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If you’re like me, you may have asked yourself, what would American culture be without Black folks. It’s a hypothetical question. The answer is nothing. Not only did we build the infrastructure and economy of this nation, we shaped the entire culture as well, from the very beginning up until today. Even as the technology and vehicles for communication change and evolve, Black people still manage to dominate the conversation.

Still, for all of our contributions we rarely reap the rewards or even recognition for our brilliance. This is extremely apparent on the social media app Tik Tok. Black TikTokers have created not only the soundtrack but even the dance moves to some of the most popular social media content that exists today. But when it’s time for brands to pay up or for talk shows to feature these creatives, the Black folk get overlooked.

We saw it earlier this year when Jimmy Fallon used a white TikToker to underperform all the dances Black kids had created. He later attempted to correct the mistake by inviting the originators of the dances to perform via Zoom. Several Black TikTokers have complained about being offered pennies or nothing at all while their white counterparts–who utilize Black culture, are making thousands.

And apparently, the youth dem are tired of it.

One TikToker @theericklouis decided to create a video detailing what the app would look like without the contribution of Black folks.

He pretended he was going to choreograph a dance to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Thot Sh*t,” content that would have likely been duplicated and shared worldwide. But decided otherwise.

At the end, he captions the video, “Sike, this app would be nothing without Blk people.”

In an ironic and sad twist, white TikTokers have still copied Erik’s faux choreography, showing that even our protest is being duplicated.

Erik’s protest has caught on. And several other Black TikTokers are following in his footsteps. Apparently, the internet has taken notice and folks are struggling to come up with original content. We won’t turn this into a post making fun of the young and rhythmless but there are plenty of struggle videos to be seen on the app right now.

Thankfully, Black folk who aren’t even on TikTok support the movement, recognizing that taking control of our creative and intellectual property is long overdue.

Pose wrapped up its final season this month, leaving behind a legacy for trans representation on television, as well as massive hole to fill for more representation of its kind. As we look to the future of TV, we need more shows that challenge society’s exploration of gender, particularly with non-binary and gender non-conforming identities. While we see more trans characters and actors appear on our screens, it’s important that we remember that trans identity extends so much further than the binary.

A small but growing number of shows have clearly identified non-binary/gender-nonconforming characters. In Billions, Taylor introduces themselves clearly, indicating their pronouns are they/them. Stevonnie is a combination of Steven Universe’s Steven and Connie. And Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist‘s Mo identifies as genderfluid, using he/him pronouns in the first season and also going by she/her and they/them in the second.

These characters represent so many people in this world that don’t fit into the boxes society has tried to put them in. But they’re also nearly drowned out by the heteronormativity in their shows and on their networks. Altogether, these characters’ identities are clearly laid out for audiences, making it that much easier for them to perceive what non-binary and gender non-conforming identities look like.

NBC

However, several other shows with would-be non-binary or gender-nonconforming characters introduce them under the radar, offering no clear explanation of their identities. Admittedly, this can certainly have its pros. But in a world where so many people are quick to judge or misunderstand non-binary and gender-nonconforming people in person, perhaps it’s time to put these characters’ identities in the spotlight instead of shying away from them.

For The Dragon Prince’s Kazi, a non-binary identity was suggested only by the show’s Twitter account. As for The Good Place‘s Janet? The character is played by a cisgender woman, presenting feminine and using she/her pronouns. However, she often retorts “I’m not a girl,” when being called as such by other characters on the show. Her identity as non-binary isn’t official by any means; but fans of the show were quick to point out that non-binary is a pretty damn good explanation of her portrayal.

In the US, an unprecedented amount of bills are circulating in several states targeting trans rights, particularly trans youth. These bills strive to keeping them from playing on sports teams, or to prevent them from getting life-saving healthcare. All of these bills underscore a massive misunderstanding of trans and gender-nonconforming identities. Pediatricians across the country have stated that these bills will harm trans youth, not save them. So what can we do to help people understand the nuances and complexities of gender identity? We can start by putting more trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people in front of audiences, in hopes of repeating what we did with gay rights in the 1990s.

