A diverse set of people celebrate Christmas - so why shouldn’t there be diverse representations of Santa? As Santas from different backgrounds become increasingly more visible, we’ve seen both celebration and pushback. What’s the importance of breaking a narrow, specific idea of what Santa should look like?
Santa is more diverse than ever.
Diverse representations of Santa have become more and more common - both in public places and in the creation of products and designs.
Cultural reckonings have amplified critical conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion - including the need to increase visibility and representation for marginalized groups. Diverse Santas are part of this conversation!
Visibility: the manifestation of social regard, relevance, and respect via circulation of information, stories, images, and news, which is impacted by social location.
Representation: Ensuring that diverse voices within a social group or institution are heard, valued, respected, included, and appropriately reflected.
A (North) Polarized Issue
Not everyone has been on board with diversifying depictions of Santa, or veering from his "traditional" aesthetic.
Santa has been historically overrepresented as white in Christmas decor, at the mall, and in depictions of Santa in the US entertainment and advertising industries. This “traditional” Santa is also able-bodied, straight, male, and cisgendered.
What makes Santa “Santa”? Who gets to define Santa’s “look” and who gets to see a Santa who looks like them?
Why reaffirm only one kind of Santa?
Christmas is celebrated by diverse groups of people— including individuals who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and everywhere along the spectrums of ability and neurodiversity. Why should these individuals not be able to see, create, or celebrate a Santa who is like them?
What impact might it have to constantly encounter characters who do not share your identity? How does this lack of diverse representation affect individual and group cultures? Mainstream culture?
The increased visibility and representation of Santas with marginalized identities and bodies is powerful and impactful.
Historic and ongoing disparities in visibility and representation negatively impact marginalized groups on social, structural, and individual levels.
Positive and diverse representation can assist in reducing stereotypes about marginalized groups, create cultural awareness, illustrate commonality and interconnection, and catalyze change. It can also help show that multiple stories, cultures, and aspects of identity can coexist.
Witnessing people who are like you being celebrated and accepted - especially for youth - validates your life in both mundane and extraordinary ways.
Positive and diverse representation positively impacts self-esteem, validation, sense of belonging, and empowerment.
For kids, noticing that they share aspects of their identity, culture, or lived experience with a character or role model - especially someone like Santa - can be more magical than Santa himself.
Santa is beloved for being giving, kind, and making space and time for all people all over the world. Imagine if we channel his ethos when it comes to envisioning him. What might that look like?
Not all representation is equal.
Even with more diverse depictions of Santa, and more diversely cast holiday films, marginalized characters are still woefully underrepresented when compared to the general population.
Underrepresentation and misrepresentation are two separate, important issues. Pay attention to both while watching holiday movies this month.
Witnessing stereotyped, simplified, or problematic depictions (including an absence of depictions) of a group is harmful to not only those who are a part of those groups, but also to the awareness of those who are not.
What details might still be important to those who share an identity, culture, or experience with a character - even if it's a holiday movie that is not specifically about identity?
Representation is important beyond diverse casting. While no group is a monolith, representation in attention to detail to characters’ surroundings, food, activities, events, clothing, dialogue, social and family structures, and other references (cultural or otherwise) are important aspects of positive representation.
Everyone deserves to see - and to make seen - stories about people like them that both honor their unique perspectives and feel relevant and multi-dimensional.
Remember… representation does not equal equity.
Improving the range of representation of marginalized groups, as well as the scope of the visibility of their unique stories, creates lasting impacts. However, including Santas from marginalized groups or having a diversely-casted holiday film does not solve systemic and social inequities.
Representation is only one of many steps toward reaching equity. Continue working to address the disparities in access, opportunities, and resources that impact marginalized individuals. Let’s encourage and collaborate with each other to reframe our perspectives and become active change agents in our communities so that we can make the magical holiday spirit into a tangible reality.
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