Diversity is the new norm for the entertainment industry
Minorities, women, and sexualities have been discriminated and underrepresented in the entertainment industry for decades. Diversity in media has been something Hollywood has struggled with for many years, especially in the Oscars nominees and awards.
Diversity has become the new trend in Hollywood. Recent movies such as “Black Panther” and “Coco” have become on the top charts, and have received numerous awards. “Black Panther” grossed an estimated 1.2 Billion dollars in global ticket sales. The movie was a celebration of the African American community and culture. Similarly, the Disney movie Coco revolved around the famous Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead, or “Dia de Los Muertos.” This film also gained even more recognition when it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
Additionally, movies have also been more inclusive in regards to sexuality and gender, with recent movies like “Love, Simon,” “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” and plans for more inclusive movies in the future being scheduled. Many critics also say that 2018 is a “banner year” for LGBTQ representation at the Oscars.
“It’s getting better in terms of casting people who are actually fit to be certain characters, but there’s still room for improvement,” junior Gayathri Sriram said.
According to a Los Angeles Times report, a study was conducted and results showed that movies with more diverse casts consistently earned more money at the box office. As America is becoming more diverse, so is the demand for more diverse casts and diverse stories.
Times have changed, people have changed, and the audiences have changed, so it’s not surprising to see the demand for more diversified actors and storylines.
“Diversity in Hollywood is starting to become better in terms of screen representation, but I’m pretty sure there is a wage discrepancy. Also, I feel like they really don’t include a lot of minority groups,” sophomore Ashrita Gottumukkula said.
But are they doing enough? This seems to be a question that comes up too frequently to the industry when discussing Hollywood’s diversity issue. Yes, there is still a long way to go. However, the entertainment industry has come a long way and have made changes to suit the diverse audiences putting their money in the Hollywood industry.
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axiet • Mar 21, 2018 at 11:43 am
Can’t wait for my Asian representation in Hollywood. (sarcasm)
I don’t understand why diversity is such a huge matter in the entertainment industry. As long as actors and actresses have acting skills and a good story, diversity shouldn’t matter.
Take the instance of all the movies that aren’t made in the Western World. They aren’t diverse. A great example of this “non-diversity” is the Anime industry. (Anime is just Japanese cartoons) Most anime aren’t diverse. Most of these characters are (big surprise) Japanese. Yet non-Japanese people enjoy them.
Does that matter? No it doesn’t. Just as long as they have a good story.
On another note you should look to diversity with the population.
According to this study in 2016, whites are ‘over represented’ because they make up 78.1% of film roles (in Hollywood) yet they make up 61.3% of the U.S. population. Blacks on the other hand have a proportionate ‘representation’ being 13.3% of the population and 12.5% of film roles. Every other minority are ‘under represented’.
You have to take these stats with a grain of salt. It doesn’t include the people who join this industry or try to start out in this specific industry, e.g. there are more men who are engineers than a women. That doesn’t mean that women are discriminated against, it just means that most women won’t chose the path of being an engineer.
(https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/UCLA-Hollywood-Diversity-Report-2018-2-27-18.pdf)
In my opinion, I feel that these films were only chosen because they were ‘diverse’ (especially Shape of Water).
Cian28 • Mar 21, 2018 at 9:34 am
This post is great, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like the movies were made more to show a message rather than just add diversity to the media. In the movie “Love, Simon” (Great movie by the way) , We see how being homosexual is not really a big thing, It’s shown to just be another trait like being tall, thin, having brown eyes, or blonde hair.
Again: good post.