Spider-man: Homecoming (or 'On the topic of representation')

I recently watched Spider-man: Homecoming and it quickly became my favourite Marvel movie, leaving a strong impression on me. I would argue that the age of the protagonist and the humour means it is targeted towards millennials and the 'younger' generation; thus, the topic of representation becomes infinitely more important and Spider-man definitely impressed me in that regard.

Simply put, the cast of Spider-man was undeniably more diverse and a more accurate portrayal of New York by far compared to movies set in similar locations. We have Zendaya playing Michelle Jones (or MJ), Jacob Batalon portraying the character of Ned Leeds and Laura Harrier playing Liz; these characters are all significant to Peter in the film. In all honestly, it was refreshing not to have a cast full of white actors and to have some diversity with PoC playing important roles in the movie. Moreover, it was accurate when looking at the demographics of New York; in the 2000 census, Queens' population was 44.1% white which means that PoC make up 55.9% of the population.[1]

Despite this, Hollywood and the media insists of erasing the existence of PoC and casting white actors primarily, completely ignoring the reality of the situation. Therefore, the clearly diverse cast and representation of different ethnicities within Spider-man is more progressive than expected, especially of Marvel - however, the topic of Marvel and white-washing is not what I am focusing on in this particular post.

Earlier, I mentioned that representation is especially important considering the target demographic of the film. This is because a lack of representation is undeniably harmful to children and teenagers; it leads to the false impression that white skin is the ideal and PoC are not as important or attractive. Additionally, if a child only sees their ethnicity represented in a stereotypical fashion, it can quite damaging as it teaches them that those stereotypes are all they will ever be viewed as - they are nothing more. Furthermore, this lack of  representation is, in of itself, racist and colourist and only creates more racism and colourism. Representation matters; it is about teaching that no skin colour is of more worth than another and that PoC do not need to lighten their skin in order to fit in with what is portrayed in the media. Representation is about not alienating PoC and erasing their existence; it is letting children see positive portrayals of their ethnicity. We are bombarded constantly by images in the media, these images set a standard that people feel they have to reach. A lack of representation sends negative messages to those watching as it disregards their existence and furthers the cycle of erasure.

Thus, the representation in Spider-man matters. It matters that the love interest was mixed race and not white; it is unfortunately common that the love interest in media is white and sends the message that it is because white people are more attractive and that PoC must accept that they will never reach that standard of beauty. It furthermore implies that WoC are not the type of people that are love interests, they will never fit into that sphere that has been created by Hollywood. So when I saw Liz, and saw that she wasn't white, I smiled because it was refreshing to see a WoC in that position. The inclusion of PoC in the film did not come off as mere tokenism - it felt like true diversity.

[1] https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk