Things You Didn't Know About Shameless
Time To Get Critical About Representation in "Shameless"
(Contains minor spoilers for Shameless (U.S.) up to Season 9)
Almost ten years since information technology aired, Shameless (U.Due south.) has always stuck to its guns (and baseball bats) about character diversity.
A prove total of penny-pinching and night humor, Shameless is known for its depiction of the jarring realities of life in poverty for the Gallaghers, a predominantly white family living in the South Side of Chicago.
Despite the Gallaghers facing life or death but to keep their lights on, Shameless' nighttime themes are thinly-veiled with witty and quick-paced dialogue that make it easy to skim over tragedy and focus on the outlandish comedy in the script. Bright lighting, bustling dialogue, and the constant chaos that erupts from the Gallagher household distract from the core elements of a rattling reality that many gentrified communities really face across America. Managing director Paul Abbott trades pity for humor as shock value — a great technique if yous're trying to gain the appeal of an audience who has never been in the Gallaghers' shoes.
On the brink of losing their home at to the lowest degree once a flavor and without the guidance of either parent, the Gallaghers' reality of lying, adulterous, punching, and stealing their way through the Due south Side are very relatable to too many Americans. What keeps this show'due south audition then vast, though, is its ability to appeal to all grade demographics. The drama in this show can seem outrageous to those who haven't experienced it, just the Gallaghers aren't looking for pity. The comedy Abbott draws out of every line of Shameless' script brings the drama only shut enough to domicile for the under-privileged, and just on the brink of insanity for the privileged.
Vii out of its nine principal characters are white, but Shameless is nevertheless not shy about its diverse casting. The show features six wayward siblings navigating very adult problems lone. Fiona (Emily Rossum), the eldest daughter of Frank Gallagher (William H. Macy), rather blindly leads her siblings through simple school up into high school. Lip, (Jeremy Allen White), Ian (Cameron Monaghan) and Debbie (Emmy Kenney) all raise hell just to scrounge up some cash for the electric neb, or to cheat their mode through finals, while Carl (Ethan Cutcosky) and Liam (Brendan Sims/Christian Isaiah) usually notice ways to stir up trouble in their lawn.
Liam, the youngest of the Gallaghers, is rather hastily explained to exist born of two white parents despite being Black. The Gallaghers' nearby neighbors Kev (Steve Howey) and V (Shanola Hampton) are second parents to the crew, and Liam may not take very many Black office models, just at least he has V, a Black, bisexual concern-owner and mother of two children.
Among the other Gallaghers, the diversity stretches further, Debbie and Ian both being on the queer spectrum.
My only qualm with Shameless afterwards revisiting it some fourth dimension later, is what damage does such scandalous comedy and drama do to the image and stereotypes of the characters that they are portraying? Some meaningful characters to inclusivity that stand up out seem promising, but upon further inspection, all have questionable motives in plot development. Does the cede for proper, expansive, diversity have to be a dark one-act and white-axial drama that makes minorities the barrel of the joke and torment? I'1000 not sure that information technology does, but I'm also not sure that that's what Shameless has watered its characters down to.
"Nobody's proverb our neighborhood is the Garden of Eden. H*ll, some people say God avoids this place altogether".
The starting time inclement introduction of the Gallaghers — the family at the heart of Shameless' plot — is given past Frank, the nearly dislikeable primary character of all time, and also the patriarch of the Gallagher household. Frank's words mirror quite well how I feel about the representation of people of colour and minority groups on Shameless.
Information technology is not my place to reverberate on the Black experience in Shameless. I can just talk over the shortcomings that white characters have on worsening the effects of racism on television, and Liam is one vast instance. He is constantly exploited by his family, whether by Frank's get-rich scheme to sell his "single begetter" pity-story on the streets for some extra cash, or even past the eldest Fiona's plot to send the youngest daughter Debbie to school with Liam for bear witness-and-tell. His family's ignorance of his identity is glimpsed over, and while information technology is so shockingly awful and blatantly disrespectful, the characters requite little acknowledgment to his mistreatment, although that's how the Gallaghers deal with everything shocking and atrocious.
Liam's representation is a slippery slope. In the earlier seasons, he toed the line of being plopped at the Gallagher dining table for Shameless to earn some diversity points. Afterward, though, equally Liam matures, his character is given bureau over the way that Frank treats him, and there is even a segment in season 7 where the show touches on Liam's individual school not letting him back in after reaching their diversity publicity quota for the school year. Existent touchy subjects that Black boys living in poverty like Liam take had some light shed on them. The problem is, were they to highlight the growth and challenges Liam himself has to live with, or were they put in place to highlight the shortcomings of other characters, or even the misfortune of others?
In season iv, Liam's older sister, Fiona, exposed him to cocaine accidentally, causing the child to be hospitalized and taken away due to her neglect. The prove and then followed Fiona's story for the remainder of the season regarding her struggles of losing her siblings to the organisation. It inappreciably touched on Liam's perspective in the foster care system other than for comedic effect or to requite sympathy to Fiona. Information technology'southward hard to say if these portrayals of Liam's life in the care of Fiona and Frank were meant to be damaging. Aspects of Liam's life are very much real to too many Black boys, and mayhap simply representing these struggles overshadows the impairment that information technology does for the sake of comedy.
Unfortunately, Liam isn't the just Black character exploited for white proceeds in Shameless. In flavour ix, Debbie Gallagher explores a relationship with queer Blackness electrician Alex (Ashley Romans), who feels played by Debbie presently after she realizes that Debbie isn't gay and still exploring her sexuality. The two revive their human relationship one time Debbie comes to terms with her sexuality and begins to actively seek out Alex. Debbie could have explored her sexuality on her own without the expense of Alex's feelings, but that wouldn't accept washed much for drama. This could be written off as but a complicated mix of emotions for a immature teen girl who doesn't know what she wants yet — a valid, common experience amid young girls exploring their sexualities.
