Diverse Characters In Hollywood
http://blog.leeandlow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/hero.jpg
Being a young female who loves watching movies, I question myself if I can see myself as a leading role. The answer is I don't think so. If you haven’t notice Hollywood is not representative of the world that surrounds us, a new study has confirmed that yes, white men overwhelmingly dominate Hollywood’s top grossing films.
Being a mix of 5 races, I don’t see a good representation of race in hollywood films. White males don’t make up 73.1% of the moviegoing population. Since, last year thirteen percent of all female characters were black in films. Four percent of all female characters were Latina. And three percent of all female characters were Asian. Female characters of color seems less likely to be major characters than white females, according to the study. It’s important to see oneself on screen, and at a time when Hollywood blockbusters are crafted with the widest possible international audience in mind. It’s not like increasing diversity in movie decreases the amount of money hollywood makes. Movies with a more diverse cast are proven to make more money. The Star Wars franchise and the fast & furious franchise exploded into one of the highest grossing films series ever thanks to its broader canvas and diverse cast.
“Many of my movies have strong female leads- brave, self-sufficient girls that don't think twice about fighting for what they believe with all their heart. They'll need a friend, or a supporter, but never a savior. Any woman is just as capable of being a hero as any man.” ― Hayao Miyazaki. Women are still treated like second-class citizens when it comes to most Hollywood movies. They’re the girlfriend, the mother or the wife. Their value is determined in relation to the people they marry or birth. That’s not fair since, women are half of the world’s population and buy half of the movie tickets. Why does Hollywood continue to make them as the “female lead”, “love interest”, or “supporting character?” Why can’t a woman just be the “lead” of a film? Why is every ensemble made up of three men and one woman? That’s not how the world works. In secondary roles, females are underrepresented, comprising 29% of major characters and 30% of all speaking characters. Unlike, Hayao Miyazaki who directed and wrote highly acclaimed movies with diverse lead role who are female characters in following movies such as “Spirited Away”, “My neighbour Totoro”, “Princess Mononoke” and “Ponyo”. His movies are characterized by the recurrence of progressive themes such as environmentalism, and feminism. Many of Miyazaki's films are populated by strong female protagonists that go against gender roles common in Japanese animation and fiction. Proving that females are as capable as men when it comes to leading movies. He also has been call a feminist by studio ghibli president Toshio Suzuki for his attitude towards his female workers.
Then that sparks the question, how about the behind works of films? Are there females who have a say? Are there even females? That examination into employment found that over the past 17 years, the number of women directing the 250 top-grossing films declined by 2%. In films with at least one female director or writer, women comprised 37% of all speaking characters, but in films written and directed by men, they represented 28% of speaking characters. 39% of protagonists in films from female writers and directors were women, whereas women were 4% of the lead characters in films from male filmmakers. There's not only a problem on screen but, also behind the screen. Across the top 100 films of 2014, only 5 of the 107 directors (4.7%) were black, and only 19 Asian directors worked across the 700 top-grossing films.
Films are often a reflection of us, our dreams, the world around us, our hope, and our fantasies as a human being. We should be superheroes. We want to be Iron Man, Batman, Superman etc. You know where I’m going at. But the heroes are all white males. Use your power as a consumer, support diverse and women-led films. Just imagine the impact there would be if you refuse to pay for a movie that lacked colored actors or empowering female characters. They would face a major profit loss. The would be forced to change their ways. Call out on stuff that doesn’t seem right, or seem bias, join the online movement. Hashtag activism are huge these days. Spark a movement. #Oscarssowhite isn’t the only recent activism against hollywood bias, online activist pressured Lionsgate studio to address the very white cast of Gods of Egypt. Bias! Call it out. Overcome your own unconscious bias. That is not an unknown secret we all hold our own bias, many of this biases are unconscious. It affects our views on movies, what film to watch and what tv shows especially, when it comes to race and gender. Learn the history of hollywood’s diversity problem.
Hollywood has a major problem of diversity and lack of strong female characters. There are no more excuses left for this stupid reason. It’s time to get serious about reflecting the world we live in and who lives in it.