Dynamic Characters: The Influence Of Minorities In The Media

Today’s television is lacking in both quality and quantity when it comes to characters that are minorities. There is a distinct deficiency these characters, and an even bigger lack of dynamic characters that are minorities. In television today we rarely see people of color, people of different sexualities, and people of different genders being portrayed with accuracy. It is time for American television and the media in general to start diversifying their casts, and to stop only trying to appeal to such a narrow demographic. The media needs to stop feeding consumers generalized, stereotyped characters and start giving them the diverse, fleshed out characters they deserve.
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

Black, 4.2 percent are Hispanic, 5 percent are Asian, and 3.6 percent are from other (or mixed race) ethnicities,”. If you add all of that together, it means only 23.6 percent of speaking parts in movies are of minorities. Only a few of those actually have major parts, the rest could just have a few lines.
Not surprisingly, 44 percent of all movie revenues come from minorities. Obviously, the amount of minorities represented is much smaller than the amount consuming them. Rebecca Keegan said, in a Los Angeles Times article written on October 30, 2013, “In 2012, the researchers found, 76.3% of all speaking characters in these movies were white; according to U.S. Census figures, 63% of the country is white, and according to the Motion Picture Assn. of America, 56% of movie ticket buyers are white.” Later in the article, Katherine Pieper says “At the core, this is a visibility issue. Who we see in film sends a powerful message about who is important and whose stories are valuable, both to international audiences and to younger viewers in our own country.... Are films communicating to audiences that only certain stories are worth telling?" The races we represent in the media show who we view as important in society. By only casting a few people of minorities in movies, we imply that white people are more important than people of other races.
Another example of lack of representation has been hidden right in front of us our whole lives: Disney princesses. Out of all of the Disney princesses, only three aren’t white. There’s also another problem: they all have the same physique. All of them are very unreasonably skinny, with big eyes and long flowing blonde hair, teaching kids that to be considered beautiful or princess-like they must fit in to that small mold. Donna Brown Guillaume said in Happily Ever after: Fairytales for Every Child, “When I was young, all the fairytale princesses had long blond hair. When you are black, you just don’t feel like it could be you.” There is hope in the future though. It was recently revealed at a convention that there is a new Disney princess in the works. The new princess, Moana, will make her debut in 2018. She breaks the typical mold for Disney Princesses because she is a girl of color and she has a stocky, more muscular build than the other princesses. Hopefully this is a sign that Disney is taking a better direction with there characters.
Not only are we lacking a quantity of characters portrayed by minorities, we are lacking in quality with the few we do have. When we do have characters that play a significant part in a film or TV show they are used as token side characters, characters lacking substance that are used only as comic relief or as a ladder the main character steps on to get to their goal. Characters like these are very problematic because they degrade the value these people have and make them seem lesser than their white counterparts. By lacking these dynamic characters, children who grow up and watch these shows think lesser of themselves. As they grow up we teach them that unless they are white they will never be the main character, we teach them that they are only going to be supporting characters in other people’s lives.
When we do get characters portrayed by minorities, there is another toxic thing that destroys their quality: stereotypes. It is a common trope in movies and television shows to write the characters that are minorities with vicious stereotypes. For example, when a gay man is presented in a TV show, he is always portrayed with the “gay best friend” stereotype. He’s there for shopping, gossiping, and any other thing you would expect in the media. Gay best friends are treated more as an accessory every girl wants, but not as actual people.
Another good example we can see in television today is Raj from the Big Bang Theory. He is a great example of bad stereotypes. While he is a major character in the show, he is also constantly ridiculed and made fun of because of the stereotypes they wrote him with. Raj is man from India. He is portrayed with a thick accent and often makes jokes about his culture back home. He makes many jokes about eating cows, how poor the country is, and many other distasteful jokes. There is even a scene where he is dreaming and a white character on the show is dancing around in a Bollywood style music video. Not only is he used as a bad stereotype throughout the show, he is also constantly the butt of the jokes simply because of his race. He is only used as comic relief and has no actual substance or depth as a character.
Another problem we have in the media is the representation of women. It’s very common, in a television show targeted at a male audience, for women to be portrayed as dumb sexual objects. Another trope commonly used on women is the “nagging smart girl” that is always chiding and bossing around the main character. Female characters in television are usually just used for sex appeal and to create romance and drama in the show. It is all too common for the female character and the main character to fall in love or have a relationship sometime in the future. One example of these television clichés is Doctor Who. Before 2009 , the female characters to the Doctor, called companions, were of equal importance to this thousand year old time lord, but now they are barely even important assets in the plot at all. The female companions are just there for “eye candy” and to fall in love with the Doctor. Another problem Doctor Who presents is the lack of a female doctor. Throughout all or the regenerations he’s gone through, the main character still remains a male. And, his companion always remain female (with two exceptions). This promotes the idea that women will always just be sidekicks in men’s adventures.
The Legend of Korra, a sequel to the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, is a more recent show that is being praised for is representation of women. The main character, Korra, is a woman of color who is also bisexual. At the end of the series, it is confirmed that she is in a relationship with one of the other female characters. In the Legend of Korra, minorities are portrayed as very powerful characters. Korra herself is the most powerful being in the world. In an article “The Legend of Korra and Minority Representation”, the author Adolfo Aranjuez says “Through The Legend of Korra, you can teach your students the importance of diversity, and how being part of a minority isn’t necessarily a weakness”.
Even though television is way behind the times in its casting, there are a few TV shows that are making strides for equal representation.

One of these shows is a popular kids television show on Cartoon Network, Steven Universe. Steven Universe initially aired on Cartoon Network in 2013 and is a show about a young boy growing up with his three alien “mothers”. Along with writing many important characters as people of color, the show also equally represents and praises many different body types. The show even has representation of many different sexualities. One of the main characters, Garnet, is in a lesbian relationship and another, Pearl, was in love with Stevens mother. This is a big step in television considering how diverse the characters are, especially for a children’s show. One drawback to this show, however, is its small audience. Although this show is hitting and teaching many people, its audience is still small. Once the audience of this show expands, it will effect a greater variety of people and have a greater impact on the world

itself.
Television today is severely lacking in characters that are minorities. There is a lack in quantity of characters of different races, genders, and sexualities. When we do have these diverse characters, they are portrayed with bad stereotypes that don’t accurately represent the depth these people have to offer. These stereotypes and the lack of diversity have a very negative effect on children and teach them that they aren’t as important as their straight, white counterparts. If we are going to move anywhere as a society we must start representing a larger diversity in the media, or we will remain at a standstill.