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More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of diversity and representation in the film industry
Importance of diversity and representation in the film industry
Importance of diversity and representation in the film industry
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My example of How To Get Away With Murder challenges the arguments made in Miss Representation. Given the way in which the roles success in their fields of work are shown. How they have a variety of ages represented in the show. As well as the number of ethnicities shown in the actors is beyond what others have shown. The arguments made in Miss Representation will be overseen by this show and many others to come. In the film Miss Representation director Jennifer Newsom’s primary argument is if young women do not see any other women in roles of power, they start to think that they are not able to achieve that power. An example of this would be “You can’t be what you can’t see.”, said by Marie Wilson the founder of the White House Project. …show more content…
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. How To Get Away With Murder is a show that revolves around the life of Annalise Keating and five students from her Criminal Law 100 class that have been selected to work with her over the course of the school year. At first the show starts off in the present time with four out of the five looking very disturbed while talking about disposing of a body. After that short clip we are taken back three months to the beginning of the semester. We are introduced to the five students. Connor Walsh, he comes off as pretty narcissistic and will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Wes Gibbins, added onto the waitlist days before Annalise’s class started he has to prove his worth to the others in the group. Asher Millstone, typical college frat boy he is secluded from the other fours illegal …show more content…
Such as how women are rarely portrayed as a higher power, The fact that there have not been many female lawyers on television. Viola Davis has a multidimensional character that is intimidating, but also caring for her students, or the fact that she is able to have affairs, but also be in love with her husband. The character of Annalise as a successful lawyer give young women the sense of being able to achieve her successfulness. Viola Davis being the age of fifty has overcome the age barrier for women in Hollywood. Given that Viola is African American her role of Annalise has won a number of awards the most renowned being the prime time emmy award for lead actress in a drama. This award is in fact a very important role because the fact that she is the first African American women to have won
The documentary, “Miss Representation,” is a film about how women are perceived in the media. It is written, directed, and produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom. She is an actress and a film maker who advocates for women. In the beginning of the documentary, Newsom discusses her struggles as a young woman surrounded by the pressures of looking a certain way. This film is targeting mainly women of all age that has experienced her struggles. Jennifer Siebel Newsom effectively convinces the audience of “Miss Representation” that the media has molded women in a negative way through statistics, celebrities’ and younger generation’s testimonies, and clips from the media.
Many current crime dramas give younger female viewers female role models in professionally powerful positions. Law and Order: SVU commonly casts their district attorneys and judges with women. In addition, the characters often are portrayed as independent and strong women as they battle against tough male opponents. For too long, women have been portrayed in television as either being the “woman behind the man” or as needing to use her sex appeal in order to be powerful. Another crime drama, Criminal Minds, has casted females in roles such as the director of the FBI’s Behavior Analysis Unit, agents who also worked undercover in the CIA, and as international secret agents. All of these characters have, for the most part, been portrayed positively. An adult is aware that in the real world women in powerful positions is not fiction; and, wom...
The first approach I would like to take to Megan Huntsman's crimes is the approach of news reporting, how we understand it, and how our initial emotional reactions, through availability heuristics, makes us arrive at quick conclusion that may or may not be correct.
On December 18th 2015 Netflix aired with great popularity a 10 part documentary series called “making a Murderer” The documentary, written by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demo, present the case of Steven Avery; a convicted murderer exonerated on DNA evidence after serving 18 years for the assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. The writers present the series in a way that suggest that Avery was framed by the Manitowoc Country police department. and present that the police planted evidence to frame Steven Avery because he had been exonerated from the previous crime. The ethical problem with this as is presented by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker, is that the documentary argues their case so passionately that they leave out important
Miss Representation is a documentary based on women in the media and how the media has affected women today. “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” This quote is from Alice Walker, a female, who realized that they e...
Diversity has always been one of Hollywood’s greatest weaknesses. For the most part, the industry absolutely strives with its rich narratives, beautiful cinematography, and moving performances but it fails when it comes to diversity. The representation of both women and people of colour have been lacklustre, often with poor characterisations and distasteful stereotypes and character tropes.
In today’s society, pre-existing assumptions and stereotypes of other ethnicities and individuals play a large part in the way we see others. This social construct of stereotypes has placed restrictions on many people’s lives which ultimately limits them from achieving certain goals. In this sense, stereotypes misrepresent and restrict people of colour to gain casting within the Hollywood film industry. The issue of how casting actors to certain roles and how these actors are forced to submit and represent these false stereotypes is one worthy of discussion. White Chicks (2004), directed by Keenan Wayans, illustrates this issue through the performance of Latrell, performed by Terry Crews, and his performance of the hyper-sexualised “buck” will be a prime example in this essay to discuss the racial politics and stereotypes in Hollywood casting.
