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Hollywood Is 'Straight, White, Boys' Club,' Study Says

时间:2016-02-25 15:49:55

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Hollywood Is 'Straight, White, Boys' Club,' Study Says

A new study finds that major media companies in the United States “whitewash1” the films and movies they produce.

The researchers say women and minorities are almost invisible on all levels of the industry.

The Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism3 did the study. It offers one of the widest examinations of the film and television industries. It gives a failing rating on diversity to all major movie studios and most producers of television.

'Inclusion crisis'

Hollywood is already under attack over the lack of diversity among Academy Award nominations4. For the second straight year, all the acting5 nominees6 are white. The awards ceremony takes place Sunday night.

The new study is called the “Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity.” It provides further evidence of a deep gender7, racial and ethnic8 divide between Hollywood and the American population it entertains.

USC professor Stacy L. Smith co-wrote the report. She said, “We don't have a diversity problem. We have an inclusion crisis.”

The researchers examined the 109 films released by major studios in 2014. They also looked at 305 scripted, first-run TV and digital series from 31 networks and streaming services. All aired from September 2014 to August 2015.

More than 11,000 speaking characters were studied for gender, racial ethnic and LGBT representation. Some 10,000 directors, writers and show creators were examined, as was the gender of more than 1,500 executives.

'Whitewashed9' and lacking women

The study found widespread underrepresentation in all media studied. The lack was spread from top positions in media companies to minor2 characters in production content.

The study authors wrote, “Overall, the landscape of media content is still largely whitewashed.”

In the 414 studied films and series, about a third of speaking characters were female.

28.3 percent were from minority groups. That is about 10 percent less than represented in the U.S. population. More than 74 percent of characters 40 years and older are male compared to 25.7 percent female.

Just 2 percent of speaking characters across film and television were LGBT-identified. Among the 11,306 speaking characters studied, only seven were transgendered. Four of them were from the same series.  

The study finds that the lack of diversity is even greater behind the camera: 87 percent of directors are white. Among broadcast television directors, the percentage is even higher at 90.4 percent.

Just 15.2 percent of directors, 28.9 percent of writers and 22.6 percent of series creators were female.

In film, the gender gap is greatest: Only 3.4 percent of the films studied were directed by women, and only two directors out of the 109 were black women: Ava DuVernay who made “Selma” and Amma Asante who directed the film, “Belle.”

Inclusivity index

USC has been publishing different forms of the study for the last 10 years.

The researchers have added a new measurement in the latest study.

The so-called “inclusivity index” rates the performances of 21st Century Fox, CBS, NBC Universal, Sony, the Walt Disney Co., Time Warner, Viacom, Amazon, Hulu and Netflix. Those companies involve all the broadcast networks, most major cable channels, all of the major movie studios and three of the leading streaming services.  

Each was rated by their percentage of female, minority and LGBT characters; and of female writers and directors. None of the six major studios rated better than 20 percent overall. The report concludes that the film industry operates “as a straight, white, boys' club.”

Hope in television

Some of the same companies, however, scored better when their TV and digital offerings were evaluated. Disney, the CW, Amazon and Hulu all scored 65 percent and above.

Stacy Smith said there is hope in television.

 “Everyone in film is failing, all of the companies investigated. They're impervious10 to change. But,” she said, “there are pockets of promise in television. There is a focus that change is possible. The very companies that are inclusive — Disney, CW, Hulu, Amazon to some degree — those companies, if they're producing and distributing motion pictures, can do this. We now have evidence that they can, and they can thrive,” she said.

USC researchers also, for the first time, added gender analysis of those 10 companies' leaders. They found that women represent about 20 percent of leadership positions.

Katherine Pieper was a co-author of the study. She said as the number of women decrease as power or respect linked to job position increases

Some of the study's most troubling finds are simply absences. Roughly 50 percent of the examined content did not feature a single Asian or Asian-American character. Twenty percent did not include one black character. Researchers said the industry should have target goals for change. And they say such targets should be made public.

Stacy Smith said, “People are still erased12. It's 2016 and it's time for a change. We've laid out concrete actionable steps because we don't want to do this again in 10 years.”

Words in This Story

whitewash – v.  a white liquid mixture used for making surfaces (such as walls or fences) whiter; also, a planned effort to hide a dishonest, immoral13, or illegal act or situation 

diversity – n. the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization

invisible – adj. impossible to see

inclusion – n. the act of including something or someone

straight – adj. heterosexual

boys’ club – expression an informal system in which wealthy, white men work together to keep control of money and power

thrive – v.  to grow or develop successfully: to succeed

erase11 – v.  to remove any thought or memory of


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 whitewash 3gYwJ     
v.粉刷,掩饰;n.石灰水,粉刷,掩饰
参考例句:
  • They tried hard to whitewash themselves.他们力图粉饰自己。
  • What he said was a load of whitewash.他所说的是一大堆粉饰之词。
2 minor e7fzR     
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修
参考例句:
  • The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
  • I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
3 journalism kpZzu8     
n.新闻工作,报业
参考例句:
  • He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师,可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
  • He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。
4 nominations b4802078efbd3da66d5889789cd2e9ca     
n.提名,任命( nomination的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句
5 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的
参考例句:
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她,她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代,她的表演生涯黯然失色。
6 nominees 3e8d8b25ccc8228c71eef17be7bb2d5f     
n.被提名者,被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
  • A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网
7 gender slSyD     
n.(生理上的)性,(名词、代词等的)性
参考例句:
  • French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语,所有的名词都有性。
  • Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
8 ethnic jiAz3     
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的
参考例句:
  • This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏,这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
  • The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
9 whitewashed 38aadbb2fa5df4fec513e682140bac04     
粉饰,美化,掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The wall had been whitewashed. 墙已粉过。
  • The towers are in the shape of bottle gourds and whitewashed. 塔呈圆形,状近葫芦,外敷白色。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文
10 impervious 2ynyU     
adj.不能渗透的,不能穿过的,不易伤害的
参考例句:
  • He was completely impervious to criticism.他对批评毫不在乎。
  • This material is impervious to gases and liquids.气体和液体都透不过这种物质。
11 erase woMxN     
v.擦掉;消除某事物的痕迹
参考例句:
  • He tried to erase the idea from his mind.他试图从头脑中抹掉这个想法。
  • Please erase my name from the list.请把我的名字从名单上擦去。
12 erased f4adee3fff79c6ddad5b2e45f730006a     
v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 );抹去;清除
参考例句:
  • He erased the wrong answer and wrote in the right one. 他擦去了错误答案,写上了正确答案。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He removed the dogmatism from politics; he erased the party line. 他根除了政治中的教条主义,消除了政党界限。 来自《简明英汉词典》
13 immoral waCx8     
adj.不道德的,淫荡的,荒淫的,有伤风化的
参考例句:
  • She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
  • It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。

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