Hollywood is the home of flashing cameras, the famous red carpet, and glamorous celebrities. Hollywood is also the birthplace of extraordinary films which reach audiences across the world. The casting choices made by the film industry affects more than just the movie that is created. Hollywood directors and writers should have the social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters because the stereotypes offer poor (and often inaccurate) insight into the culture, negatively impacts child viewers, and limits the amount of quality roles for actors/actresses with diverse ethnic backgrounds. The choice of Hollywood directors and writers to represent ethnic characters with stereotypes misrepresents the authenticity of their actual cultures. …show more content…
Frequently, the lead character of a film is Caucasian and according to Dr. Robert Entman (a professor from George Washington University), “[in] dramatic Hollywood movies…whites play the lead roles nine times more often than non-whites” (15). A female lead who is considered to be beautiful is often a blonde Caucasian woman (examples include Legally Blonde, The House Bunny, and The Amazing Spider-Man). Young girls who are not Caucasian may have a difficult time with their self-image while developing, because they are unable to relate to Hollywood’s very limited and unrealistic standard of beauty. Tracey Owens Patton, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Wyoming states that, “[a girl’s] desire to change her outer appearance to meet a Eurocentric ideal may lead her to loathe her own physical appearance and [believe] ‘...that she can only be lovely by impersonating someone else (177)”. Hollywood directors and writers will often cast Caucasian male leads to play a strong, masculine hero character; this is the case for popular movies such as The Avengers, Man of Steel, and The Dark Knight. Sometimes, a Caucasian actor is intentionally chosen for a film whose plot centers around a hero who is historically not of European descent. According to reporter Adam Howard of MSNBC News, Director Ridley Scott of Exodus: Gods and Kings intentionally cast Caucasian actors to play …show more content…
Some may argue that Hollywood directors and writers should not be burdened with the responsibility of avoiding the stereotyping of racial characters. However, these stereotypes poorly represent the traditions of ethnic groups, send out harmful messages to children (who are easily influenced by movies), and give very little opportunity to talented actors/actresses who are judged more on their race than their talent. By casting ethnically-accurate actors/actresses for characters, Hollywood directors and writers can help increase the racial diversity of actors/actresses in the movie industry. By casting different races in movies, a cycle can be created where Hollywood directors and writers can discover more talented and ethnically diverse actors/actresses to play future roles and increase the cultural accuracy in
In turn, it can result in limited opportunities for several ethnicities, specifically minorities, and be cause for type casting. Type casting is casting an actor for the same types of roles continuously because of their appearance. Personally, I’ve never felt like I was stuck in this so called “box”, mainly because I didn’t allow my appearance and ethnicity to define me or dictate the roles I took. Have you ever filled out an application or form asking for your race
Throughout the course of history our country has dealt with the issue of racism and stereotypes. Most of these stereotypes have come from movies that portray different races in a certain light. Racism has been an issue that our country still deals with to this day, and the stereotypes are an added issue to the problem of racism. The problem is why are these stereotypes being depicted in that light, and if the roles were reversed how would people feel about it? The goal is to dig deep and find out why these roles are portrayed the way that it is in Hollywood movies, what are the potential effects of how people will react when watching these movies, and are people offended by the stereotypes of these roles.
Before this class, I was aware of the stereotypical roles and performances that Asian’s play in Hollywood, however I did not notice the lack of representation that they have. It was not until this class, that I began to pay attention and notice that there are not many Asian actors. If there was, they were never lead roles, but supporting or minor roles. I am able to relate with Constance as she was not aware of the issue until it was pointed out to her.
It is easy to cast an African American as a thug, a Hispanic as a gardener or Asian as the smart one, all of which are stereotypes. A diverse casting crew can help change the way a person view different
For many years, African Americans have faced the challenge of being accurately and positively portrayed within the mainstream media, such as American made films. They are often represented as people who are inferior to those of the Caucasian race, and are frequently presented with problems that are related to racial discrimination. The negative portrayal of African Americans in the media such as movies, have often been considered a large contributing factor to the racial tensions that still exist in our world today (Lemons, 1977). The movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a great example of the early portrayals of African Americans in films. It provides numerous examples of how stereotypes can greatly impact the lives of those who are not of
There are only a few instances in which Asian Americans do not portray the stereotypical role. Before in the theatre, since
Not only biased towards Asian Americans, but the use of genderization in media has also made Asian American women hypersexualized, and men emasculated (Sugihara and Ju). Although Asian Americans' representation in media today is slightly increasing, there still needs to be a change to depict Asian Americans in a not-so-stereotypical way through their ability to act without the use of genderization. From the rise of movies in the 1930s to the present, Asian Americans' representation in media was “whitewashed.” As defined by Merriam-Webster, the word whitewash is “to portray (the past) in a way that increases the prominence, relevance, or impact of white people and minimizes or misrepresents that of nonwhite people” (Merriam-Webster).
First, one of the reasons that the Hollywood writers and directors have a social responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic character is racism issues. Racism is one of hot issues that people need to concern when it already happened in that past but still appear in nowadays. It is clearly present in the Hollywood film back in the days when the motion picture industry is only owned and controlled by the white people. Most majority of white actors and actresses were only people that could appear or had roles on the films, and there were neither Asian people nor African American people to act any roles on the film. Even there were Asian roles in the film, only white actors were hired to act these stereotypical characters.
In answer to that claim, there have been people of color throughout the entire world, for all of history, what is the need to only include white
This movie is truly breaking barriers for Hollywood that have been in place for as long as L.A. has existed. It poses the question; does Hollywood’s representation match that of our society? Racial Diversity To start, let’s examine what the average
Institutions While many of our respondents recounted experiences of their “Asianness” impacting their engagement with hookup culture through describing specific experiences with other members of the Vanderbilt community, it is clear that several overarching institutional forces are also at play. That is, although personal biases and attitudes of non-Asian students undoubtedly influence the experiences of Asian American individuals, it is also valuable to think about where these attitudes might stem from and how they are reinforced and perpetuated by systems in place. The first, and perhaps arguably most important, institution in play is the media and popular culture. It is no secret that Hollywood is predominantly white, but Asian Americans
In today’s society, the hero of any movie is normally a white male or female. It is not in the norm to see a Hispanic, Asian, or Black person saving the world or being the main star of a movie. These main characters have different characteristics than the secondary character that happens to be of a different race. For example: In the movie “The Incredibles”, the lead actor is ‘Mr. Incredible’, who happens to be a white male that is incredibly fit and someone all the super heroes wish to be. A secondary character is ‘Frozone’, a black male that is not even close to the size or the importance of ‘Mr. Incredible’.
During my research, I came across various articles that allocate with the central theme of minorities in motion pictures. In "This Is What America Looks Like. So Why Don 't Our Movies?," Chris Lee argues that, even
I think sticking to the race enhances the play’s realness. However I do believe that there should be more opportunities with plays that have different races in them. Thanks to August Wilson’s work, I came to the conclusion on what I truly believe about colorblind casting and what side I take.
What are the few A-list actors many people think of on the top of their heads? Ryan Gosling, Morgan Freeman, Emma Stone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, and Jennifer Lawrence are some of the actors that many people today would recall. I’ve had the pleasure of watching these actors on the screen over the years as many of them take on new roles and receive amazing awards. Recently, the 89th Academy Awards added more diversity into its categories compared to the previous year, where the host Chris Rock called out Hollywood for “white-washing” the nominations. Hollywood today aims to focus on the importance of diversity in the performing arts.