As a society we have always had a fascination with the filthy rich that only gets amplified with queens, kings and the novelty class. Who didn’t grow up wanting to be called ‘your majesty’? Therefore it is not unusual that a fair share of our period dramas focused around the crown, and the fact that they were more likely to receive the education to go down in history than their working class counterparts. Viewers also favor stories about royals because for us period dramas are about escapism and stunning outfits however, we do not consume media solely for its escapist qualities and the same goes for dramas set in the past. For me period dramas about the common class are as important as the ones centered around the wealthy. It makes the past appear closer to us, a time in which people ‘live, love, laugh’ and not just as the over-the-top satire with very weird wigs. It takes us deeper into the realities of a period, since the vast separation between classes makes the rich live in a parallel reality in every century. History helps us understand the present better but how can we truly do that if the tales are incomplete? Shows that specifically focus on the working & lower class (if done correctly) can help humanize a group of people that our economic/social system seems bent on dehumanizing. Concerning the issue of records there are a quite fare of sources in the internet* about how common people live like then, since scholars did like to document how the world was like, even if we do not have a specific person or a name. But we do have? There have been some notable historical figures like Silvia Rivera who despite the bad-hand life gave them, were able to fight back loud & strong enough to make it to the history books. As the “general public” we like both tragedies, rags-to-riches and stories where the underdog fights back, however this can quickly leave way to trauma-porn or inspiration porn. I don’t have a clear answer about how to resolve this issue. The only thing I will say is that first and foremost the audience has to be able to identify with the character rather than to feel pity for them. There are already period dramas that focus on the commoners, example; Anne with an e, Harlots, Cable Girls, Victorian Farming and Mining Town (the later two you can watch on YouTube), however they are still a considerable minority in the historical fiction/non-fiction genre. Like Mark Roser puts it in The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it: “The difficulty for telling the history of how everyone’s lives changed over the last 200 years is that you cannot pick single stories. Stories about individual people are much more engaging – our minds like these stories – but they cannot be representative for how the world has changed. To achieve a representation of how the world has changed at large you have to tell many, many stories all at once; and that is statistics.” Although statistics don’t make for a very interesting story, what I think we can take from the excerpt is the need to tell many, many stories and for these ones to be different and wide in range. Because sometimes I am like: “I cannot sympathize with the rich crying over rich problems right now, but damn it I still like seeing historical costumes." (Period dramas, but not those rich folk). Ari Ochoa Petzois a Mexican-Venezuelan bi genderfluid writer. They like dancing to old music and history. In their free time you can find xem trying to coerce their friends to participate in another of their crazy projects.
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