Mr. Robot Representation

    Mr. Robot's main character, Elliot Alderson, has DID, Dissociative Identity Disorder, previously known as multiple personality disorder. This is a major and easily one of the most important parts of his character, and the plot revolves around this aspect of Elliot after the first season. 

This provides representation for people with DID, which is often misunderstood and misrepresented in the media. One example of this is the 2016 horror movie Split. In this film, the main antagonist is a person with DID, who is shown to be aggressive, dangerous, and violent and creates the idea that all people with DID are like this. 

However, this is far from the truth and only harms people with the disorder. Contrary to most depictions of DID, many viewers believe that Mr. Robot and Elliot are overall a good depiction of the illness. Sam Esmail, the creator of the show, was able to flesh out the disorder throughout the 4 seasons and portray it as accurately as possible, creating a praised representation of DID. 

    Mr. Robot doesn't limit its representation not only to the main character but also its main antagonist Whiterose. Whiterose is a trans woman who is the Chinese Minister of State Security and leader of the Dark Army, a Chinese hacker group. As a minister, Whiterose masquerades as male Zhi Zhang, and is truly herself when presenting herself as the leader of the Dark Army, using the code name Whiterose.

 

In contrast to most trans representation which consists of making a character trans and having their entire personality revolve around that aspect and ONLY that aspect of them, Whiterose is a complex and well-developed character, having more aspects to her than just her being trans. The character has received widespread positive feedback.

    In the show, Elliot is attempting to take down E Corp, a representation of mega-corporations like Google, Apple, etc. In the show, the company is always called Evil Corp because that is what Elliot has programmed to hear when someone says E Corp, showing the malicious nature of the company in the show.

 Evil Corp has a monopoly over technology like laptops and phones but also has control over banks and credit, owning 70% of the global consumer credit industry. Elliot also has a personal vendetta against them because of a gas leak that E Corp covered up in one of their facilities that led to the death of Elliot's father.  E Corp is a cliché representation of the personification of the top 1% of the 1% into a company.

    Mr. Robot also has a great representation of Middle Eastern and South Asian characters. The two characters, Trenton and Mobley, are both respectively Middle Eastern and South Asian and are a part of Elliot's hacking organization, F Society. They were not chosen just to diversify the cast, but Esmail explained in an interview with Vulture that they were chosen because these characters with these backgrounds are the people who would take the actions they do in the show and join F Society.

 Esmail growing up Egyptian-American in New Jersey also affects the lens through which the story is told, affecting the characters and casting. Esmail also cleverly uses the terrorist stereotype that has become associated with these races and makes it a part of the story. The antagonists, Dark Army, set up Trenton and Mobley to appear to have done a hack so that they would get all the blame without a second thought since their races are typically associated with acts of terrorism, especially in the United States.