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
Miss Representation addresses the important issue of how women are presented in the media and how it can badly influence women. This film does a good job on delivering such a powerful message to women. I, myself, was in shock of how the media is portraying women to be represented as the “sexual” and “seductive” figure. The statistic that I found to be very eye opening was how American teenagers spend about 10 hours and 45 minutes a day looking at the media. I was just mind blown how this is in fact true of this day and age because I, myself, spend about close to that amount of time. While there were a lot of things to cover on, I will mainly focus on how women’s bodies are represented through the media.
African American representation in the film industry has always been a topic for discussion. Whether talking about character types and roles, the actors being cast or not cast, and the lack of diversity in front of and behind the camera. ‘The contemporary status of race in mainstream American culture is intimately bound to the process of representation within and through the mass media.’ (Rocchio, 2000, p. 4). Any role that was to be played by an African American kept in with the dominant stereotypes of the time of production; incompetent, child like, hyper-sexualised or criminal.
The documentary Miss Representation describes the struggle of female leadership. It is based on the way the women look, the way they carry themselves, and the way they brutalize themselves to fit in with others. This documentation allow different women to tell their ways that the media have slashed them, and allow others to stand up for women. Women portray themselves to fit as the image that has been altered with to get it to look that way. Margaret Cho explains that her show All American Girl was cancelled because she had problems with the network who aired the show because they constantly said was not thin enough. That is a prime example of today's problems with pursuing your dreams as an actor or pursuing your dreams as a model. You have to change your physical features to fit in, and if you do not you won’t get in.
Making a Murderer is a documentary-drama, like successful similar ones found on cable, including Dateline, 48 Hours Mysteries, and Cold Case Files. Many people are fascinated with authentic crime stories. However, unlike these other shows, Making a Murderer explores how the criminal justice system fails Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey, instead of showing the prosecution, the defendant, and both of their witnesses’ sides of the story. By introducing the facts of the case and then showing only one viewpoint or side, Netflix prods viewers to feel sorry for one side and angry with the other. Whereas in other crime-dramas, mystery and suspense are what drive viewers to watch. In an interview discussing the popularity of Dateline with The New York Times, NBC News executive David Corvo says, “It’s got good guys, bad guys, conflict over something that matters, suspense and then resolution — the classic elements of drama and great storytelling.” In their improved crime docudrama model, Netflix removes the resolution and leaves viewers infuriated with the results of innocent men still in jail and hungry for more. Unfortunately, there is no more information after the 10 hour-long episodes. But unlike the shows on cable that have their ending where the truth is uncovered and justice is served, Making a Murderer viewers have the power to band together and demand of their government that the criminal
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).
When a woman of color is shown in a movie, she is usually given a negative role. In the text “The importance of Neglected Intersections: Race and Gender in contemporary Zombie Text and Theories,” the author Kinitra Brooks states, “...horror criticism fails to encompass the multiple oppressive of gender and race that plague characterizations of black women in the zombie horror genre.” (Brooks, 462). In the horror genre, the colored women are judged to be overly masculine, overly sexualised in contrast to white women. The women of color are portrayed to be strong but not capable of using their strength to the maximum aptitude however white women are presented as brave and courageous for showing their strength. The thought that person’s color shows the extent of their strength is wrong. Furthermore, women of color has shortfall of legitimate and brave roles in horror broadcasting. The author also says, “It is not enough to simply include black female characters; horror creators must also make them individuated figures oven into the main narrative.” (Brooks,473). The women of color are given role in the movies to show diversity, however, they tend to lack the vital piece. It is real important for all the women to have a compelling and effective role in all the movies. The movie should be created by giving roles to the minories that doesn’t dehumanize the
The Representation Project is a non-profit corporation that has mission to free the world of gender stereotypes and roles. It started when Jennifer Siebl Newsom, the founder, premiered the first film at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. The film, Miss Representation, exposed the media by showing the ways in which media under-represented women in positions of influence and power (Siebel). There was a public demand for ongoing education and social action due to the film’s message. The Representation Project was founded in April 2011 which inspires individuals and communities to create a world free of gender stereotypes and social injustices that limits people (Siebel).