Zoe Hewitt When you’re not a minority, role models are everywhere, particularly in mainstream movies. Heterosexual cis-gender people and their relationships are the basis for romcoms and featured in actioners.
If you fall outside of that mainstream definition, it becomes harder to see yourself represented by the media in the embodiment of a fully-realized person who exists beyond tokenism and stereotype.
This year, the baseline shifted (somewhat). Each of the main characters in “Monica,” “The Color Purple,” “Rustin,” and “Nyad” are part of the LGBTQ+ community.
Their depictions show, concurrently, that gender and sexual identity are significant components o f a life story, while also proving they’re far from the only aspectsof existence.