Tag: Stereotypes

Categories
Entertainment

Stereotypes Are Rife Amongst Asian and Pacific Islander Movie Roles, Research Finds

Stereotypes Are Rife Among Asian and Pacific Islander Film Roles, Study Finds

Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007 to 2019, only 44 starred an Asian or Pacific Islander – and a third of the roles went to a single actor, Dwayne Johnson, a study found.

In 2019 in particular, by the end of the film, more than a quarter of Asian or Pacific islanders had died, and more than 41 percent had “experienced a degradation.” Two-thirds of Asian or Pacific islanders mirrored stereotypes, and nearly 20 percent spoke either a non-English language or English with a non-American accent, according to a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, funded by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation.

Analysis of the 1,300 films released Tuesday also found that only 3.4 percent of the films featured Asian or Pacific islanders in leading or coleading roles. (In relation to the US population, 7.1 percent identify themselves in this category.)

Other sobering statistics: Of 51,159 people speaking, only 5.9 percent were Asian, Asian-American, or Hawaiian or Pacific islanders. 39 percent of the films did not include a single Asian or Pacific islander.

The study also broke the statistics by gender: four Asian or Pacific islanders were cast in six lead roles, compared to 336 unique white male actors over the same period – a ratio of 84 white male actors per Asian or Pacific islander actress.

Only 13 percent of the roles of Asian or Pacific islanders in 2019 films were classified as “fully human.” The study’s authors defined that they have a full spectrum of relationships and don’t take on any role as a foreigner, buddy, or villain. (Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone character in “Jumanji: The Next Level” or Constance Wu’s character Destiny in “Hustlers” were considered good examples.)

The study, led by Nancy Wang Yuen, professor at Biola University, and Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California at Annenberg, also found that of the 600 highest-grossing films released from 2014 to 2019, only 15 were Asian and Pacific Islander characters abstained from identifying themselves as LGBTQ and only 26 Asian and Pacific islanders were shown with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability in the 500 films released from 2015 to 2019 with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability.

The researchers also looked at representation among filmmakers, finding that of the 1,447 credited directors in the sample, only 3.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders – and only three were women. (Jennifer Yuh Nelson won two awards for the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Loveleen Tandan for Slumdog Millionaire.) No Asian or Pacific Islander was the sole director of any of the 1,300 films in the study. (The research period ended before the publication of “Nomadland”, whose director Chloé Zhao won the Oscar for best director this year as the first woman of color, first Chinese woman and second woman.) Among the producers, 2.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders , as do 3.3 percent of casting directors.

The results of the study are due to the increasing hostility and violence against Asians in the United States. The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate announced in March that nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported over the course of a year during the pandemic, mostly against women.

“Whether through the lack of API characters or through stereotypical representations, entertainment can be a means of perpetuating inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals of the API community,” the report concludes.

Categories
Entertainment

Paris Opera to Act on Racist Stereotypes in Ballet

Paris Opera to Act on Racist Stereotypes in Ballet

The announcements may seem straightforward, but the conversation about the Paris Opera and diversity has already caused a stir in France this year.

In December, an article in Le Monde magazine, the daily newspaper, caused a stir when it suggested Neef was considering banning problematic works. At one point the article discussed the “aesthetic choices” of Rudolf Nureyev, the star Russian ballet dancer who directed the Paris Opera Ballet for much of the 1980s. Some of its productions, which the company still performs, originally featured dancers in black and yellow, and although they are no longer presented that way, some sequences, like the “Chinese Dance” in its “Nutcracker,” still seem to viewers to be regarded as insensitive.

“Some works will undoubtedly disappear from the repertoire,” Neef was quoted as saying.

This comment, which Neef later said was taken out of context, was picked up by Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally Party, who wrote on Twitter that it was an example of “insane anti-racism.” It also sparked a debate in the media and online about whether the focus on diversity was a sign of creeping Americanization.

Neef said he wasn’t concerned about a similar reaction to the new report. “We are not here to promote a climate of censorship or dictatorial leadership,” he said. “The whole point of this initiative is that we want to perform opera and ballet by artists of the 21st century for the audience of the 21st century.”

It was clear, however, that the excitement had an impact on how the report was drafted. “I expect protest from the far-right and the most conservative politicians and intellectuals, and say it is once again about the Americanization of French culture,” said Ndiaye. He wrote it carefully to ward off these reactions, he added.

