The Effects of Stigmatization and Stereotypes in the American Film Industry: THE ACADEMY + CONSUMERS
DREAMWORKSSince the early days of film where the Lumiere Brothers and Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, stigmatisation towards underrepresented facets of civilisation was seen through the absence of certain people in those early films. While originally treated as harmless oversight, both calls for representation and a need for characters to ridicule soon morphed into negative portrayals of those oppressed groups in films and industry communities that, despite their popularity, have not aged well. Trends including Blackface, Jim Crow acts and other racist caricatures were often celebrated and portrayed by white actors in critically-acclaimed films like D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of A Nation. However, while some believe that those malpractices are a thing of the past, unfortunately, various specific types of stigmatisation have been carried into the modern film industry. Even in today’s world, stigmatisation and the enforcement of stereotypes in the film industry are seen being propagated by producers, casting executives, awards voters and fan and consumer communities towards both women and minorities.
Voters in Industry-Associated Organisations
The stigmatisation of both women and various ethnicities can also be seen in the exclusion of underrepresented groups by the primarily old and white awards voters in the film industry, specifically the Oscars. For instance, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Awards Database shows that during its ninety-two-year existence, only five female directors have been recognised with a nomination in the male-dominated Best Director Category. Out of the five, there has only been one year in which a female director has won. Despite the 21st-century trend of Best Director and Best Picture categories being split between two films, this points to the fact that her win was partly caused by the popularity of the best-picture winning film The Hurt Locker she had been a part of.
This shows that there is strong stigmatisation towards females in unisexual categories by their exclusion and promotes the age-old stereotype that women cannot truly be successful in high-ranking leadership positions. However, this form of stigmatisation by exclusion is not only seen with women. The Academy database shows that even in recent years, there have been many instances in which Black people (specifically African-Americans) have not been recognised with a single nomination in the entire awards, resulting in the ‘Oscars So White’ movement in 2015 and 2016. Furthermore, according to the paper Oscars so White: An Institutional Racism Perspective, ‘Only 35 Oscars were awarded to black artists out of more than 2,900 winners in the Academy’s 87-year history. While 95% of nominations went to white film stars, less than 4% of the acting awards were given to African Americans’. Despite attempts to change these results in post-2016 years by diversifying its membership ranks, in the most recent 2020 awards, only one Black person was nominated for an acting award (Cynthia Erivo for Harriet).
Apart from disseminating the image that white people are more successful than others, this stigmatisation also supports the notion that African-Americans amongst other minorities are not worthy of these American awards. This is something that can also be seen in the result of the 2019 Best Picture race between Green Book and Roma, as well as the industry’s reaction towards Parasite’s 2020 win. However, while this shows that there is a heavy level of discrimination in all parts of the industry, there is one larger community that is more vocal of its opinions than all the industry insiders combined.
Consumers
The impact of the promulgation of stigmatisation towards minority groups, as well as the enforcement of predetermined stereotypes, can be seen in the actions and comments of that community: fandoms of franchises and blockbuster films. Both examples can be seen in various online forums, but the occurrence of these cases can be seen on Reddit. Something that tends to anger many misogynistic fans is when a group of women are portrayed as the strong, capable leads of a film. For example, in a post titled Do You Ever Get Angry At Bad Movies?, one Reddit user mentions that ‘Sometimes [he] gets really really angry at bad movies. Charlie's Angels makes [him] angry. Terminator: Dark Fate makes [him] angry. But the one [he] is most angry at is [Birds of Prey]”. The fact that many fans and consumers are prejudiced towards women can be seen in this post, as the one main constant between the three films he mentions is that they all primarily star a group of women who overcome challenges to best a male antagonist. On top of that, the fact that he highlights his hatred towards Birds of Prey the most, which is a film in which the primary themes include the emancipation from multiple characters’ male-dominated past (as well as portraying the villain as a misogynistic male –something that is very similar to the user's ideology), shows that there is large discrimination towards women by the fan community, especially those that subvert the expectations set up by the previously enforced stereotypes.
However, the effects of this phenomenon are not only seen directed towards women, but also many minority actors in blockbuster films. For instance, shortly after the premiere of the Star Wars film The Last Jedi, Kelly Marie Tran, a Vietnamese actress who plays Rose Tico in the film, deleted her Instagram account because of hurtful racist comments. In a statement to the press, it was said that the motive behind the deletion was because ‘some viewers have chosen to insult and degrade Tran with racist comments about her appearance and intelligence’. This shows that there is stigmatisation towards her because of her Vietnamese heritage and the fact that the fans are insulting her by criticising two key aspects of her being shows that a select few of the fan community are trying to denigrate her by enforcing untrue stereotypes about her race. Because of this, it can be seen that the outside position in which fan communities are in provide opportunities to be much more vocal and hurtful towards groups they don’t like, leaving space for stereotypes and discrimination to prosper.
These heavy levels of stigmatisation is unfortunately solidified by multiple powerful facets of American (and global) industries. While awareness campaigns are popping up that can rapidly correct and eliminate this trend, if the powerful communities of Hollywood and fandom resist and do not change their ways, we risk the enforcement of these stereotypes and stigmatisation being solidified even further into our real-world culture, something that would not bode well for the prosperity of the future of humanity.