When EggInDisguise suggests that it may be personal choice and you chime in to say that representation matters as a response, it sort of comes across like you don’t think the actor’s preferences matter over the end goal of changing the media landscape.
Again, nobody has an obligation to change their body for the sake of normalizing a certain beauty standard. If the actor doesn’t want to grow out it’s their right not to do so. You can’t criticise individuals for industry trends.
Applaud diversity when you see it, but don’t critisise people just for being themselves.
The media is made up of individuals with their own choices or autonomy. It’s fair to say “I wish this got more representation in media” but it’s entity unfair to criticise specific individuals for not upholding a specific standard. The original premise was “what if being clean shaven was her choice?” in which case it would be nobody’s place to hold that against her.
Fiona Dourif did a fantastic job portraying Bart in this show. If being clean shaven is how they wanted to appear on screen, I think their right to do so supersedes any obligation they have to ‘normalize’ anything for anyone else. It certainly did not harm the performance.
Assuming that actors literally have no choice at all is a bit short sighted. The original premise of the whole thread was ‘what if that’s just their preference’?