How do you feel about the misrepresentation of a group in a comic?

nriq 2017-09-01 23:16:17 UTC #1

Say, the lgbt group, is it offensive if the comic artist mispotrays a trans man in a way that is not true to the identity? I know the experience of being trans can be different for everyone. But, I would like to know a way to potray a person from a social group that is accurate and relatable. Help me?

sprakdesigns 2017-09-02 00:30:20 UTC #2

Hey! It's great to have a broad group of characters in your stories, including minority groups that you may or may not be a part of like the LGBT community or poc characters. It would be offensive to misrepresent these characters even if you didn't mean any intentional harm. My advice would be to go straight to the source...ask people from these groups, read the stories and comics written by these groups themselves, and always try to mindful and respectful.

I've heard advice before that you, if you're not from the particular group, shouldn't write stories directly about BEING these things, but can aim to include characters in your story that are these things. (ex. as a trans person, I would be a little uncomfortable for a non-trans person writing a story directly about being trans/trans experiences from their perspective, but wouldn't at all be uncomfortable if they included trans characters into their story world. This is just my own opinion though, other people from the lgtb community likely have a lot of different views on this )

heterodont 2017-09-02 01:31:28 UTC #3

Well the question is - are you going to play off harmful stereotypes in an attempt to portray a trans character?

It's true trans people irl all have different experiences and preferences, but there's a difference between say, having a trans man character wearing a skirt because he likes wearing clothing like that because it's loose and cool or whatever and stating he's wearing the skirt because he's really just in ~~denial~~ of his birth gender. (Or something, not sure if that example works quite as well)

As the person above stated, it's better to ask people with experience so you know you don't unwittingly play into misconceptions.

indagold 2017-09-02 02:18:18 UTC #4

Research and knowing about it helps although really in the end it's just like writing any other character, but this one happens to be transgender with their own issues. People are just people, have all the same goals, conflicts and needs and not all misrepresentation is hate speech, most of the time it's poor understanding of an issue or just plain lack of research.

I remember a bunch of asexuals on an ace forum kept talking about how a certain writer was pure evil because god forbid she didn't understand what asexuality was (not many people fully understand it, I know. It's not new news, shit happens) and described one of her ace characters in a way that isn't 100% accurate. Maybe she made a mistake or not or just didn't know. It's not the end of the world.

And really if making mistakes is wrong then how do you learn from them? That's just how someone learns to write a character. We've had a lot of writers make terrible characters that were questionable but years later with practice they have more developed characters that are more real and true to life.

In the end just try to face this from a writers perspective and try to do the best as you can, look things up and talk to someone if you need to. There's no specific guide or way to make a character, saying simply "don't make them offensive" just is very vague.

spadesart 2017-09-02 02:44:24 UTC #5

ask for people from that group to review your ideas, its what i do.

afaik people usually only take offense if you play off harmful stereotypes (ie portraying a trans person as that awful 'fat purple haired greasy unattractive masculine whiny screamer baby feminyst' deal, like you should avoid caricatures of minority groups) like, im bi, and i wouldnt be happy if a bi character was written as a sex hungry greedy cheater like we get stereotyped as

Sanz 2017-09-02 03:13:14 UTC #6

talk to people from said social groups. ask question most people are more then willing to give accuate information because so many people don't understand.

nriq 2017-09-02 10:51:02 UTC #7

Would it be better for the trans character to not be the main character if I myself am not trans? How about being the antagonist?

SpavVy 2017-09-02 17:35:00 UTC #8

You can make a trans character as a protagonist or an antagonist even if you aren't trans yourself, it's your story so do what you want. Like others have said be sure to do your research and maybe talk to some people who are trans because they have the experience which can help a lot. When it comes to the villain anyone can be evil LGBT or not.

Edit: I forgot to add that I don't recommend making an LGBT character just for the sake of making an LGBT character, just let that part of the creation process come naturally. I from a reader's point of view personally cannot stand anything that is obviously forced.

LCT_m_a_d 2017-09-02 17:44:08 UTC #9

I think the important thing to remember is even though a certain theme comes into play and you want to emphasize a specific perspective, at the end of the day we are all people, and a certain identity is only a single element of who we are. My experiences as a black person are extremely different than say many of my friends and even family members. I am black because of my ethnicity but I personally do not prefer to be patronized even sympathetically on account of that. With that said, that's my particular viewpoint as an individual, not a cultural standard

insomniumeye 2017-09-02 18:42:09 UTC #10

I've made a bow to keep my own personal beliefs and politics out of my work.
However I see people as individuals, not as a label. If a villain happens to be trans/gay/etc, then that's just how the character is. Same applies to them being protags, anti-heroes, etc.

I've designed a few LGBT characters for my comics, but they're seldom open about it due to their busy life style. I simply believe that one's sexuality isn't something most people talk about when they're very busy, or in the case of some of my LGBT characters, they're political figures or warriors of some sort.

I also believe that if you wish to be a good writer, you have to write things that make you uncomfortable, sometimes things that go against your own personal morals, because the world is a fucked up place.

sprakdesigns 2017-09-02 21:09:07 UTC #11

Your main character could be trans! You'd really have to research and ask people in the community for their experiences. If you're making a large part of their story focus heavily on the characters experiences and entire being about being trans, even more so (although I'd like to say a trans person character shouldn't %100 revolve around them JUST being trans, hah. We're people too with a lot of different aspects in our lives. )

A trans antagonist would be awesome! Again, though, their entire antagonist-self/life/reasoning for being a villain/whatever should not be based on them solely being trans. People just don't usually work that simply.