“What about me?” - LGBTQIA+ representation (or its absence) in ‘Man UP’
Man Up rehearsals
We are currently in the midst of rehearsals for our new play Man Up. In this blog post, our Artistic Director playwright Nina Lemon talks about some of the challenges of representation in this new play for secondary schools.
As a queer identifying person myself, I thought very carefully about including characters from the LGBTQIA+ community in this play. As some of you may know, many of my other plays include characters that are explicitly or implicitly queer, but this is not the case in Man Up. This is because I’ve written this play specifically in response to recent research which clearly identifies the archetypes of young people who are most vulnerable to extremist grooming into incel culture and, as you might expect, this is a problem which is more likely to affect cis gendered heterosexual boys and young men. As one of the male characters explains in the play’s prologue, “They’re not the problem. We are!”
I acknowledge that everyone’s experience of gender is unique and that many young people in our audiences will be trans, non-binary or in some other way gender questioning or non-conforming. Their experiences are real and valid. I also know that discussions about gender identity and sexuality are perhaps more valuable and important to this generation than any that have come before. This is especially true when in public political discourse the very existence of trans and non-binary people is being called into question. However, the persistent revisiting of debates about trans identities, usually surrounding who is allowed access to single sex spaces, and the disproportionate fear of trans people (specifically trans women) that often results from these debates is also distracting from what is, to my mind, a far more pressing issue. Gender based violence against women and girls is increasing with a report published last year from The NPCC and College of Policing’s stating that, ‘Between 2018 and 2023, there was a 37% increase in violent crimes against women and girls.’ At the same time, UCL and Kent university’s research exposed “that the (tiktok) algorithm privileges more extreme material, and through increased usage, users are gradually exposed to more misogynistic ideologies which are presented and gamified through soft or humorous cultural forms.’ These are important ideas to talk about too.
Man Up is only 70-minute one act play which already shoulders the responsibility of portraying a range of different character narratives in order to reflect the complex and diverse experiences of young people, particularly boys, navigating growing up in a patriarchal system. If I were to have included a character who was trans, non-binary or gender non-conforming, then I would have risked doing neither their story nor that of the cis gendered boys in the play justice. It’s just not possible within the time limits to create a play which represents everyone so I have made some difficult decisions. Well, representation is critically important, I don't think we need to share all of the same characteristics as a character in order to see ourselves within them.
The teachers’ pack will offer more opportunities to discuss queer experiences and I would encourage all teachers to embrace every opportunity to validate and celebrate all of your students especially those who are LGBTQIA+ who have been historically marginalised.
If you are a young LGBTQIA+ young audience member who is reading this, know that you are valid, you are respected and you are loved. I hope you will forgive me for the absence of queer characters in this work and will understand that this was a decision I made in order to best tackle the devastating impact of misogynistic and incel ideology which negatively impacts everyone – especially you!
