Representation in the media; that’s a phrase that we have all been hearing a lot in the past 5 years or so. People are getting tired of turning on the television or their computers and seeing heterosexual, cis, white people there. Which I get.

For a really long time, and even still now, whenever there was a minority of some kind in a show, they would be the “token minority” with their “blackness” or “gayness” as their defining character trait. It’s frustrating to see the “token minority” being thrown into the mix just to appease the masses and then have their entire identity be boiled down to that one thing about them.

I remember watching Glee when it first came out on cable with my mom and getting unreasonably excited when they introduced Brittany and Santana’s relationship. At the time my reason was “I’m not gay but I just think their relationship is too cute!” In reality I was a closeted bisexual who loved the fact that there was a cute lesbian relationship on television that wasn’t boiled down to “the lesbian couple”. They were complex characters with their own struggles and interactions with other characters in the show who hadn’t been reduced to the “token minority”. Needless to say, that show got bad. But I remember watching Glee long after I should have kept up with it just for the Brittany and Santana relationship arc.

I remember watching that show and thinking to myself; “so maybe it is normal”. And that is why representation is so important. I didn’t come out until years later due to other circumstances out of my control but that was really the first time I remember having my feelings validated in that way. It can be discouraging when you can’t find someone like you in shows or in the public eye because it can make you feel like you’re not good enough to be there or that you’re strange and isolated in how you feel.

I can’t speak to how people of color feel about this subject, because I won’t profess to be able to fully understand, but I can imagine that it might feel similarly. I can imagine that it is very discouraging and frustrating to look a certain way and not have anyone representing you in movies or shows; or only having one piece of representation and having them reduced to the “token minority”.

That being said, I don’t think that changing the races or physical appearances of pre-existing characters is the way to go about making that change. Now, just hear me out. As someone who reads a lot of books and has seen more than my fair share of movie adaptations of those books, I hate it when the producers get details wrong. For example, when they made the movie adaptation of the Percy Jackson series, I was IRRATIONALLY angry that Annabeth’s hair was brown in the movies when it SPECIFICALLY said in the book that she was blonde. It’s not that I have an issue with choosing the best actor/actress for the part, but if you’re going to make changes to the original character it HAS to make sense.

One example is Zendaya as Mary Jane in the newer Spiderman movies; I don’t have a problem with that. It has been explained countless times that there are infinite possible versions of each universe, as proven in Into the Spiderverse (which is also a fantastic movie and a wonderful example of representation done right); so reasonably there is a universe where MJ is black and that makes sense.

Ariel changing race on the other hand, doesn’t really make sense to me. I’m still going to go see the movie, because I am a garbage person who still watches Disney movies at almost 25 years old. So, yes you will find me among the parents of young children bringing their kids to see the new Little Mermaid in theaters. And I think that it’s great that there will be kids out there who will see an Ariel that looks like them, but it makes me really mad that they changed how she looks. Personally, I think that changing the race or sexuality of an already established character instead of creating new content seems pander-y. Like how JK Rowling retrospectively adds a different sexuality to characters where it makes no goddamn sense seems queer-bait-y.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am the first person to be hype when a new movie or tv show comes out with a diverse cast with varying race, gender, and sexuality; but there is a correct way to do it. For example, the HBO original series Euphoria. Holy shit that show is amazing; it is a show starring Zendaya (a black actress) who plays a teenager struggling with addiction who falls in love with Jules, a transgender woman (who is also played by a transgender actress) and the struggles they go through together. A diverse cast featuring a queer relationship played by an actual transgender actress without any pandering? Sign me up!

Representation in the media is important and I’m not going to complain about the steps that we have made as a society thus far toward more equally creating content for everyone. But I think that we can do better and I don’t think that we should settle for different adaptations of pre-established characters when we could have entirely new content not tarnished by the touch of gross old white men that is entirely our own.