The story Shameless told of Alex and Debbie's time together does reflect that of many immature girls, and so does this really do any harm? The girls did communicate with each other, and Debbie was honest with Alex about her feelings. Many aspects of their relationship were just a product of their circumstances. The problem here is that Alex didn't have her own storyline at all, and upon Debbie realizing her sexuality, Alex didn't play much of a part in the show. At a time when Black girls already get such little screentime, especially those portraying queer characters, maybe it's non such a good idea to only characteristic Black girls in this context when its to highlight the evolution of a white main character.
On the topic of bisexuality, which is regularly explored on Shameless, the writers do an excellent job exploring the fluidity of sexuality, especially involving women. Monica Gallagher (Chloe Webb), Debbie, Svetlana (Isadora Goreshter), V, and a few other minor characters all at 1 point had relationships with other women. Bisexuality in mass media is ofttimes portrayed to exist a youthful feel between women who are just starting to figure out where they stand with their sexuality. Shameless, instead, features queer women of all ages and races in ways that push back against toxic stereotypes. Lesbians aren't one-time, lonely white women who aren't wanted by men in Shameless. They're young apartment-owners in stable relationships and girls in the workforce disguising themselves as men for equal pay (See: Alex and Nessa).
One issue I accept with the portrayal of queer women in this evidence has to exercise with a couple of divide cases that made bisexuality into a revenge tactic for ex-lovers. Monica came back into Frank's life with Roberta in tow to rub her in his face half of the time, equally did Lip Gallagher's college beloved, Amanda (Nichole Bloom). Kev and V's natural progression into a relationship with Svetlana seemed more natural than the relationship betwixt Monica and Bob'south. Bisexuality in media can be harmful if it features bisexual women just when their past relationships with men didn't work out. This is a damaging stereotype that makes it seem like a woman dating other women is a terminal resort merely to be exhausted when the human being she's been pining after isn't interested anymore.
Ian Gallagher, i half of Shameless' gay duo, verbally expresses his biphobia towards an ex-beau of his, and for what? It was a short-lived, lazy plot point that was designed to end his relationship with the guy in question. Because of the constant misgendering, racist and sexist remarks, and crass nature erupting from all of the Gallaghers, perhaps this narrative was meant to show Ian'southward lack of didactics on the topic. Except… there was no reconciliation for his outspokenness on the subject field, no character arc that taught him to practice better. His actions had zero repercussions. Subsequently on, in the evidence's progression, Ian has some other tricky situation with Trevor (Elliot Fletcher), a new lover who is a FTM (female person to male person) transgender grapheme that is constantly existence berated by a clueless Ian, who doesn't do about plenty research before coming to Trevor with awfully offensive questions. Elliot Fletcher, a trans man himself, bandage to play a trans character (an awesome win for representation!) had to listen to Monaghan's character feed him a few also many microaggressions for me to be comfortable with.
For every awesome glimpse at queer visibility we got, at that place were equally as many homophobic jabs, and in some cases hooks and uppercuts, too. Ian and his longterm on-once more, off-again fellow Mickey Milkovich (Noel Fisher) are known to showtime swinging punches in every argument between each other. They're constantly dodging Mickey'south dad, who has shot at them and beaten them to a lurid in The Alibi. Once again, there are no repercussions for these actions, zip that helps them learn from their mistakes. Information technology would be 1 affair if Shameless was trying to show usa the realities of homophobia and so dismantling those beliefs after every blow, just it really is just brushed nether the carpeting and saved for the next time Mickey decides to have a swing at Ian. Information technology's starting to feel like the only creative portrayal of a queer couple that the television manufacture can provide is the couples that crush the crap out of each other for the sake of drama. Information technology'south actually, really getting erstwhile. It also doesn't help that Fisher and Monaghan are directly, cisgender men cast in roles that were suitable for queer actors to play.
Shameless touches on really intense topics like mental illness, PTSD, children with disabilities, adoption, abortion, teen pregnancy, religion, drug abuse, and AA programs. It is equally diverse a show as I've ever seen. The get-go season features a closeted Muslim man at state of war with his sexuality and his wife's blessing. Several seasons talk near the prison organization, drug dealing, sexual practice work, unmarried parenting, and lack of health care. It expertly details the experiences of Americans living in poverty, however unimaginable they tin seem sometimes.
In some ways, Shameless is vibrantly diverse. Very fiddling representation is perfect, though, and Shameless could employ a lot of piece of work. It'due south a skillful time to beginning thinking critically about the way the media is portraying minority groups and so that we can start to challenge these perspectives.
For some, it is plenty just to meet someone just like them on television for the start time. Simply isn't that a depression bar? Shouldn't we be doing more than to make their characters seem just as well-rounded every bit white people that and so frequently drown them out in the cast?
*Without spoiling Season x (which was just released on Netflix as of July 26th), at that place has been some meaning character evolution in Liam's case surrounding being a Black boy in America. While his insecurities of existence raised on the South Side in a white family are addressed with humor, he raises some good points. This season also touches on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and its toll on immigrant families in the U.s.a.. Shameless redeemed itself this season, but at that place's always room for criticism. Stay tuned for the follow-up commodity on Season 10!
Source: https://medium.com/incluvie/time-to-get-critical-about-representation-in-shameless-4fa2f6faac98
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