Fiction Featuring Activists Review Guide

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By Juliana Barnet

Activists' lives and work are dramatic, fascinating, heroic, not to mention indispensable to planetary survival and efforts to create a just society. But how extensively do you see activists portrayed in mainstream (and even progressive) fiction and popular culture--and how well?

This Fiction Featuring Activists Guide helps evaluate the depiction of activists in works of fiction (WoFs), including movies, television programs, plays, novels, comics, etc. Its purpose is to notice and celebrate WoFs where activists are shown fully and fairly. And to call attention to ways in which they are not.

THANKS FOR PARTICIPATING in our effort to see activists FULLY and FAIRLY represented in FICTION. (Note: "fully and fairly" means showing activists with as much respect, attention, truth and style as the other characters in the same work, regardless of its genre, tone or level.)

Sharing your thoughts on this form may take 20 minutes, more if you go back to revisit and retrieve quotes from it. Your form becomes part of our Fiction Featuring Activist participatory research and database, about which you'll receive occasional updates. Mention whether you feel the WoF you are reviewing deserves consideration for the 10 Best Works of Fiction Featuring Activists Award...or the 10 MINOI (Most In Need of Improvement) Award!

Submitting a completed form entitles you to a FREE EBOOK of RAINWOOD HOUSE SINGS by Juliana Barnet, plus profound appreciation for your participation!

Email *

Your name *

Name and type of WoF (movie, novel, etc.), author or creator, year made *

Activist Life

Part 1. FULLY. How much space do activists get in this WOF?

Part 1 is QUANTITATIVE. 1a gauges the extent activists are included in the story. 1b asks how much they are shown doing real activist things.

First, ask yourself if at least one activist or activist movement appears at all in this WoF, in a portrayal or at least a mention. None at all earns a "0" and no need to go further. A 3 might indicate a significant presence of: activist character(s) such as community organizer(s), peace activist(s), etc.; activist movement(s) such as the environmentalist, civil rights, prison reform movements, etc.; and/or activist setting(s): a labor union office, an anti-pipeline encampment, etc..

Give a 5 if the WoF has activist characters, movements, settings central to the story, and these characters' conversations, causes, actions, internal monologues, environments, etc. are shown extensively.

1a. Do activist(s) participate in the story? *

No activist ever seen or referenced

Activist characters and context have central role on screen/page/stage

1b. Are activist(s) shown engaged in realistic activities like meetings, discussions, leafleting, marches, direct actions?

Activist(s) in story but not doing activism

Activist(s)shown extensively engaged in activism

Clear selection

Specify ways and extent activist(s) appear in the WoF. *

Part 2. FAIRLY. Are activist(s) portrayed with truth, humanity and depth?

Parts 2-4 explore the QUALITY of the portrayal. Are activists shown as believable, sympathetic, funny, flawed in human ways, multi-faceted, complex, etc. on a par with the other characters, in keeping with the genre of fiction? Do the creators of the WoF lead the reader/viewer to understand, empathize with, root for, become emotionally invested in the activist character(s)? Do the conflicts and story arc ring true? Or are they portrayed carelessly, inaccurately, untruthfully, with stereotypes?

Activist(s) portrayed fairly? *

Activist character(s) and context portrayed without truth, humanity, empathy or depth

Activist character(s) and context shown with depth, truth, humanity and empathy

Describe the depiction of activist character(s) and how accurate and fair it is. *

Please reference quote(s) or scene(s) showing the portrayals you're referring to. *

Part 3. Stereotyping of Activists

Stereotyping is substituting stock generalizations about a group of people in place of in-depth exploration of their reality.
At best stereotypes are lazy and shallow; at worst they lead to dehumanizing and otherizing people as different and separate from us. They contribute to ignorance and fear of "those people" and are key tools used in inciting hatred and violence against social groups, and in getting whole societies to participate in, condone, or at least ignore, oppression. Even positive stereotypes create distance and prevent people from empathizing or feeling kinship with the people stereotyped.

As with sexism, racism and other oppressions, language and images stereotyping activists in fiction may be unintentional and unnoticed, but are nonetheless harmful and undermining of the global community of activists.

Are activists negatively stereotyped in this WoF? For instance, are they shown as...(check all that apply):

Extremist

Violent

Secretive

Silly or careless

Neglectful parent (especially mothers)

Obsessed

Cold/calculating/manipulative

Hypocritical

Hyper-critical/judgmental

Self-righteous/holier than thou

Angry

Strange

Focused on principles while neglecting or disdaining actual people and their "ordinary" problems

Spontaneous (activist action in the story erupts seemingly without organizing or planning)

Foreign

Mysterious

Dark

Cultish, overbearing, manipulative leader (often a white male)

Sheep-like and/or adoring followers (often female)

Revolutionary leader whose power corrupts him inevitably

Other:

Please share details of stereotyped characters. Also, note any in-depth portrayals that counter stereotypes.

Include quote(s) or page(s) showing the portrayals you're referring to.

Are activists positively stereotyped in this story? Check all that apply:

Heroic

Saintly

Self-sacrifing

Martyred

Headstrong in an admirable but off-putting way

Focused on the cause (to exclusion of all else)

Inspired individuals (collective planning and organizing not shown)

Spontaneous action for social change (collective planning and organizing not shown)

Utopian

Idealistic (to a fault)

Other:

Please share details of stereotyped characters. Also, note any in-depth portrayals that counter stereotypes.

Include quote(s) or page(s) showing the portrayals you're referring to.

PART 4. The Bigger Picture

Does the audience come away with accurate understanding of the background and context of the movement/issue portrayed in the WoF? *

In this WoF... *

Background and context are absent or inaccurate

Background and context are shown truthfully, with real details

Score!

What is your overall assessment of how well this work of fiction portrays activists, activist culture and activist community?

NOTE: THIS TEST AND SCORE REFER ONLY TO THE MANNER IN WHICH ACTIVISTS ARE REPRESENTED. Other aspects of these works may be perfectly wonderful.

This work of fiction featuring activists... *

Hurts the goal of full and fair representation of the activist community