增加历史上被排斥人群的银幕形象仍然是媒体行业的 "北极星"，并且正在取得进展。然而，这种进步是用一个非常笼统的视角来衡量的。虽然美国的许多身份群体日益丰富，但要改变银幕表现形式，在银幕上捕捉我们多样化的故事和文化，需要的不仅仅是大刀阔斧的努力。
人们如何识别和认识自己是个人最重要的事情，仅次于人们如何从周围的世界（包括媒体）中认识自己。一般的种族和多元文化标签无法表达每个人的独特性，然而，我们人口的深层丰富性仍然被少数宽泛、笼统的术语分类，如白人、黑人和亚裔美国人。
通过这些笼统的术语来体现代表性和包容性的弊端在于，它阻碍了人们看到自己真实的一面反映在周围的世界中。例如，在 2020-2021 年的电视季中，屏幕上的亚太裔人才在整个广播电视荧屏上占据了 2.9% 的份额。然而，被认定为东南亚人的人在收看节目时看到的自己却少得多。
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 鱿鱼游戏. 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earth as a Bollywood star, but the movie drew criticism from netizens claiming the film’s Bollywood dance sequence was outdated and shouldn’t have featured English lyrics.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.”
由于选拔具有代表性的人才非常容易，而且这些人才与现实生活中的故事主题相吻合，因此，屏幕上的这些形象将更准确地展现不同观众的丰富生活，让他们感到自己被看见了。
For additional insights, download our recent Being seen on screen report.
