Relatability is a tricky concept. It means “to easily form a connection or an understanding with someone else”. The concept is appealing because humans are social creatures who require social interaction. Everybody wants to be understood in this big strange world we all live in. Seeing someone else you relate to overcome challenges can be both motivational and life-affirming.
……..That is great and all, but that is not what this post is about. This post is about the weaponization of relatability along with relatable characters in fiction.
We all see these millionaires and politicians who try their hardest to appear relatable to the everyman, so they get a good massive appeal. It is all smoke and mirrors made by marketing people to sell a person as anything other than a creep or an idiot.
The argument is that if you come from a poor working background then the hardships of life have made your character stronger.
The problem with this statement is that it is entirely down to the individual. Who cares if a politician is relatable? Can they solve the problem? Surely it is better to be competent than relatable.
Who cares if an actor is not relatable, are they good in the film?
Some people don’t enjoy art as much as they should and one of the reasons is the need for relatability.
Common criticism like “I could not relate to anyone” is thrown out a lot in online criticism and I simply do not get it. When a character does something counterintuitive to what you would have done instead of being mad, think instead that is what this character would do. The great thing about art and especially reading is that you learn to see things from different perspectives, but one of the biggest problems today is that people are having a hard time relating with one another. The goal is not to accept another viewpoint but to understand it and if we can’t even read another perspective than our own then how are we ever going to make the world better?
I like a lot of different characters, but I don’t feel I relate to most of them. It is simply not a measure of quality that matters to me. I am not saying that there isn’t value in relating with someone, but blindly liking someone because “they are just like me” is going down the wrong path, the lesson for today’s society is to try and engage with other people’s viewpoints and try and understand them. Don’t accept or reject other ideas out of hand, but think about them a little more, ideally, talk them over with someone holding that view.
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
-Aristotle.