Background Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve... ... middle of paper ... ...isode available online was chosen as the episode to be analyzed; the episodes were found online either on the network website or sites such as Hulu. Prior to watching the episodes, research was done into the program and characters being analyzed. Then while watching the show notes were taken to help assess whether the character fit any of the archetypes previously mentioned. For the interviews two individuals who self-identify as African-American/Black were recruited. The individuals were previously known by the researcher and were not compensated for their assistance. The interviews were semi-structured in nature and some questions had been previously prepared and they are found on Appendix A. One interview took place through Facebook chat and the second interview took place outside of the UCI Starbucks near the Student Center and lasted approximately 45 minutes.
Back in the 1800’s, when calculating the population, African Americans were counted as 3/5 of a person (Antonia, p2). One would think that in the past two hundred years people’s beliefs would have changed a little bit, but the general white public are stuck into believing the common stereotypes commonly portrayed in movies. In films and television shows blacks are almost always portrayed as murderers, robbers, rapists, pretty much anything negative, like American History X, for example. Two black men are shown breaking into a white man’s car. People see this, and in turn believe that all black men will try and steal their car; as stupid as it may seem, it is true, and as a result, film producers try to incorporate this into their films. Very rarely, if ever, is it possible to see a minority depicted as a hero-type figure. Every once in a while, there will be an independent film from a minority director, but as Schultz states in Lyon’s piece, “We [blacks] are still being ghettoized in Hollywood, a serious black project of any scope is as difficult to get marketed today as it was in the ‘70s.” By making a barrier to entry for minorities in the film industry, it’s almost as if America is trying to keep black films out of the popular media. At first glimpse, it may appear that minorities are very hard to be seen in the filming industry, when in reality, they are becoming more and more apparent in America’s mainstream media culture, particularly in action movies.
Since many of the roles are given to white actresses, actresses of color are underrepresented in the industry. Only six out of the top 500 box office films feature a woman of color as their protagonist, none which are at the top 200. This only leaves it to around 1% of the protagonist to be a woman of color. As we head towards a better society, more and more examples of media that challenge these statements are being created.
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:
Author Michael Omni states in his work “In Living Color: race and American Culture”, “ The power of the media lies not only in their ability to reflect the dominant racial ideology, but in their capacity to shape their ideology in the first place” (542) . The media has the ability to make society see any race in any light they choose. For example African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics are all tied to smoking marijuana, excessive alcoholism, broken sentences, being indolent, jobless, and imprisonment. These are sometimes true in every race but they portray these listed races in an inaccurate way in every film. Hollywood directors do have a social responsibility to stop stereotyping different ethnic groups. Through analyzing various films such Friday, American Me, and Skins you will be able to see the prejudice stereotypes and the negative affects its causes in society.
Hollywood has always been considered as one of the crown jewels of the entertainment industry. A true powerhouse of western cinema with a myriad of productions, each successful in the art of storytelling, and the maker of numerous directors, producers, writers and actors. With a reputation such as that, it’s no surprise that Hollywood is not only a symbol of success but also a beacon of hope for any aspiring newcomer.
According to the article “African American Representation In Hollywood”, the first person of color to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1940 for Best Supporting Role, however it took 61 years later for another woman of color to receive an Oscar and in 2001 Halle Berry took home an Oscar for Best Actress in a Lead Role in ‘Monster 's Ball’ and the same night Denzel Washington also went home with a Best Lead Actor award in ‘Training Day’. Though many more people were nominated, less than a handful of minorities walked away with an award throughout the years. We wonder why, but according to the “2016 Hollywood Diversity Report”, studies show that “minorities accounted for 37.9 percent of the U.S Population in 2014, yet they were underrepresented by nearly 3 to 1 among lead roles for that year.” (p.10
The way in which black people, especially black women, are represented in film perpetuates harmful stereotypes about black people in the real world. The heavy bias against black people, both on film and off, creates an environment in which black people are held back from the opportunities that white people take for granted in a variety of arenas. This relates to gender politics, which, while wide reaching on a global and societal scale, are deeply rooted in firmly personal matters. In order to more fully understand the larger gender relations on a state-wide basis, it is important to view them in relation to the more personal politics of the individual.