Netflix

In June of 1994, gay rights activist Pedro Zamora became the first openly gay man with HIV portrayed in pop culture in The Real World: San Francisco. He died in November of that year, but his inclusion on the series brought international attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis and anti-gay prejudice. Three years later, Ellen DeGeneres came out on national TV, and a year after that Will & Grace was the first sitcom on television to portray life as an out and proud gay man. Not too much later, shows like The L Word and Queer as Folk hit premium cable networks and gave us some of the steamiest gay sex scenes ever seen on TV. All this while America was fighting a very familiar legal battle against people in the LGBTQIA+ community.

Through the ’90s, the country tried to fight against people in the LGBTQIA+ community. We saw President Bill Clinton’s 1996 passing of the Defense of Marriage Act and many individual states approving constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in the years following. But as the shows above started to progress—alongside grassroots efforts, political activism and more widespread effort to educate people about the science behind queerness—so did the views of the nation.

Once again we find ourselves fighting miseducation and a lack of understanding; this time with a focus on gender identity. It’s crucial to make sure that Pose is not the last show to grace our screens with a predominantly trans cast, and that characters’ explorations of their identities aren’t relegated to Twitter or fan theory. To include identities on television is a way to familiarize them to millions of people all at once.

Showtime

As a non-binary person myself, having only just come to terms with my identity this year, I know how hard it can be to understand any of this. It wasn’t that long ago that I cast doubt on they/them pronouns, only to end up using them today. I was able to do this because somewhere along the way I learned about the fluidity of gender and saw characters like Mo and real-life actors like Alex Newell live their best lives. I envied these people for being able to live their truths. When I saw that they were capable of that, I finally learned: Hey, I can do that, too.

Sometimes you have to see to believe, and that’s why it’s so important that the world sees more trans, non-binary and gender-nonconforming identities on television. When we’re standing in front of you, in all of your favorite forms of media from television to music to books, you can’t help but see us. You, too, might be able to believe that you can live your best life no matter what society tells you is real.

The post On Bringing More Non-Binary Characters to TV appeared first on Nerdist.

The Transformers saga is one of the most successful box office franchises of all time, grossing $4.8 billion since the first film hit theaters in 2007. Now, the seventh installment in the franchise is has been announced, titled Transformers: Rise of the Beasts. The film will be based on the 1990s animated series Beast Wars: Transformers, which follows robots who transform into animal form. It will be directed by Steven Caple Jr. (Creed II).

“There are different breeds of Transformers,” said Caple. “In our particular film, they are prehistoric animals who travel through time and space, and we find them here on Earth.” The film will star Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, In the Heights) and Dominique Fishback (Project Power, Judas and the Black Messiah). Ramos will play Noah, a military veteran who is an electronics wiz. Fishback will play Elena, a brilliant artifact researcher working at a museum.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set in 1994 in Brooklyn, New York, with international locations including Peru, among others. It will serve as a direct sequel to 2018’s Bumblebee. Optimus Prime will return, and the film will introduce both the Maximals and the Predacons, aka the beast corollaries to the Autobots and the Decepticons. “We had somewhat exhausted the battle between the Decepticons and the Autobots,” said producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

After over a decade of Michael Bay’s high-volume take on the franchise, it will be refreshing to see someone else helm a Transformers film. Hopefully, Rise of the Beasts will follow the model of Bumblebee (the best film in the series, written by Christina Hodson and directed by Travis Knight), which focuses on character and relationships in addition to action and adventure.

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is set to be released on June 24, 2022.

(via The Hollywood Reporter, image: Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros., Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

• What In the Heights loses when it erases Afro-Latinos from leading roles. (via NY Times)
• Production has begun on the third and final season of His Dark Materials. (via comicbook.com)
• Gross: A SoCal high basketball team threw tortillas at athletes from a predominantly Latinx rival school. (via HuffPost)

Jinkies! Here’s the trailer for Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog:

A trailer for “Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog’ has been released.

