Hollywood’s True Colors

Elle Raine Lavin '18, Staff Writer

Being a gal in the 21st century isn’t as hard as it was in the past. We don’t have as many restrictions or expectations to live up to like we did before. But no matter how much society tries to lessen the struggle, growing up is an obstacle that will always be difficult… especially if you don’t look like anyone else around you or to look up to.

Imagine this: a young girl, struggling with insecurities that stem from comments about her eyes being smaller than her friend’s, or her accent that makes her pronounce things “weird,” or the hair on her legs her strict, traditional mom won’t let her shave. She cries when she gets home and wonders why she looks different, feels different than the people around her. But she turns on her TV or reads a book and recognizes a character that is almost exactly like her, who is going through the same things she is. She can use the experiences that character goes through to apply them to her own life and suddenly life isn’t so scary or unfair anymore, suddenly she isn’t alone.

However, imagine being that same young girl, but realizing no matter how many channels you flip or pages you turn, you are the only one who feels like you do. Alone. Strange. Foreign. Different.

Having someone to look up to is vital. Seeing someone you can relate to and follow after can make a huge difference in someone’s life. Being unique is something that is coveted and praised in this lifetime, as it rightfully should be. No one is like the other. But being able to identify with someone to help you get through the tough times and realize you are not alone isn’t a bad thing. Role models can help you grow and become comfortable with accepting who you are.

Today, America is known for its diverse roles and actors in television, film, and other performing arts platforms. But the question is: is it enough? Is the diversity and representation we see today in the media enough? Is our society moving forward or are we simply disguising our ignorance and erasure under a façade of acceptance?

As a kid growing up, not having anyone to relate to was tough. I came home from school and turned on the TV to only see Caucasian main characters with blond hair and blue eyes. I began to feel conscious about how I looked; I didn’t feel comfortable in my own body because being Caucasian was how “beauty” was defined in the media – and I didn’t look that way. I became so immersed in American values and standards that I began to forget the core of who I was; amidst all of the “diversity” surrounding me, there seemed to be a lack of my own culture and ethnicity: before I went to the Philippines for the first time since I was born, I told my mom I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy our time there since I was entirely convinced I was 25% Filipino and 75% American.

That is why representation in the media is so important. If people don’t feel represented, they’re forced to conform to the “normal” of the society they take part in. People lose the connection they have with their own culture, beat themselves up because they don’t fit in with a different race’s standards, even if its something out of their control. But even more important than representation is the accuracy of it. Despite the slight progress that has been made on the small screen – thanks, “Fresh Off the Boat” – a majority of the Asian roles that exist and are played by Asians are limited to stereotypes. More often than not, I see Asian characters who display the exact same tropes: smart, quiet, can’t speak English well, light-skinned, compliant. And while these qualities can deem true for some, like every other race, not everyone is the same. As I’ve mentioned before, people are unique and while their race should be highlighted and embraced, a person’s individual qualities (which have endless possibilities) shouldn’t be overlooked either. Most people aren’t even aware that Indians, Pakistanis, and other darker-skinned people are Asian simply because they don’t fit the mental image people have in their head when they think “ASIAN.”

The problem becomes even worse when roles that originated as Asian characters end up going to white actors. Unfortunately, the creation of these characters is not exactly Hollywood’s best decision: from Mickey Rooney’s demeaning portrayal of I.Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to Emma Stone’s hardly believable impersonation of Allison Ng, a Chinese-Hawaiian character in “Aloha.” Yet, while those films incited outrage (and low box office results), no national conversation about racist casting or Asian erasure took place.

While a simple solution would just be to hire more Asians to play more diverse, main roles, the filmmakers replay the same tired argument over and over. They insist that movies with minorities in lead roles are gambles. But the most important color in Hollywood isn’t white, it’s green: when it comes down to it, money trumps equality. The reason Asian-American actors are not cast to head films is because they don’t have the box office ratings to assure directors they’ll make money. But the problem remains: How can Asian-Americans – and other minority actors – build the necessary track record if they are not given the chance in the first place?

The lack of proper representation for minorities has been pointed out recently through the “Oscars So White” campaign along with the February New York Times article “What It’s Really Like To Work in Hollywood* (*If you’re not a straight white man.)” But, compared to celebrity divorces or Kylie Jenner’s lip kit, these racial issues aren’t discussed nearly as much as they should be.

Recently, I did a series of polls on twitter to try to get a better perspective on people’s views toward Asian erasure and stereotypes.

In a poll with 500 Asians, 89% of them feel under or misrepresented in film, television, and social media in general. Out of 100, 90% feel the misrepresentation is because of the heavy stereotypes associated with Asians, 65% don’t have an Asian character they can identify with, and excluding Chinese/Japanese/Koreans, 84% feel hidden, excluded, and erased within their own race because they are not the ethnicities listed above. Overall, 94% out of 100 Asians want to see more diverse, “unconventional” roles played by Asians.

For years, audiences have been asking for an increase in representation and have been boycotting offensive, demeaning films that contain inaccurate portrayals of minorities, yet studios continue to produce the same content. Let’s hope Hollywood eventually listens.