If you’re anything like me, then you’re a big show and movie enthusiast. I’m usually binging a new show, maybe more often than I should be. But I enjoy the weekly escape that comes from watching a good show. Lately it seems like there is always a new hit show being released, it can be overwhelming but worth it, if it ends up being good. Especially during the pandemic, there wasn’t a lot to do. Theaters were closed and movie premieres were pushed back, and we have just started to get back to the theatres, so for a while binging shows was where it was at. Whether you’re a film enthusiast, a Netflix binger, a reader, or all the above I think we can all agree that representation is important. As a South Asian woman, I find it rare to see people who look like me in the tv shows and movies I watch. Whenever I do see a character with a similar background to me, initially I feel excited and end up going down a rabbit role of looking up the actors and trying to find other work they might have done. However, usually what happens is, as the show or movie progresses, I start to notice some very uncomfortable stereotypes and inaccuracies. So that excitement I felt quickly diminishes.
It important to have diverse characters, but it is equally as important to have diversity behind the scenes as well. To have good representations, these characters need to be written and portrayed accurately. Writers, directors, and producers need to have people of color in their teams when they are creating diverse characters. From my experience Muslims are rarely represented accurately. We are usually the “bad guys” in many action films and shows. When we are not the “bad guys,” Muslims are still not represented accurately. From the way we pray to the basic understanding of Islam. A while ago, towards the end of September, I watched a horror show called Midnight Mass. Now this was rare for me because horror is not a genre I typically watch. It’s not my fault, I get scared too easily. The main reason I decided to watch was because I had heard that there would be a Muslim character on the show, Sheriff Hassan played by Rahul Kohli. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the character of Hassan was pretty accurate, and he immediately became my favorite character. There was a scene where he was talking about Islam and the beliefs Muslims have, and I think it was one of the few times I have ever heard a Muslim character on TV accurately describe our beliefs. There was also a scene where Sheriff Hassan was talking about his experience in the police force and the subsequential Islamophobia that came with it. In response to the discrimination, he faced he said, “I roll with it. I keep my head high. Dignity. Dignity is a word my wife uses. ‘Show them dignity [1].’” Hearing this reminded me of what my mom would say to me about dealing with bullies. This is why it is important to have characters who look like you to look up to.
Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go in terms of representation in the media. According to the UCLA’s 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report:
- 7% of films with a female director also featured a female lead.
- 3% of films directed by people of color also featured minority leads.
- White film directors were more than twice as likely as minority directors to helm a film with a budget of $100 million or more (6.4% versus 2.8%).
- Men (5.7%) and women (5.65) were almost equally as likely to direct a big budget film.
- Women and people of color were more likely to direct films falling into the lowest budget category (less than $20 million).
- Women made up 47.8% of lead actors and 41.3% of overall casts in the top films.
- The most underrepresented groups in all job categories, relative to their presence in the U.S., are Latino, Asian and Native actors, directors, and writers [2].
As I said before, not only do we need to have more diversity with the actors, but we need to have diversity behind the scenes so that we can see well-developed characters on screen. In the entertainment industry you can very clearly see the differences between the way men and women are written. There has been a constant trend where women are underrepresented and portrayed as inferior to their male costars. Women usually play the caregiver or the lover, and they often get killed off only to further the development of the male characters. It is as if these female roles exist only in relation to the male characters.
This is where the Bechdel Test comes in. The Bechdel Test was created in 1985 by cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel. It is used to determine whether female characters are created as their own character or only as a plot device for the male characters [3]. In order for a film to pass this test, it must answer yes to the following questions:
- Are there more than two named female characters?
- Do the two female characters have a conversation at any point?
- Is that conversation about anything other than a male character?
That’s all. These requirements are incredibly basic so all films and shows should have no problem passing this test, right? Yeah…apparently not. You’d be surprised how many popular films fail the Bechdel Test. A 2018 BBC study found that only less than half of the 89 films named best picture at the Oscars passed the Bechdel Test. The same research also showed that there was a greater percentage of best picture winners that passed the Bechdel Test in the 1930s than 2018 [4]. This is a disappointing trend to see.
Perhaps in response to the lack of female led films the trend of creating “female versions” of films started. We started seeing this in the female led 2016 Ghostbusters movie, 2018’s Ocean’s 8, and the new double-o-seven being a woman. Personally, I enjoyed these movies but of course there were plenty of people who complained about it. Now, I think that if well-developed accurate female roles already existed, there wouldn’t be a need to create a “female version” of an existing role.
Speaking of existing well-developed female roles, one of my favorite shows is Anne with an E which is based on the Anne of Green Gables books by L. M. Montgomery. Set in the 1890s, it is a coming-of-age story about a young orphan named Anne who finds her place in a new home and family. Anne has a wild and vivid imagination, and is smart, spirited, and relatable. One of my favorite things about the show is how well-developed the characters are, especially the women. The show also focused on various current issues like women’s rights, racism, and homophobia. One of my favorite quotes from the show is when Anne wrote in her school newspaper about the sexism faced by women at the time.
Women matter on their own, not in relation to a man. We all deserve the right to bodily autonomy and to be treated with respect and dignity. To say ‘stop’ and be heard instead of pushed, derided, and told that a man knows more about our basic rights and desires than we do. Women are not made whole by men. Women are made whole the moment they enter this world [5].
I think this is a wonderful quote and it is great for young kids to hear, who are the main demographic of the show. It is refreshing to hear a show talk about bodily autonomy.
So, why is representation in the entertainment industry so important? Well, I think that what we see on the screens can ultimately influence how we see ourselves and how the world sees us. Media has a massive effect on culture, people’s lifestyle, and even on politics. When we constantly see female characters sexualized, demeaned, and killed off for no reason, it suggests that women are valued for the appearance and only matter in relation to men. Women are then viewed as supporting characters. The entertainment industry needs to work towards creating characters that are fully developed and as diverse in terms of race, economics, sexuality, religion, and gender as the world is. The same trend should follow behind the scenes.
Works Cited
[1] “Book VI: Acts of the Apostles.” Midnight Mass, season 1, episode 6, Netflix, 24 Sept. 2021. [2] https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2021-hollywood-diversity-report [3] https://www.vogue.co.uk/arts-and-lifestyle/article/the-bechdel-test [4] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43197774 [5] “A Strong Effort of the Spirit of Good.” Anne with an E, season 3, episode 7, Netflix, 3 Nov. 2019.