'That Didn't Happen'

I've spent much of my life cataloging pop culture factoids and bits of miscellany, reflexively storing all of this information in my brain and waiting for moment when it will all pay off. There have been times, the small talk, game nights with friends, even my second-place turn on "Rock & Roll Jeopardy!", but I've yet to find a way to truly cash in on all the ephemera that floats around in my head.

Last night it hit me, I can offer my services to film and television makers as a pop culture reference consultant. Some people might not notice if a movie that features a plot point where a song from 1985 is introduced to the world by a character who's travelled back to 1986 from the 2000s, but I do. Some people might not care if a TV character mentions having seen the Sex Pistols when there's zero possibility that he could have, but I do. Some people wouldn't pass on "Rock of Ages" for ideological reasons because the thought of a hard rocker blasting out Journey covers is beyond absurd, but I did. Some people wouldn't roll their eyes throughout "13 Going on 30" because a 13-year-old girl in 1987 wouldn't be obsessed with Rick Springfield or have "Thriller" and "Love Is a Battlefield" as favorite songs, but I do.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one.

So, Hollywood, let me help you make your films and TV shows a little more real. Let me help you decide if your character would have played with a My Little Pony or a Giga Pet. Let me help you decide if your character wore stirrup pants or 5x Dickies. Let me help you decide if your character would have watched "Diff'rent Strokes" or "Boy Meets World." Let me help you decide if your character's first concert would have been NKOTB or BSB.

These might seem like minor details, but everything from the furniture in the room to the music being played in the background to the clothes the characters are wearing helps solidify the universe you're trying to create. They help the audience get lost in the moments you're presenting and help us care more about the story you're telling. Details matter.

I'm here to answer the challenge. While we're making your movies and TV shows more pop culturally accurate, we can also work on making them more culturally accurate, too, sharing stories from the full spectrum of human experiences. Having more truth in art can only be a good thing.

A Request

Television (and by that, I mean the guys in charge of television, because it's still mostly guys in charge), I'd like to make a request. Can the women on your shows look more like women? Because the thing is that, with very few exceptions, the women I see on TV don't look like any women I know in real life, myself included.

That's a problem.

Like the current push for increased diversity in children and young adult fiction, I'd like to push for increased diversity in depictions of women on TV. We're not all bone-thin in tight skirts and tank tops rushing to crime scenes in stilettos. We're not all quirky. We're not all shrill or mean. We're not all on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

We're not all any one thing. We're three billion different things. Sadly, just a few things are being shown.

So I'm asking to see more because I know there's so much more to see.

Television, can you deliver?