“Hustlers,” which debuts September 15, may subvert the trend. With rumored production costs of about $20 million, The Hollywood Reporter is predicting a $24 million opening weekend.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Hollywood's Latinx representation is dismal: Why don't movies look more like America?
“Hustlers,” which debuts September 15, may subvert the trend. With rumored production costs of about $20 million, The Hollywood Reporter is predicting a $24 million opening weekend.
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5 comments:
I am a big believer in that people fear what they do not know. Racism and discrimination stems from ignorance and lack of exposure, and a large contender in why this ignorance still exists today is the lack of diversity in media! As someone who is technically white but darker in complexion and foreign in culture, I experienced lots of ignorance from my peers when I was younger. I strongly believe that many problems regarding this sort of hate could easily get better if America was represented accurately. If all we see in movies is white people, people of color (POC) can feel alienated, and ignorant people can think POC are inferior to them. This is a large and growing problem in America. I think the most striking and compelling sentence in this article is this:
"Hispanics are expected to be the largest racial or ethnic minority group in the United States by 2020. Currently, 77% of U.S. states and territories have a Latinx population greater than the percentage seen in Hollywood films."
This is truly outrageous and cannot be ignored! When such a prominent and growing culture in our society is suppressed on screen, it shows that something is very wrong. I am hopeful for a future in which all cultures are expressed and represented equally in media.
Not exactly seeing the correlation between Latinx actors and the idea of strippers in leading roles, but I'll go along with it. This article provides some interesting statistics that relate to the amount of people of color that are working in and on movies in this industry. The issue lies mostly in the fact that movies aren't representative of the populations that they serve, this in turn causes the same Latinx actors appearing in movie after movie, making it that much harder for actors of color to make a name for themselves in the industry. The truth is that, big Hollywood movie companies are drawn to the people that make them the most money, white people, which creates more roles for white actors in the industry to receive opportunities because the stories are naturally crafted towards them. The same issue can be seen in theatre industry where the majority of broadway audiences are white and naturally the stories and actors are catered towards white people.
As someone who happens to be Latina, I think the film industry is in dire need of Latinx representation. As a little girl, I wanted to look like the girls in the movies. Rarely did I ever see a movie with a girl who looked like me or spoke Spanish like me. When I did see a character that happened to speak Spanish, I'd see a stereotype of how a lot of people do see the Latinx community. We've all seen the movies with the Latinx gangsters, gang members, and drug dealers. Portraying these stereotypes in film, not only pushes these ideas into the minds of more ignorant people, but it can also put the idea into younger views' minds that what they see on screen is one of their few, if not their only, choices. Proper, real representation of the Latinx community would not only educate the ignorant minds around the country, but change the minds of Latinx audience members, who only wish they could show people that they are not what the stereotypes point them out to be.
The statistics presented in this article are mind blowing. As a Latina I know how abysmal the representation is, I grew up watching all the rom-coms with white leads, but reading “Only two Latina lead roles were played by a performer 45 or older — and both were Jennifer Lopez” was shocking. Like every other minority, we have bright, beautiful stories to tell that deserve to be on screen. We have strong bold people in our lives and communities, that should be able to see themselves in the stories showed on the bigger screens. There are SO many humans in this country eager to see someone like them, and not having to ‘translate’ the story to their world. Representing the latinx community as we are is more than just ‘the nice thing to do’ it’s an obligation, especially when the current administration is spreading a rhetoric where latinx people are portrayed as animals and not humans.
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