Welcome New Staff Writer Erin Tatum!

Hey everyone! My name is Erin and I’m so excited to contribute to this awesome website. I just recently graduated from UC Berkeley with a major in Film and a minor in LGBT studies, so I think I win the award for the bachelor’s degree that is simultaneously the coolest and most irrelevant to just about any mainstream career path.

I’ve been addicted to television for years now, but my love for media hasn’t stopped me from noticing that television and film don’t always do right by women and other minorities. Although I definitely endorse television as escapism, I also think it’s critical that we don’t just shut our brains off. I am a bit of a trope analysis junkie. To put that more accurately, I live on TV Tropes. The fact that media representations fall into certain patterns fascinates me because I think it speaks volumes about how our society perceives a group at large. In particular, as a disabled woman, I am deeply invested in the representation of disability. Frankly, we have a lot of work to do. I also eagerly await the day when killing off both disabled and LGBT characters is no longer your run-of-the-mill resolution.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that watching television is a waste of time. I was able to turn my love for the show Skins into a presentation at an academic conference and it was amazing! It really confirmed my commitment to obsessing over television in a professional context for the rest of forever. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have preferences for what I watch. I absolutely loathe love triangles and I think they’re the cheapest and most tired gimmick in the creativity handbook. Yes, we understand these things happen in real life and that happy relationships are supposedly boring to portray, but that doesn’t mean you have to beat that dead horse into glue every season. Part of the reason I get so attached to certain shows is because I am a sucker for innovation. I am easily seduced by strong performances and fresh ideas and I’m not ashamed.

I have an unhealthy obsession with the BBC. Some of the programs I watch include Orphan Black, My Mad Fat Diary, Fresh Meat, Bad Education, Orange is the New Black, Skins, Misfits, Downton Abbey, Futurama, Bomb Girls, Girls, and New Girl. Actually, I watch a lot of things with the word “girl” in it, which probably gives my blatant feminism away right off the bat.

In summary, if you ever want to talk to a bona fide TV fanatic fixated on improving representation of marginalized identities, I’m your girl.