMBLR’S PERSON OF COLOR FC TAG
• WRITING RACE
• FACECLAIM DIRECTORY (GENERAL)
• FACECLAIM DIVERSITY MASTERPOST

Body diversity.

• FCHELPERS’ PLUS SIZED FACECLAIMS TAG
• FACECLAIM DIVERSITY MASTERPOST

Disabilities.

• CHARACTERS WITH DISABILITIES
• HOW TO WRITE A DISABLED CHARACTER
• HOW TO NOT WRITE A DISABLED CHARACTER

I hope these links will give you a start. If any of the links are broken or contain incorrect information that I missed, please message me with an explanation. Thank you so much!