Black Agents: Of the hundreds of talent agents working at the major Hollywood agencies, only a few dozen are black. The New York Times ran a great interview with several of the reps, who discussed the systemic barriers they have faced and the change they hope to see.
Children’s Media: The Geena Davis Institute conducted an analysis of the top 100 grossing animated and non-animated family films between 2007-2017, called The Geena Benchmark Report, which studied the gender, racial, sexuality, and disability disparities within protagonists of these films. Male characters in family films constitute 71.3% of leading roles. There has been only a slight increase of less than three percentage points in women’s on-screen representation in children’s media over the 10 years studied. This disparity is a problem, since children – both male and female – look to the media for role models and stories that reflect what matters most in our culture. What are we teaching our kids?
Female Representation: Meanwhile, in films for “grown-ups,” the numbers are a little brighter. According to a new study put forth by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, representation for women and people of color in top grossing films is higher than ever. 40% of the top 100 films of 2018 had female leads or co-leads, compared to only 20% in 2007; intersectionality across race and age also increased substantially this year.
Cynthia Lopez
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