Positives And Negatives Of American Cinema

American cinema can connect us to our American experience through the portrayal of ideal lifestyles. However the American experience shown in films is generally flawed particularly in its portrayal of the American dream, disparagement of women and minorities and demonizing of other cultures. One might think as time passed and hollywood became more progressive these practices would grow out of favor however these trends are all too present in modern hollywood blockbusters. That being said American cinema is not limited to hollywood and boasts a healthy independent community that is making massive strides in progressive filmmaking.
Before discussing how cinema might disconnect us from our American experience we must discuss what exactly is

The study found that in 2012 Blacks comprised only 10.8 percent of speaking roles compared to 76.3 percent by white actors. This however is not limited to blacks, Latinos comprised only 4.2 percent of speaking roles despite as of 2012 being 17 percent of the overall population. This is not simply an issue of whites paying to see white people on camera. According to the MPAA 26 percent of film tickets were sold to hispanics in 2013. In the case of the 2001 film a Beautiful Mind the wife of protagonist John Nash, Alicia Nash, was casted to a white actress despite in reality immigrating from el salvador. This is significant given that the film was based on a biography that highlighted the inspiration that Alicia provided her husband by being an immigrant. However in the story her background is completely excluded from the film in order to cast a white actress. It can then be argued that the message being told to audiences by doing this, is that their stories and experiences are less important if they are not

This is not to say that there still not issue with this. Women are still underrepresented in films regardless of the demographic, for example for every 2.48 men within films we see 1 woman. This is however does not mean that these women are the protagonists of the films. Only that they have speaking parts. If the former were the case the number would be much lower. Which was shown by a study published in US news found that only 12 percent of protagonists in films were played by Women. They were also overwhelmingly white at 73 perecent of the total pool. The issue of women being portrayed within films does not stop at underrepresentation. Over sexualization of women in films is extremely common. The study published by USC found that 41 percent of Hispanic women in films are portrayed in sexual clothing and 39 percent appear nude. These numbers are not much lower for other races. Black and White rate of sexualization and nudity were both above 30 percent as of 2012. This a huge disparity between the amount of males that are depicted sexually in films. Black males have the highest rate of depiction in sexual clothing at 10.8 percent while hispanic men have the lowest at 2.7 despite the Hispanic Female holding a number almost 20 time