Summary

The article discusses the significant influence of movies and television on societal perceptions and the responsibility of the entertainment industry to represent diverse realities accurately and without discrimination.

Abstract

The content emphasizes that films and TV shows play a crucial role in shaping the worldview of audiences, particularly those who have limited exposure to different cultures and lifestyles. It points out that misrepresentation in media, such as stereotypical portrayals of Indians, LGBTQ individuals, the Black community, and women, perpetuates societal discrimination and hampers progress towards equality. The author argues that creators in the entertainment industry have a moral obligation to portray the multifaceted nature of society truthfully, thereby challenging and changing harmful stereotypes. The article notes a gradual improvement in representation, such as increased female protagonists in media, but underscores that there is still much work to be done to ensure fair and accurate depictions of all groups.

Opinions

The entertainment industry has a significant social responsibility to portray diverse realities accurately, which is often not fully shouldered.
Stereotypical representations in American media, such as the portrayal of Indians as either tech support or caricatures with funny accents, can lead to misconceptions and overshadow the diversity of a country like India.
Media portrayals of the LGBTQ community are often inaccurate and perpetuate negative stereotypes, contributing to societal misunderstanding and discrimination.
The Black community is frequently misrepresented in media, often limited to stereotypes such as gangsters or hip-hop dancers, ignoring the community's diversity and contributions.
Historically, women have been underrepresented as central characters in film and television, a trend that is slowly changing but still lags in achieving true equality and balanced representation.
The author believes that the entertainment industry, as powerful influencers, must make conscious efforts to use their platforms to positively shape society and promote inclusivity.

Movies, TV and The Incidental Social Responsibility

How movies and TV shape our perceptions of society and often breed discrimination

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

This is a line immortalized by Stan Lee, the writer of Spider-Man comic books via his character of our beloved Spiderman, the friendly neighborhood. But for many like me who are not big comic-book fans, this line was made familiar by Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Peter Parker or Spiderman in the 2002 movie.

That is exactly the sort of impact movies have on our real lives. They leave huge impressions and have a series of memorable moments — positive or negative. The number of times a movie has moved me to tears by far exceeds any other trigger for my tear glands.

This exactly is a reason why a lot of how we see and perceive the world is defined by movies and television. According to the US Census Bureau data, until 1994, only about 10% of the American population even had a passport. In 2017, that number stands at 40%. So at least 60% of Americans, as of 2017, had never traveled abroad — and that number is bound to be much lower in the less developed countries of the world.

So naturally, the world view of a common man who isn't very well-traveled is colored significantly by external elements. And a huge part of this is what we read in the newspapers or what we watch in the movies and TV.

This means that whether the creative folks of the entertainment industry like it or not, there is immense unsaid responsibility on them to paint a fairly accurate picture of the world in the minds of impressionable ignorant minds.

Yet, in my opinion, there’s not enough attention paid to this aspect of entertainment and the responsibility is not fully shouldered as it should be. Here are a few examples that talk about what is wrong with the misrepresentation of certain sensitive realities.

The Indian Misrepresentation — Outsourced, Slumdog Millionaire

Two of the top 5 global companies by market cap have Indians at the helm — Satya Nadella at Microsoft and Sundar Pichai at Google. Yet, to the average American, the most common image of an Indian is the funny accent of a call-center employee or a “curry-eating” brown man. This is thanks to the American sitcom Outsourced or the many other similar portrayals of Indians on American TV and movies. Even when the portrayal is better i.e. Raj Koothrapalli in Big Bang Theory, the nerdy character is still intact.

Another extreme on a different level i.e. the economic backwardness of the country comes in Slumdog Millionaire — the movie that nearly swept the 2009 Academy Awards. The most striking image from the movie is of the poop-covered-protagonist during his troubled childhood. To anyone who has been to India, that is a far cry from the actual realities of the country. India is home to the richest Asian — Mukesh Ambani, whose net worth exceeds that of Jack Ma of Alibaba by a significant margin.

I work at one of the world’s top financial institutions and yet the number of times I’m asked if I work in “I.T.” or a related field is astounding. There is a case to be made of a fairer portrayal of all aspects of a country that is home to a sixth of the world’s population and hence naturally much more diverse than a few stereotypes.

LGBTQ Representation — Inaccurate and Stereotypical

While there are masterpieces like Brokeback Mountain, most representations of the LGBTQ community in movies and TV are quite horrible and inaccurate. I’ll speak largely from an Indian television perspective, where I grew up watching and being influenced by media.

Unfortunately, India for the longest time, and even now to a certain extent, hasn’t been a very accepting and open community about the subject. Same-sex marriages are still not legally recognized, and gay sex was only legalized in 2018 in a landmark court ruling.

Hence, no surprise that the only mild representation that the LGBTQ community ever got on mainstream media was the “homosexual man” and that portrayal was often in a negative sense. The typical gay man would be shown as a very effeminate character, and it would almost be portrayed as an insult to the “manhood” of a true male character. That sort of portrayal makes kids grow up to believe that there is something wrong with being homosexual or anything but what is considered “conventional” heterosexuality.

It is the media’s responsibility to remove such narrow-mindedness from society, and not propagate more of it.

The Black Community — Gangsters isn’t all they are

Unless the movie is specifically addressing a social issue such as masterpieces like 12 Years a Slave, The Blind Side, or for that matter even The Pursuit of Happiness, the typical black male is usually shown as either a gangster or a hip-hop dancer.

The broader Black community globally is so large and diverse that it is unfortunate and grossly inaccurate to represent them by a stereotype largely centered around the false image of an “African American” male in the United States of America.

If anything, the 400 years of American slavery, is in large parts responsible for the discrimination against the community, and then the same country’s media often portrays them in a bad light. This creates a vicious cycle of discrimination that breeds further discrimination.

Women — Seldom the Central Character

Until recent times, when there has been a conscious effort to make more movies and TV shows with a central female character, most of the entertainment was largely centered around a male protagonist.

Despite this “jump” only 40% of movies in 2019 was centered around a female protagonist. This is probably still a much more respectable number compared to the past — for comparison even just a year earlier, in 2018 this number was a mere 31%.

That is a total shame, in a world where men and women practically form half of the world’s population each. Why, then, is the glorification always of the male character, and the woman is always the “behind-the-scenes” hand of support that makes a man.

Why is there always a woman behind a successful man and not the other way around? Rather, why is there anyone BEHIND another? Why aren’t there two people equal and successful together while also supporting each other?

These examples probably only scratch the surface of the much larger underlying problem with the entertainment industry and media in general. This is also representative of the discriminatory practices across all spheres of life and society. However, as influencers who have the power to mold and shape society and its mindset, especially in the super-connected world of today, the forces behind the TV and Movie industries need to step up and make conscious efforts to change our society for the better.