www.forbes.com: Diversity has been a hotly contested issue in filmmaking, as years of all-white award shows prompted backlash over the lack of inclusion in Hollywood. While the Academy and several other film institutions have announced diversity initiatives, many have been criticized for their slow response to the blatant lack of inclusion in Hollywood. A recent report from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative says those criticisms are valid, as little has changed in Hollywood in the past thirteen years.
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It is very surprising to see how even in today's day and age, where people are surrounded by diversity from all four sides, something like the "lack of diversity and inclusion" even exists in an industry like Hollywood- an industry which has a huge impact on the world in general.
This industry, in particular, has struggled with this and has garnered a lot of bad reputation because of that, given the scope of the industry. However, a lot of new changes have been taking place in the industry over the last few years: Black Widow, Joy, Us, Get Out, Moonlight etc. are all films that are either being headlined by a female actress or by actors from minority communities. This is a huge step towards achieving inclusion in the industry but it is when this data is compared with the bigger picture of audience demographics, that it becomes evident that the industry still has a long way to go before it can credit it with anything like this. People from all overt the world come to work and engage in Hollywood so it only seems valid that just like other big film institutions, this industry too, starts to play a bigger role.
That being said, it is a wonderful change to see movies that have diverse casts, female protagonists and more relatable stories, because I think that is the way to go forward.
I’m still trying to figure out what Hollywood executives are scared of. For years these power-hungry men have pushed onto the viewing public stories where white men were the heroes. Women, BIPOC, LGBTQ characters and others were only there to either advance the narrative or try to foil the hero. It wasn’t until recently that we have had heroes who were gay, or female, or black, or disabled. Indeed, many movie makers don’t even make movies in Hollywood. Tyler Perry has his own studio in Atlanta. It’s easy to open up Hollywood to diversity, but these major studios that still call Hollywood home seem to be scared to open Pandora’s box and they rightfully should be because once the box is open, it can never be closed and many of these powerful men in Hollywood would soon find themselves on the wrong side of history. By opening this box and making Hollywood more diverse, these men would quickly lose their power and prestige and begin to fade into obscurity and, in some cases, with a fight. Hollywood won’t diversify until these studio moguls either die out or are forced out.
The issue of directors, producers, and Hollywood executives turning a blind eye (and ear) to the outcry of the public is an issue mainly because they are able to. When a movie is to be made, those in charge of it can pick and choose the story to tell and how to tell it, where the consumer has to accept whatever is put out. Furthermore, because many of these huge corporate entities function in a similar manner to echo chambers, the rich white executives will almost never choose to produce a story that they don't understand, or is not for them in some way. If these underrepresented groups do show up in stories, they often times fit into the stereotype of the "token" character. Even when a wave of backlash does arise about these issues, any Hollywood exec would be able to shrug it off anyway, because the movie has already made its money. It is my firm belief that movies in general cannot be more inclusive and diverse until Hollywood as we know it is "dethroned".
I am unfortunately not surprised by the findings of this study. The issue of diversity in Hollywood is an issue that has been around since the start of Hollywood. The recent years have brought this issue into light in a big way, however Hollywood itself seems to be, for the most part, ignoring it. As the study shows, they have begun in the past few years to diversify in some areas but this is not enough. For one thing the small amount of diversity and representation that they have improved should have happened years before it did. For a second thing they are only diversifying in a few areas. It is true that any improved diversity is a step forward, however, some areas of diversity remain almost untouched by Hollywood. For example any diversity for people with disabilities is very few and way too far between. For many minority groups like this there are not nearly enough speaking characters to represent them, and if there are they frequently come with heavy stereotyping.
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