The new film releases on DVD September 14.
pic.twitter.com/dEh39EjuXI

— Cartoon Crave (@thecartooncrave) June 22, 2021

• A leaked S&M video won’t keep New York city council candidate Zack Weiner out of politics. (via The Guardian)
• How a conservative activist created the controversy around critical race theory. (via The New Yorker)
• It’s the legendary Octavia Butler’s birthday:

Happy Birthday to sci-fi novelist @OctaviaEButler whose work inspires generations of women to explore. 💫

Her legacy lives on in the cosmos, as @NASAPersevere‘s touchdown site on Mars is named in her honor: https://t.co/kdp85KqVDj

📸 Left photo credit: Ching-Ming Cheung pic.twitter.com/WkEm7On3ia

— Women@NASA (@WomenNASA) June 22, 2021

We believe you can fly, Mary Suevians!

can’t wait for school plays again so we can get more moments like when my friend played Peter Pan pic.twitter.com/ECpdsDgt0w

— Nathan Cykiert (@nathancykiert) June 21, 2021

What did you see out there today?

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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Here at Nerdist we’re huge fans of Harvey Guillén. The hilarious and charming actor first made us fall in love during What We Do In the Shadows. And in Josh Ruben’s new delightful horror video game adaptation Werewolves Within, Guillén cements himself as a total joy to watch and a master of genre comedy. The laugh out loud take on lycanthropy sees the brilliant Sam Richardson as Finn, a new Park Ranger in the small town of Beaverfield. Keeping peace while a new pipeline is built seems like an easy assignment. But as soon as Finn arrives, the eclectic townspeople—including Guillén’s gay tech millionaire Joaquim—get swept up in a night of paranoia, murder, and mystery as a strange and terrifying threat begins to hunt them one by one. It’s a cozy, hilarious murder mystery with a surprisingly deep twist and it might become your new favorite horror flick.

IFC Films

Guillén got the call from director Ruben and was quickly enamored with the script and Joaquim. “I really liked the idea of playing this queer character who gets to be flamboyant,” the actor told Nerdist over Zoom. “He gets to live his best life and has those character traits that are sometimes exaggerated and become a caricature. But I wanted to hone it in and make it comedic but also grounded. This person could be your best friend, could be your neighbor. But there are still those elements of the comedy, he still wears a million dollar biodegradable poncho, he’s doing it for the Earth but it’s also fashion forward, you know? So he’s this hipster environmentalist… and it’s like are you helping the world or are you hindering it? Also who doesn’t want to play a queer character?” Guillén chuckled.

As a queer actor, getting to play a gay tech millionaire in a loving relationship was a joy for Guillén. “It was great,” Guillén gushed. “So often we see the hetro couple be the leads or neighbors, so this is a normality that’s been omitted from our history of being queer. It was nice to present that this is the real world, we’ve always been here!”

IFC Films

Werewolves Within also gave Guillén the chance to play against the wonderful Cheyenne Jackson. The best part of the story is that Guillén actually suggested the American Horror Story star after Ruben asked him who he thought would be his dream to play against. And while Guillén thought he might get someone “like Cheyenne,” soon the actor had signed on. “I was like, ‘This is incredible!'” Guillén smiled. “To see that non-traditional couple; we’re so often shown that the Adonis couple is the mold for what a queer couple or a gay couple should be and that’s not true. So I think it’s really kind of fun to see our height differences, our size differences, and that’s love! You love what you love, you know?”

Aside from its inclusive cast and witty script–and without spoiling anything–Werewolves Within holds a vital message. The story of paranoia and trust is one that spoke deeply to Guillén. “For so long the monster is the person who’s outcast and being chased. It’s because of the unknown. Who’s the real monster, the person you’re chasing or the chaser? That’s the real question. I think that’s the message, and the moral of our story is who are the real werewolves here? What does it take for each one of our own werewolves to come out? And even though it’s a comedy, I love the message that it has.”

IFC Films will release the horror-comedy whodunit Werewolves Within in theaters on June 25, 2021 and on Digital Rental & VOD on July 2, 2021.

Featured Image: IFC Films

The post WEREWOLVES WITHIN’s Harvey Guillén on Queer Horror and Queer Love appeared first on Nerdist.