"The 100" TV Show Sets Good Example for Diversity and Normalcy

The television show “The 100” has been gaining popularity recently. It has an interesting storyline, excellent cinematography, and complex character dynamics. The most interesting facet of the show for me is the diversity and sexuality of its characters. There are two clans of people prominently featured in the show, and the leaders of both are female. Not only that, but the leader of one group is a lesbian, and the other is bisexual. The first love interest of the bisexual character is a man, and the second is a woman. Further, the show does not focus on their sexuality. Labels such as “lesbian”, “bisexual”, “pansexual”, “gay”, etc. are never used. By excluding labels from the show, “The 100” promotes the fact that diversity must be backed by normalcy. The show focuses on the dynamics of the different cultural groups, the plot line, dynamics between characters, power struggles between groups and the characters within those groups, and friendships, love interests, relationships, and families. There are also interracial, intersocioeconomic, and interstatus relationships throughout the show. This show is an example of the fact that media can be successful, excellent, and popular using diverse characters whose diversity is normal within the storyline. This show relates to our intersectionality reading from Grewal Kaplan, because the diverse characters don’t necessarily have to be the ones in political power. It’s more important and more powerful that the diverse characters are socially accepted, social contributors, and seen as normal.

“Yet implicit in certain strands of feminist and racial liberation movements, for example, is the view that the social power in delineating difference need not be the power of domination, it can instead be the source of social empowerment, and reconstruction.” Inctersectionality, Grewal Kaplan

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/2016/01/27/five-ways-the-100-is-changing-television.html