The world we live in is not homogenous. There’s not one type of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc. While specific people from these groups, like straight, white men, have been lucky enough to be constantly represented in media, many others have not been. Because of that, it’s time other groups of people are being represented in media. Luckily, this has become an issue more people are aware of thanks to the internet. There have been many posts, articles, and papers published regarding the effects of underrepresentation, as well as the importance of including it in the first place. Here are two great ones I think everyone would benefit from reading:
https://www.diggitmagazine.com/papers/diversity-and-representation-tv-and-movies-and-why-it-matters
https://medium.com/@Laurenwash/the-importance-of-representation-in-film-and-media-2d006149cac9
One of the articles makes an excellent point in saying that Hollywood is the exporter of culture. The things that are produced in Hollywood are able to be dispersed not only in the United States, but all over the world: “the influence that media has is a tremendously weighty responsibility and unfortunately, many of these studios have created harmful false narratives” (Washington 2019). In other words, Hollywood (aka American media in general) has not done a sufficient job with the responsibility it has been given.
The article by Lauren Washington brought up a really good point about minority representation; for many black kids, Black Panther (2018) was the first time they watched a superhero movie with a black actor as the protagonist. Gravity (2013) was the first time many girls saw a woman as the protagonist in the male-dominated field of science and astronomy. THESE ARE BOTH MOVIES RELEASED WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS! Additionally, the article by Florentine Bakkenes gives some interesting statistics regarding how inclusive Hollywood really was. For example, “In the top 100 films of 2017, 42% did not include any black women” (Bakkenes 2022). Even numbers wise, it is evident that Hollywood has failed.
As a white woman born and raised in the U.S., I’ve been lucky in that I have not have had trouble relating certain parts of my identity to certain characters. Still, even as a fairly popular depiction, I’ve failed finding similarities between myself and other characters in other ways. I’ll admit, it’s pretty easy to spot a white girl on TV. That being said, I don’t ever remember watching a character whose parents were immigrants. In turn, I always asked myself, “Why can’t my family just be more American?” Instead of embracing certain parts of my culture when I was younger, I wanted to reject them. Another example of this is when I used to tell my parents that when I got older I was going to change the spelling of my name. My name is Veronika, and I wanted it to be spelled the typical “American way” (Veronica). That’s just one part of my identity that has not been traditionally represented well in media, and it affected me a lot when I was younger. When I think about it, I would lucky enough to see people that looked like me. The parts that didn’t really line up with my identity really affected me, so I can’t imagine being a little girl and not even seeing someone that resembled me.
I don’t think it’s a question of whether or not people are affected by a lack of representation. Because of that, I don’t there should even be a question of whether or not there’s an obligation to present diversity in films, movies, shows, and more. Hollywood has been given a responsibility, and it needs to be embraced. Even if you felt as though you were represented well by the media, what parts of your identity do you think were misrepresented, or not represented at all? Additionally, because there is now a discussion regarding media representation, do you think Hollywood has improved at all? To what extent?
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