Representation in media is fine, but it's gotta be done right.

There's been a lot of discussion about representation of minority groups in the media lately. But the problem is, American media companies don't seem to know how to do it right. For example, Disney seems to think remaking their classic movies and race-swapping characters(like the remake of The Little Mermaid) or adding a character who's gay for the sake of being gay makes a good story. It doesn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diverse characters in the media, but simply making the characters a different race, gender or sexual orientation is simply virtue signaling. People want good stories with characters that have unique backgrounds and stories to tell. That's one thing anime does right, despite being from a mostly homogeneous and historically male-dominated country. They don't just, as Cartman from South Park, said "Put a chick in it. And make her lame and gay". For example, Sailor Moon had many characters who weren't straight, but they were more than just one-dimensional, such as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. There was more to them than just them being lesbians. There was also Revolutionary Girl Utena, where the main character was a complete badass who rebelled against traditional gender norms. She actually wanted to be a prince, not because she wanted to become royalty or change her gender, but rather her desire to exhibit qualities of courage, compassion, and strength that represent the ideal of the prince she met when she was a child. In addition, the show's depiction of same-sex relationships is treated as normal and reinforces the core series message of freedom of the self. More recently, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury was unique for having a female Gundam pilot, Suletta Mercury, who had a canon girlfriend(and later wife) and was supposedly of Middle Eastern or North African descent. Although some western animation has been making strides in recent years in diverse representation, such as Amphibia, The Owl House, Steven Universe and The Loud House, they still have a long way to go catch up to anime when it comes to character development and storytelling.