The lack of diversity inclusion in the media and entertainment has become a major discussion in popular culture over recent years, specifically with the rise of trends such as #OscarsSoWhite. Although Hollywood has come a long way from the days of minstrel shows and having white actors use blackface to portray characters of color, it still has far to go before present-day media becomes truly representative of the diversity of America and the rest of the world we live in. For many years, actors of colors have struggled to find roles in Hollywood that were multidimensional, challenging, and impactful in the overall piece that they are performing in. Black women specifically are often confined to stereotypes such as the hypersexual jezebel,
Images in media, television especially, are a direct projection of the people who control and project them, which often tends to be white people. “‘We face the problems of images projected by people not of us,’ she said. ‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’”(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall and just plain gorgeous, making it hard for the average African American woman to relate to. Black television has done well with having different shapes and sizes for women of color to relate to, but that only includes one or two channels on all of television. For example, even though BET was founded by Robert Johnson, a black man, BET is now predominantly owned by white people. “"Day after day, in all forms of media -- print, radio, and television -- we see, hear, and read the perspectives of non-Black women and women of color who are not actively involved in the struggles of Black women -- especially on so-called 'women's issues'.”(Women’s Health Weekly, 546) Large television networks must choose to show things that will not only keep ratings up but also keep people interested in watching their shows. Unfortunately in today’s age and day drama and negativity is what most Americans look to watch. Even though many people feel that these negative things are wrong, we still find ourselves watching and reading about it. The...
Representation of people of color—even, more so for women of color—in film and media is crucial in paving the path towards equality as a whole. However, the amount of roles, both leading and supporting, for people of color are scarce and borderline nonexistent for some minority groups. In addition, the marginality of roles for people of color versus caucasians in mainstream film and media is extremely disparate and reasserts the inequality in Hollywood. In particular, Asian-Americans are only cast in film and media 1.3% of the time while caucasians lead with a cast rate of 78.2% (Briones 8). With the statistic in mind, when there is representation for Asian-Americans in film, especially mainstream studio films, irony is usually a present factor.
There are a variety of different representations of today’s society in films, advertisements, media and much more. In particular I’ll be discussing the representation of black men being in films as the typical sidekick. The films Men in Black, Rush hour and I spy. These Films portray the image of Black Men being marginalized, appearing as foolish, childish, and immature who doesn’t take their job seriously. Constantly Black men are being placed in this category. It’s crucial because not all black men act foolish in real life nor do they have jobs and not take them seriously, its society who is placing these labels on them.
One of the biggest problems we face today in the media is the lack of characters represented by minorities. According to Vadim Rizov, a reporter for The Dissolve,” Across 100 top-grossing films of 2012, only 10.8 percent of speaking characters are
Even though African American Women are not treated equal at times and don't seem to most, to be stereotyped. I believe that, the portrayal of African American Women in recent films, has served to highlight the negative stereotyping against them and increase awareness to their plight. People tend to label African American Women, from the typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. The stereotyping occurred before the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, where the African American were predominantly bought and sold as slaves.
Women of color have had to suffer through a copious number of years of being objectified sexually in media – magazines, music videos, movies, shows (Carolina). “Throughout history the media has played a large role in portraying women as unrealistically sexual, and the old excuse is, “SEX SELLS” (Yancey). Media companies have been profiting off of exploiting a woman’s body and have continued to use this as a business ordeal. Companies continue to use this tactic even though it has been proven that, over time, there was a decrease in profits and other advertising strategies. Although consumers have deferred from feeding into these companies, this tactic continued to be seen in our society today. The lack of diversified representation of women of color has made it harder for women to break through the gender roles and pursue their career of choice. Although women of color have began to be represented more, women of color continue to be underrepresented in many male- dominated jobs (Kerby). When media influencers did decide to incorporate women of color in their productions, they were forced to undergo racial and gender biases that reinscribed stereotypical understandings of woman of color. The representation of women of color in media also reflects the representation of women of color in many work
The Academy Awards have been notorious for acknowledging the elite in the film industry since the late 1920’s (History.com Staff, 2009). Whether they are actors, actresses, costume designers or directors, each nominee is commended for their strenuous work. As a devout Academy Awards fan, I feel as though I have witnessed history being made through my viewings. Meryl Streep becoming the most nominated actor/actress in Academy Award history and Jennifer Lawrence being the youngest actress to have three nominations, are just a few of these history making examples. These pivotal moments, amongst others, have also made me aware of the not so bright side of things, which has sparked a controversy in the world we live in today. In 2016, the Academy