TV dramas can avoid stereotyping yet still legitimize real-world torture policies

Evidence

The apparent contradiction here is a key example of how simplified complex representations operate: in the case of 24, multiple strategies are employed to avoid a simple conflation of Arabs and Muslims with terrorism, yet at the same time for many Americans 24 has helped make the real torture of Arabs and Muslims seem like a necessary evil— regrettable, perhaps, but essential for the safety of our nation. — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 291

Categorization

• SEED: Article angle: entertainment media can produce progressive representations while still enabling harmful policy legitimation — the two aren’t opposed.
• XREF: Connects to moral-panic literature and to the idea that representation without structural critique can still justify state violence. — connects to: Sympathetic multicultural TV portrayals can still legitimate racist counterterrorism policies.; Liberal multicultural TV can legitimate the security state as much as overtly racist shows