Terrero, Nina. “Movies, Money, And Race.” Entertainment Weekly 1357 (2015): 38. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Oct. 2015. In three years, the percentage of nonwhite actors (male and female) cast as leads has increased. Multiethnic casts yield a better global box office in returns. Casting diversity is crucial to mass appeal. Hollywood keeps falling short to the standard that minority actors and stars do not sell tickets overseas, which accounts for seventy percent of total annual box office. But according the to UCLA study, that assumption is false. It turns out that films with diverse casts raise higher global grosses and returns than movies whose cast are predominantly white. The system is reluctant to change its ways and be more inclusive. There is no real reason to prove their theories. Lee, Chris, Tim Stack, and Kevin P. Sullivan. "This Is What America Looks Like. So Why Don't …show more content…
Diversity in entertainment is clearly a major issue in Hollywood right now. So far, most of the debate has centered on racial balance in front of the camera. The importance of diversity in the entertainment world's power corridors should be obvious. It gives off a bad omen for a multicultural society when the major decisions affecting what we see on TV, hear in music, and watch in movies are made by a mostly homogenized group. Although Hollywood's under a great deal of social pressure to accept diversity, from a business standpoint the issue is far less urgent. Even the few minority executives in Hollywood often feel powerless to effect any change. The most significant contributions from people of color have come from directors and independent producers, people like Spike Lee, Gregory Nava, John Singleton, and Asian-American director M. Night Shyamalan. Although they have effected change in their own way, none of them are directly involved in Hollywood's corporate
Tangled was an entertaining eye opening illustration that included action, romance, comedy, that would be enough to keep the whole family entertained. Time and time again, Disney films are being criticized by the public because of the lack of ethnic diversity; this lack of ethnic diversity can be illustrated through the film titled Tangled. In 1995, Disney gave us Pocahontas and in the year of 1998 Disney had released Mulan. This showed the public that, Disney was in fact capable of creating films in which the lead protagonist was not white, however it wasn’t till more recently that racial diversity truly had taken stand when The Princess and the Frog (2009) was released. While, I applaud the efforts of Disney in attempting
In the latest Disney film, a live action rendition of Beauty and the Beast, there will be a character who is gay. I personally am excited for this, I think that starting to include a diverse range of characters to show to younger children and create new ways of teaching open-mindedness to children when they are young is very important. However, I am just curious and wondering if, given Disney’s track-record, a statement like this is actually true:
"Race and Ethnicity in Entertainment." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies.
Since this winter, I can't watch television or movies anymore without critiquing how women and minorities are portrayed. One unexpected thing that I have picked up from taking this class is a sense of wariness when I counter any piece of written material. I have learned to be suspicious, if not directly critical of any particular part of the media as I experience it; I have been inspired to read and be influenced by some prolific female thinkers. It's all coming together for me, what I want to do; I just have to figure out how.
The gender pay gap is not only a problem in the past. To my surprise, Hollywood has a gender pay gap. I would have never thought the industry that makes billions of dollars through movies and television shows would pay women less than men. This is a huge problem and in 2015 women in Hollywood should not have to worry about the gender pay gap. Furthermore, minority women should not get fewer opportunities for an acting jobs (Berg). It is absurd that women in Hollywood do not have equal pay. Instead of setting an example of equal pay to other occupations Hollywood is setting an example of a gender pay gap.
In addition, due to negative feelings about Asian Americans prevalent in American culture, Hollywood’s attempt to expand its target audiences is constrained, and despite the increasing market values of Asian Americans, Hollywood is possibly unwilling to portray successful Asian characters for fear of provoking its mainstream audiences who hold prejudice against Asians. There is a dominant white preference over the effects certain stereotypes may have on Asians and Asian Americans (Park, 2005).
There has been a pressing issue of the lack of diversity in mainstream media in front and behind the camera. For many years the face of Hollywood was white, occupying roles as actors, directors, screenwriters and other prominent positions in the industry.
Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
Those who deny the existence of the racism rooted into modern day Hollywood are far from reality. They may think that in the United States we are getting closer to equality when it comes to casting but we in fact are not. While there is the belief that America has progressed when it comes to social issues, the percentage of roles held by black actors in film and TV has dropped from 15 to 13 percent from the early 2000’s to 2011 (McClintock and Apello 2).
Hit shows such as ABC’s Blackish, Fresh Off the Boat, and Scandal, the CW’s Jane the Virgin, and FOX 40’s The Mindy Project feature well-written multi-dimensional characters worthy of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and awards. However, according to Tamra Winfrey-Harris, while there is more diversity of female characters, there’s “nowhere near the diversity that our white counterparts have” (Cheung). In 2014, 73.1% of film actors were white, and only seventeen of the top-ranking films in 2014 starred “non-white or co-lead actors” (Santhanam, Hickey). Lack of representation is proven to have an effect on society. An English primary school teacher found that his students of color would write narratives featuring English-speaking white characters because they believe that “stories have to be about White people” (Chetty). However, how can one be surprised when they observe the amount of whiteness children are exposed to throughout their youth? The myriad of white Disney princesses, Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna, and Elsa serve as the white child’s role models. Only four princesses of color exist in the Disney universe: Pocahontas, Mulan, Jasmine, and Tiana. The omnipresence of white characters and actors in the media dramatically impact a child of color’s development; to them, the normal,
Racial and ethnic diversity on television is not something that I have ever really noticed as a problem, but sitting down, and paying very close attention to the people, their roles in the show, I was able to see that there was a lack of diversity on TV. I chose a random TV channel, one that I probably would not watch, and studied the characters in the show and in the commercials for over two hours, I realized that I had never paid that much attention to the people in the show. I noticed after I was done that the largest group of people in the show and on the commercials, were white people, although there was some diversity, maybe one or two people of a different nationality, gender, or race, that overall the lack of diversity was minimal compared
In Hollywood it’s very rare to see any minorities in a lead role of a blockbuster film. The accomplishments of Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler, is bound to change that. I Am Legend, Bad Boyz II, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are just a few blockbuster films with minority leads. However, with the triumph of Black Panther that has an African American in the lead role, minorities are more likely to be featured more prominently in blockbuster films.
Ethnicity and appearance has become a tremendous problem in the media due to the fact that they try to use it as a power to control creativity of abstaining the truth in media. According to journalist Nishijima, A, she refers to the Oscars and explains that it is very absurd how the media is slowly progression in lacking diversity. This was recognized when watching the Oscars and seeing that based off predominantly white nominees. Nishijima quotes “Boone Isaacs decl...
Especially, many American films have been recognized around the world. However, the recognized American film industry has been controversial after the film, Avatar, casted white actresses for acting Asian animation characters. Some people say that casting white actress for Asian characters of this film is right because the film is produced in the United States. However, the producers’ casting the white actresses for Avatar characters portrays racism which is not proper in this society . The directors and media producers in Hollywood should have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters because films are mediums for connecting people around the world in one, the young
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...