The Paris Opera isn’t the only ballet company in Europe involved in racial debates. Last year Chloé Lopes Gomes, the only black dancer at the Berlin State Ballet, made global headlines when she complained about racism in the company. In 2019, Misty Copeland, an African-American director at the American Ballet Theater, complained about the use of blackface at the Bolshoi in Moscow, although many in Russia defended its use, arguing that it wasn’t racist because it was the way it was classic Ballets have always been performed in the country.

Categories
Entertainment

Cicely Tyson, an Actress Who Shattered Stereotypes, Dies at 96

Cicely Tyson, an Actress Who Shattered Stereotypes, Dies at 96

“It’s easy,” she said. “I always try to be true to myself. I learned from my mother: “Never lie, no matter how bad it is. Never lie to me, OK? You’ll be happier that you told the truth. ‘That stayed with me, and it will stay with me as long as I am lucky enough to be here. “

Cicely Tyson was born in East Harlem on December 19, 1924, the youngest of three children to William and Theodosia (also known as Frederica) Tyson, immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis. Her father was a carpenter and painter and her mother was a domestic worker. Her parents separated when she was 10 years old and the children were raised by a strictly Christian mother who did not allow movies or dates.

After graduating from Charles Evans Hughes High School, Cicely became a model and has appeared in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and elsewhere. In the 1940s she studied at the Actors Studio. Her first role was on NBC’s Frontiers of Faith in 1951. Her disapproving mother threw her out.

After small film and television parts in the 1950s, she appeared in 1961 with James Earl Jones and Louis Gossett Jr. in the original New York cast of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks”. It was the longest-running off-Broadway drama of the decade, earning 1,408 performances. Ms. Tyson played Stephanie Virtue, a prostitute, for two years and won a Vernon Rice Award in 1962 that kicked off her career.

She helped found the Harlem Dance Theater after the murder of Dr. King in 1968. In 1994, a building in East Harlem where she lived as a child was named after her. it and three others were rehabilitated for 58 poor families. In 1995, a magnet school she supported in East Orange, New Jersey, was renamed the Cicely Tyson School of Performing and Fine Arts.

Her later television roles included that of Ophelia Harkness in half a dozen episodes of the longstanding ABC legal drama “How to Get Away With Murder,” for which she was repeatedly nominated for Emmys and other awards for outstanding guest or supporting actresses (2015) -19 ) and in the role of Doris Jones in three episodes of “House of Cards” (2016).

Categories
Entertainment

‘Tiny Fairly Issues’ Falls for Large Ugly Ballet Stereotypes

‘Tiny Pretty Things’ Falls for Big Ugly Ballet Stereotypes

In the cinema, ballet has long served as fodder for scenes of horror and brutality. It makes sense: careers are short and there is always another dancer waiting with better feet, a higher jump and – this undeniable thing – youth in the wings. But dance is also a way to show feelings and the inner spirit without words. A body can lose control. It can appear human and transform into something else: scary, tortured, exaggerated. It can harbor horror.

“The Red Shoes” (1948) is an opulent look at a young ballerina rising up and dancing herself to death. New is “Black Swan” (2010), a psychological drama in which another young dancer goes insane during the production of “Swan Lake” in a company. Stereotypes? For sure. Problematic? Yes. But in the case of supernatural horror, it’s not about realism.

The horror in “Suspiria,” in both the 1977 and 2018 versions, involves witches who pursue dance academies. The dancers in Gaspard Noé’s “Climax” are disturbed and take drugs. I like parts of all of these films. They are grown up. So it is with the excellent “Billy Elliot” (2000), and that’s about an 11 year old boy. It shows dance as a form of catharsis: Billy, who grew up in northern England during the grim miners’ strike in 1984, had a reason to dance.

But “Tiny Pretty Things” is cheap: it’s like an 11-year-old trying to act like an adult – and to get dressed. It’s a dirtier version of “Center Stage” (2000), a popular film that turned towards nonsense and that was not well served due to its broad characterizations and stereotypes. Add to this the trauma and agony associated with Flesh and Bone, a Starz miniseries from 2015, and the endless scandal of Gossip Girl.

It should come as no surprise that in “Tiny Pretty Things,” quiet and rehab don’t make a dancer overcome an injury: it’s drugs. One student, Bette, who dances with a broken metatarsal bone, needs more Vicodin. She says to her mother, “I can hobble around on Advil or you can help me get the lift off.”

It gets worse. Much of the hammy dialogue is delivered with a bizarre, manic sense of importance. There are lots of bulging eyes.