O aumento da representação na tela de populações historicamente excluídas continua a ser uma estrela-guia para o setor de mídia, e o progresso está sendo feito. Esse progresso, no entanto, é medido usando uma lente muito geral. Embora os EUA sejam o lar de uma riqueza crescente de muitos grupos de identidade, é preciso mais do que apenas traços gerais para mudar a representação na tela e capturar nossas diversas histórias e culturas na tela.
A forma como as pessoas se identificam e se percebem é de extrema importância pessoal, perdendo apenas para a forma como as pessoas se veem no mundo ao seu redor, inclusive na mídia. Rótulos étnicos e multiculturais gerais não conseguem transmitir a singularidade de cada indivíduo, mas a profunda riqueza de nossa população continua sendo categorizada por um punhado de termos amplos e generalizados, como branco, negro e asiático-americano.
A desvantagem da representação e da inclusão por meio desses termos generalizados é que isso impede que as pessoas vejam seu verdadeiro "eu" refletido no mundo ao seu redor. Na temporada de TV de 2020-2021, por exemplo, os talentos asiáticos e das ilhas do Pacífico na tela tiveram uma participação de 2,9% na televisão aberta. As pessoas que se identificam como do sudeste asiático, no entanto, viram muito menos de si mesmas quando sintonizaram a TV.
South Asians are, however, increasing their prominence in Hollywood, with Kingo debuting as the first South Asian superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Indian-born Anupam Tripathi delivering a breakout performance in Netflix’s Jogo da Lula. For South Asian men, their increasing portrayals in TV and film have brought their share of screen in line with their share of the U.S. population (2.3%). The same cannot be said for South Asian women, whose share of screen stands at just 0.3%—despite progress in recent years by stars like Mindy Kaling, YouTuber turned late-night talk show host Lilly Singh, Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Avantika Vandanapu, who most recently starred in the 2021 Disney Channel original movie Spin.
Importantly, representation isn’t just about being involved or included. True representation involves accurate portrayals–not generalistic stereotypes. For South Asians, many on-screen portrayals have focused on specific character types, such as nerds, cabbies and convenience store managers like The Simpsons’ Apu. That’s why it’s important to understand how audiences see the characters and roles they engage with on TV and in film—to assess whether representation strides are being made in tandem with those associated with inclusion.
News and reality are the most inclusive genres across the top most inclusive programs for South Asians, highlighting a significant shortage across the wide range of other genres, especially those depicting everyday life—topics that would help break stereotypes and appear more authentic. For example, superhero Kingo in Marvel’s Eternals lives on earth as a Bollywood star, but the movie drew criticism from netizens claiming the film’s Bollywood dance sequence was outdated and shouldn’t have featured English lyrics.
Opening more doors to talent behind the camera is one way to ensure that more stories are told with authenticity. Writer/director Urvashi Pathania, who won the 2021 APA Visionaries Short Film Competition for her film Unmothered, said “I decided to make this film because I didn’t want to play into the South Asian stereotypes. So often, South Asian diaspora films portraying India can veer on poverty porn and I didn’t want to tell a story that didn’t feel authentically mine.”
Avoiding stereotypes is on the path toward the North Star. In a recent interview, casting director, producer and podcast host Keertana Sastry discussed how diversity and authenticity can be accurately portrayed by simply casting South Asian/Asian/BIPOC people for roles. In that way, she says you’re simply “adding a cultural lens without really having to bring it up. Automatically, you are telling a story that becomes universally relatable, because specificity is relatable.”
À medida que a facilidade de selecionar talentos representativos se une aos temas das histórias da vida real, essas representações na tela ilustrarão com mais precisão as vidas ricas do público diversificado, fazendo com que eles se sintam vistos.
For additional insights, download our recent Being seen on screen report.
