Shameless Representation

The well-liked American-comedy drama series, Shameless is known for it's evident representation of diverse groups. The series centers around six chaotic siblings living in poverty after their bipolar mother abandoned them and their alcoholic father was unfit to care for them. While the show represents a large variety of people and situations, a closer look at the representation unveils several underlying issues. 

The youngest child is named Liam Gallagher who, despite having two Caucasian parents, is African American. One might see this and believe the show is creating diversity within their cast, but the show tends to push the character aside. To elaborate, the plot of each episode never focuses a significant amount of time on the character's development. At the start of the show, the character was just a baby, so one could reason that the lack of focus on Liam was due to his young age. However, as the seasons progress (11 seasons total) there is still significantly less of a focus on Liam than the other characters on the show. In season 7, when Liam was unable to attend private school due to all the colored students slots being full, the show sheds light on issues with forced diversity in schools. However, since the matter was briefly discussed and forgotten by the next episode, one can infer that the show's intention was not to delve into Liam's personal struggles, but to just point out a discriminatory matter in private schools. Likewise, at the start of the show, the oldest sister Fiona exposes young Liam to cocaine. The scenes that followed were primarily of Fiona's experience in prison. There was little to no reflection on Liam and how he was coping being in a foster home. Once again, the show depicts scenarios that can happen in the real world, but rarely portrays how Liam's character could be feeling in said situations.

Throughout various of the seasons, each male person of color was portrayed as 'mean and scary'. For instance, one of the main character's friends, Mandy had a boyfriend named Kenyatta in one of the earlier seasons. Due to his large frame and constant angry expression, he was depicted as frightening. It did not help that he was portrayed as consistently abusing and cheating on Mandy. Another character was Nick, a close friend of Carl (one of the Gallagher siblings) while they were in a juvenile detention center. The show made him out to be dangerous as well by showing him stalking and killing a young boy after his bike was stolen. Likewise, the Gallagher's runaway mother, Monica, had an African American girlfriend who was, once again, depicted as angry and aggressive. Like the two colored men, she too was presented as a villain by wanting to take custody of their younger brother Liam and separate him from his siblings when he was still an infant. Each of these characters were shown wearing loose, ratty, over-sized clothing. The viewers can conclude that the show is depicting African Americans as not only violent, but living in poverty. Clearly, the show makes a point of associating people of color with violence and negative actions. 

Moreover, the show includes representation of the LGBTQ+ community. One of the Gallagher siblings, Debbie meets a woman of color in her workplace named Alex. When the two began to have romantic relations, Alex appeared hurt and disappointed when Debbie realized she wasn't homosexual. It takes time until the young character Debbie comes to terms with her sexuality and accepts herself. Once Debbie came to this realization, her romantic partner Alex was given significantly less screen time. Viewers can conclude that while depicting the ups and downs of a young girl's journey with her sexuality, it came at the expense of a lesbian African American character. Not only have women of color, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community, struggled to gain adequate amounts of screen time, but in Shameless' case, Alex's role was for the sole purpose of developing Debbie's character, not her own. One can infer that while it is important for Shameless to represent the queer community, it should not be at the cost of bringing down the colored female community.

On the other hand, Shameless has done an excellent job with illustrating people with mental illness. To elaborate, one of the main characters, Ian, was shown discovering his diagnosis with bipolar disorder. The show takes the audience along in Ian's journey of struggling with and later getting accustomed to his disorder. Shameless accurately portrayed someone with bipolar disorder by depicting Ian going through the various stages that come with the illness. Including hallucinations, mania, depression, mood swings, among others. While depicting the bad, the show also gives its audience a view of Ian being surrounded by positiveness and dealing with the illness with medication. This allows viewers to see that people with bipolar disorder are capable of living a normal life, instead of branding them as destructive and mentally ill individuals, which is commonly seen in other film representations. Moreover, Shameless points out the hereditary aspect of mental illness by highlighting that Ian's mother was bipolar as well. However, the show depicts how, despite having inherited the illness from his mother, their experiences differ. In fact, Ian was seen standing up for himself numerous times when he was discriminated for his disorder. To specify, Ian was forced to fight back after being fired from his job because of his bipolar disorder. Through scenes such as this one, the show sheds light on discrimination of mental illness in the work place. Clearly, Shameless accurately portrays the many struggles and obstacles people with mental illnesses must overcome.