Accepting Diversity In Hollywood

In today’s culture, people are constantly being influenced by media, whether it is subconsciously through advertisements or consciously through news media or any form of entertainment. Society, young and old, comes to understand the world through the media they consume and that means that the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of nonwhites is a problem that more and more people are starting to notice. Studies are being conducted to analyze different aspects of the lack of representation in the media. However, few have proposed practical, if any, solutions to this growing problem. The solution starts with addressing who is responsible for the lack of representation. The white-dominated executive positions that are behind the problem also

For more than nine decades, the name Walt Disney has been preeminent in the field of family entertainment. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to today 's global corporation, Disney continues to proudly provide quality entertainment for every member of the family, across America and around the world. The company is diversified, focusing on its mass media headquartered in Burbank, California (Iger, 2012). In terms of revenue, it is the largest media conglomerate in the world (Silkos, 2009). Founded on October 16, 1923, by the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in

Edward James Olmos was a very well known actress and producer. Olmos got his big break when he performed in the stage production of “Zoot Suit” in 1978. He then reprised the role that he had in the 1981 film version. From there, his career took off when he was seen in the movie “Blade Runner”, and also when he took part in the television cast of “Miami Vice”. Olmos’ career began to grow more and more, and he than starred in the television series “Battlestar Galactica” for about six years. Olmos would search for purposeful projects, and would decline any that he felt took on Latino stereotypes. In 1988, he played a role that was based on a true story about Jaime Escalante. Jaime Escalante was a math teacher at a struggling school in Los Angeles and he taught troubled, “unteachable” students to thrive and pursue their goals. Olmos has now returned back to doing television, his most recent roles were in “Battlestar Galactica” and “Dexter”.

His men get defeated by other white gangs which clearly shows that Hollywood wants you to think that Asians are inferior to white people. In Richard Fung’s analysis on Sally’s Beauty Spot, “The fact that Sally never kisses an Asian unfortunately reflects the absence of Asian men from Western sexual representation” (Fung 169). Asian actors rarely get to be involved in on-screen romantic relationships with their co-star Asian actresses because Hollywood does not believe Asian men are capable of being sexual. They would rather have them doing fighting scenes or even playing nerdy roles than to allow them to do romantic scenes. Similarly, in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, only Bond is involved in a relationship with the Asian female character played by Michelle Yeoh. And majority of the time in most films, Asian actors and actresses are instructed to speak with an Asian accident and in broken English. Likewise for Asian actresses, they have been pictured as exotic, highly sexual, overly feminine, and eager to please women capable of easily falling in love with white men. But what Hollywood really fails to portray about Asian women in Asia is that they are prostitutes trying to make a living to put food on the table for their families. People do not realize that these Asian women come from poverty and did not receive the same education as American women. These Asian women are not choosing to have sex with white males, but because their clients have

In the film industry, we see all different types of films and movies, but there’s always guidelines on what needs to be followed by stereotypes that have been built by society. In the film “The Bronze Screen” it gives us a better understanding on how the system is set up for film making but especially for Latinos in the film industry, Latinos are seen as a minority group who don’t have a lot of changes on making into the big screen, the film explains how Latinos are put in movies to fill the stereotypes that have been made by society but to be specific by the white people.

roles would be lost to Caucasian actors so as to resonate with American audiences. It is

Author Scott L. Baugh has examined the role of Latino Americans in the movies, and he explains that there "…remains the uneven balance of power among characters," in particular with reference to Latino "subordinate characters" that tend to be portrayed as "stereotypes" (Baugh, 2012, p. 259). Early films (in the late 19th century and early 20th century) depicted a very "simple hierarchy," in which the heroes and main characters were white and held positions of "leadership and agency" (Baugh, 259). Latino characters were "secondary" to those main white characters, and Latino characters tended to be the villains, Baugh explained.

In 2013, Latinos accounted for only 4.9% of the roles in the top 100 films of the year. From the beginning, Hollywood had always been dominated by white men and women. However, as time progressed there was a very slight change in cultural and ethnic diversity. Though it is more likely now than ever to find a Latino or Latina in a Hollywood film, their roles are often small, stereotypical, and almost entirely unimportant. As if it wasn’t hard enough to get any role in any Hollywood film regardless of ethnicity, Latinos have to endure playing a harshly demeaning role. Latino men are often cast as comedic relief and play gardeners, janitors, or thugs. Latino women are often cast as maids or mistresses. Aside from this, when women are cast as mistresses they are often submissive to their white male partners, meaning that not only are these roles ethnically demeaning, but also sexist. Along with Latino female sexualisation, though, Latino men are also heavily sexualized. Both Latino women and men have to deal with the exploitation of their culture for stereotypical roles in a movie. However, these are only some of the vicious patterns that attribute to the everlasting ethnic misrepresentation in the biggest part of mass media, Hollywood.

You don’t sit down and write a story and say, “I’m going to write a story that involves four black people, three Jews, and a dog,”—right? That’s not how stories get written. If you don’t understand that, you don’t understand anything about how stories get written.

Bernardo Vega was born in Puerto Rico and was a tabaquero there. He was an intelligent

The discussion of diversity in Hollywood is very important. Some people will claim that there is a diversity issue throughout Hollywood and a lack of representation for minorities, while others will argue that there is a wide spectrum of diversity, therefore destroying the idea that there is an issue. There are more shows and films that revolve around straight, healthy Caucasians than shows and films that revolve around LGBT members, people who have to live with disabilities, and people of color. Hollywood has suffered substantially from a lack of showing a great deal of diversity.

What people tend to associate Banderas with is his role “Zorro”. “The Mask of Zorro” is a popular film. Banderas is acting as Don Alejandro de la Vega, also known as, Zorro. Zorro wants to be a hero and save people. His wife is divorcing him because she believes that he is spending too much time being a hero, and not enough of being a husband. Elena also believes he is a bad father because he is using all his time to save others. Elena is caught up with the fact that her husband is being a hero, but she wants her husband to be a different type of a hero – a

Many people use television shows and movies as a form of entertainment that can be informative and persuasive. Television shows came out in the early 20th century and have recently shown a lot of diversity than in the past. Movies have been out for a while as well and watching movies is used as a hangout for the most part. Due to its great popularity, television has been the most common distraction next to cellphones. Along with it popularities, viewers also enjoy learning from television shows and movies, whether they are educated or not. Although television displays somewhat of diversity, they still adhere to stereotypes with a dumb white girl, Hispanic housekeeper, and angry black women.

By casting more diverse actors, the American entertainment industry is able to increase viewership in both television and film. To begin with, diverse casting allows for higher television show ratings. For example,

Nontraditional casting is also known as colour-blind casting and integrated casting. Non-traditional casting is defined as the casting of ethnic minority and female actors in roles where race, ethnicity, or sex is not considered. Watching Hollywood movies, there is much diversity in a movie depending on what the genre is. Hollywood looks for actors that fit the physical and talent description directors are looking for. Hollywood work with what they only have, not based on color. Hollywood actually takes advantage of the multicultural world. If they need an African American, American Asian, Indian, Mexican actor they’ll scout out for the ones they desire. It’s true that majority of movies and TV shows are Caucasian