Winning at media representation: Orange Is the New Black edition

This Netflix original owns at representation of all varieties: women (obviously), LGBTQ+, PoC, neurodiverse people, religious people, and even the oft-neglected elderly. In this post, I'm going to talk about all the winning that Orange Is the New Black does when it comes to representation.

Women

Representation of women is the entire basis of this show, to be honest. It's a show entirely devoted to us. But of course whereas most shows strive just to represent women well, OITNB understands that 50% of the population is a pretty diverse group and that no two women are the same. So it's pointless, really, to talk about representation of women in OITNB. I'll break it down into several smaller categories and talk it from there.

Lesbian

Lesbians are a dime a dozen in this show and you sort of get confused when a character is actually 100% straight. And I love that. There's Poussey and Nicky (both of whom I have huge crushes on...) and then there's Boo and Alex and Suzanne and Tricia...

There's a lot of great jokes about "lesbianing" such as when prison counsellor Healy tells Piper, "Lesbians can be very dangerous" with zero irony. 

Gay

Out of the few men shown, two of them are gay. Not much time is given to them as they are men and therefore not given the time of day in OITNB as they are minor characters, but they are present, which is more than a lot of shows can say.

Bisexual

Okay, get ready for my sole gripe about this show. Despite the fact that several characters in the show are bisexual, it is never outright, seriously said that they are bisexual. It's implied to the point where you wonder -- why don't they just say it? Everyone knows. But they don't because bisexuality is still a taboo in television. Yeah. I'm going there.

Piper, our lead character, is bisexual and she knows it and everyone knows it and she gets really close to saying it: "I like hot girls. I like hot boys. I like hot people. What can I say? I'm shallow." And her brother gets close to saying it when he says to Larry that people don't have to be "exactly one thing." Once, Piper even explains that people aren't all one hundred percent gay or one hundred percent straight: that they fall somewhere along a Kinsey scale. But she doesn't use the word "bisexual." When the word is used, it is by Larry, almost scoffingly, when he suggests that she may be bisexual -- which she clearly is. But we better not take that too seriously. This is television, where preposterous scenarios are played out every day, but real people don't get to be portrayed honestly.

Fluid sexuality

There's a lot done with the concept of inmates who are "gay for the stay." I like that this topic is addressed honestly in the show because our society needs a wake-up call about sexual orientation and permanence. It doesn't matter if there's a "gay gene" -- there probably isn't. It doesn't matter if people are really "born that way" -- they probably aren't (is anyone truly born with sexual preferences? I think not). Sexuality is a fluid thing that we try to contain with labels, but we have to start considering that for many people it can change over time, and this doesn't mean that they "turned gay" or anything ridiculous like that -- this doesn't mean that their past relationships are less valid.

There's a sweet moment when two best friends, Flaca and Maritza, complain that they are wasting their best years in prison. Maritza says, "Nobody's kissing my lips!" to which Flaca replies, "I'll kiss your dumb lips." They try it, but it doesn't feel right. They laugh it off.

Transgender

Laverne Cox has been nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Sophia, a trans* woman incarcerated at Litchfield. Her twin brother plays the character pre-transformation, which is an amazing opportunity for television and it was used perfectly.

I was so confused for a while there.

Anyway, there's plenty of transphobia in the show and plenty of awareness of her gender identity among the other characters, which makes sense -- it's going to be a while before we see trans* characters whose character arcs aren't centered on their gender identity. Nonetheless, Sophia is a great character with a complex backstory. I like how she's not shown to be perfect, as the temptation might be when striving to represent under-representated people. She is just as flawed as any of the other inmates, which actually does make her character greater than her gender identity.

Black

If the black inmates aren't your favorites then you're lying.

(Well, except Vee. Vee sucks.) Poussey and Taystee are the two big ones, and their banter is wonderful to watch, especially their teasing of white people as they adopt the voices and mannerisms of Mackenzie and Amanda in a recurring gag. 

The best thing about the portrayal of the black inmates is that they are consistently shown to be very book-smart -- despite their "street-smart" way of speaking. Poussey is multi-lingual. Taystee is gifted at math. Suzanne has a vast knowledge of Shakespeare. Cindy makes a comment about how Monsanto and other companies are "killing us without our consent." These are intelligent women -- but how many of us wouldn't think that after a few minutes of hearing them talk to one another?

Hispanic

The last of the three large racial groups is the Latina inmates. (I'm not going to talk about the white inmates because we don't need to talk about white representation -- it's not an issue.) These women speak a lot of Spanish, or mix Spanish with English.

One of my favorite jokes is from the first episode when Daya arrives at the same time as Piper and is confronted by the leader of the Hispanic group, Gloria. Daya is asked if she speaks Spanish. She doesn't. It's mentioned that Piper, who is standing by, probably even speaks Spanish. She does -- she says a few lines about how she can understand more than she can speak. Gloria turns to Daya and says, "See? F***ing white girl speaks Spanish." 

Asian

There aren't enough Asian inmates for them to have their own group, but they are not ignored. The two focused on are Chang and Brook Soso. The race of these characters is rarely a topic of conversation (except in the case of teasing Soso about her name) which is nice in a show that makes you uber-aware of race.

Neurodiverse

No specific mental illness is ever mentioned in relation to a specific character, but there are characters who are not completely healthy. Lorna Morello is delusional, believing that the man she got put in prison for stalking is her boyfriend -- and yet you sympathize with her.

Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" is shown to have anger issues as well as other vague mental issues, but she is a lovable, wonderful character. Don't call her "Crazy Eyes" or I will cut you. Her name is Suzanne.

Religious People

OITNB depicts, basically, two extremes of religious views and religious people. There is Tiffany "Pennsatucky", the portrayal of everything people hate about religious people, specifically Christians. She spews hate at the lesbians and especially at Sophia, she is poorly educated and believes herself to be a prophet who can heal the sick and injured.

Then there's the former-nun/activist, Sister Ingalls. She represents a loving and accepting perspective, particularly in her caring relationship with Sophia. Even she isn't all good, though -- her backstory reveals that she was a tad self-obsessed, but she seems to truly be rehabilitating in prison.

Elderly

When Red is kicked out of the whities, she joins the "golden gals." It's expressed how no one cares about them, no one notices them, and this is clearly true, both in the show and in our society. However, these women are shown to have a lot of charisma and to be strong characters despite their age.

And now... Whiny men.

The only criticism Orange Is the New Black has received for its portrayals is that of men! Surprise, surprise!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ha.

There are already a lot of men in the show (ugh) and they are actually pretty accurate characters. They're not flawless, but I like Bennett and I like Caputo. Larry is the worst. Healy's bad most of the time. Pornstache (I'm blanking on his real name? And I don't care enough to look it up?) is obviously awful, but I actually kind of enjoy watching him as a character because he's so ridiculous.

I do want to point out that Maria's boyfriend is actually a really great male character, although only briefly seen. He steps up to the plate as a single father, dresses his daughter in adorable clothes, and tries his hardest to make sure she is raised correctly, all while staying loyal to his imprisoned girlfriend.

Good for you, Maria's boyfriend.

All in all, OITNB does a lot of winning at media representation but also as a work for entertainment. It's a great show and employs its diverse cast to create characters you love. Hopefully this show will be an example that having a virtually all-women cast is not risky, that facing racial issues head-on is something people enjoy seeing, and that all conceivable sexual orientations can be represented in a single show -- and represented well. Good for you, OITNB. Now -- give us season 3.