CMU School of Drama


Friday, August 01, 2014

Infographic: Only 8 Percent of Sci-Fi Films Feature Protagonists of Color

COLORLINES: If you’re looking for people of color in your summer sci-fi blockbuster, you’ll be waiting for a long time. A new infographic form Lee & Low Books details just how lacking fantasy films are in the diversity department: only 14 percent of movies feature a female protagonist and only 8 percent feature a protagonist of color.

1 comment:

Alexa Taladay said...

Roughly four percent of United States citizens have openly affiliated themselves as members of the LGBTQ community. About Thirteen percent of Americans today are African American, and (unsurprisingly) half of the population is made up of women. The lack of diversity in these movies is often appalling, but it doesn’t necessarily connote segregation in the movie industry. The fact that there are so few women protagonists is most likely based on the concept that men are more suited to fight and survive, an unfortunate widespread cultural belief held since the beginning of time. Despite the gap, Hollywood is slowly accepting more women and African-Americans into the world of film. There may be many more Sci-Fi and Fantasy films that incorporate more diverse casting, however this data only comes from the top 100 domestic grossing movies. So does that mean that people just like Will Smith as an actor, or chose to specifically mostly watch movies that have little casting variance?