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Sojo Sotreiba
RATING SYSTEM
There are five possible ratings:
wide open
the wink
the cyclops
squinting
shut down
There are diverse professionals both on screen and off screen. Diverse characters are complex and drive the plot.
Characters on screen are complex individuals; not merely members of a minority group, but the filmmakers miss a few steps.
There are positive and negative aspects of representation limited to one or two diverse characters.
Diverse characters are superficial tokens, left in the background, and don't drive the plot. They act in supporting roles.
Actively harmful, reinforces "otherness", takes away agency from characters of a minority group, and reduces people into stereotypes.
I see it and applaud.
Almost there.
With only one eye open, the less one can see.
I'm squinting to see the representation.
The person who made this didn't have their eyes open.
*** This is not a perfect measuring system; sometimes there are movies that are progressive in some ways and regressive in others. Sometimes the director can be a POC but the executive producers are white men making the final decisions. Sometimes actors are white passing, or people with disabilities serve to make the able bodied protagonist appear heroic, etc. However, it is best to reflect and decide what works and what doesn't, what tactics do more harm than good, and what we want to see more of.
** The rating system does not measure if a movie is good or bad.
* This rating focuses on levels of diversity to highlight what has been long ignored and continues to be an afterthought .
EXAMPLES OF MOVIES
The main character is a black immigrant who works as a nanny to a white family. She tries, fails, grieves, and grows. A story that puts a misrepresented group front and center.
Iranians casted as angry, non-sensical, and violent, reinforcing orientalism while making the US characters look smart, resourceful, and humane.
There is a token black best friend, who sits on the sidelines. Also, the protagonist, Kat, does not drive the plot of her own story.
There is a gang of marginalized groups (gay, black, disabled), but the disabled is played by an abled actor and the rest serve to support the protagonist.
This movie has powerful women, who drive the plot forward. However, their intimacy gets sexualized by a male gaze.
Try rating movies yourself! Look out for the poll in my blog and tell me what you think.
Let's highlight diversity and equality
The University of Southern California's School of Annenberg published in August 2023 their latest report titled: Inequality in 1,600 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBTQ+ & Disability from 2007 to 2022. Since 2007 the school has conducted the study to present the percentages of diversity and inclusivity in popular movies.
Gender
- Out of 4,627 writers 594 (12.8%) are women.
- Out of 16,294 producers 3,579 (22%) are women.
- Out of 1,830 composers 49 (2.6%) are women.
- Out of 1,784 directors 109 (6.1%) are women.
Prevalence of Character Race/Ethnicity On Screen
- White: 70.6%
- Black: 12.9%
- Latino: 4.9%
-Asian: 7.2%
- Other: 4.4%
(“Other” was comprised of characters coded Middle Eastern/North African, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and Multiracial/Multiethnic.")
* 1.9% of all speaking characters were depicted with a Disability.
- Physical: 83%
- Cognitive: 17%
- Communicative: 33%
In 2022, 2.1% (n=87) of 4,169 speaking or named characters across 100 top-grossing films were LGBTQ+.
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