In the last decade, we’ve seen how our society has learned to see life through an evolved, open, inclusive, and diverse lens. This has brought up new discussions regarding our culture, our media, and the content we consume every day. Although this is important, we have to move beyond cancel culture and understand that context is key. Sometimes the things we used to love were not as woke as we thought.
For example, many of us have seen memes, threads, articles or even blog posts online (like this one) dedicated to telling us how problematic some of the tv shows and movies from the past that we know and love are, making us see them with other eyes. From the transphobic jokes on ‘Friends’ to the racism displayed in ‘Gone With The Wind’ to the lack of diversity in many many tv shows, and the truth is we can’t say is not accurate or untrue. What we can do is learn how to digest these type of discoveries without crucifying something that is product/reflection of a particular time in our society’s history.
This doesn’t mean we can’t condemn or call out what we feel is unfair or wrong, that’s the whole point of having a voice: to use it. But we should also focus on the fact that we opened our eyes wide enough to finally see what was wrong with that content in the first place. We can watch a wholesome sitcom like ‘Bewitched’, ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ or ‘I Love Lucy’ knowing that being a housewife and serving a man is not a woman’s purpose – and that BIPOC exist, even tho we don’t see them often (or at all) on those shows.
Let’s normalize character growth above all – our own character development, as we move forward and we keep opening our eyes more and more everyday.