Late Night Talk Shows

 

It's 11:00 PM and network television is sprinkled with late night talk shows, most of which are hosted by white males. From "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, to "Jimmy Kimmel Live," to "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," it seems like late night, save for one or two exceptions, is just one more aspect of the media that is male dominated. Although some females are included in late night television, such as Chelsea Handler and Kathy Griffin, the majority are white, middle aged males. From the women that are included in late night comedy, we know that they are funny and are just as good as the men, if not better. However, throughout the years, it has been rare to see women in this arena. Traditionally, from deeply established gender roles, society hasn't looked at women as the ones who take control and it's tough for women to break down this idea. In a 2008 issue of Vanity Fair, Joan Rivers stated that another woman will break through the "crass ceiling" but the only problem is the right woman to do so has not come along yet. Rivers also said that she has hope for more women to enter the late night field but they must be "very strong," as it is "a very special art, a very special talent."

Is Katy Perry Racist?

On Sunday November 24th, millions of people tuned in to the American Music Awards to watch one of the biggest nights in the music industry. Katy Perry opened the show with a geisha themed performance, which immediately received criticism from the Japanese community calling her racist. Her performance consisted of paper fans, japanese cherry blossoms, Japanese garden sets, and Perry and her backup dancers dressed as traditional Geishas. According to Psychology Today's Ravi Chandra, many Asian Americans were offended by the performance because they've "watched [their] cultures misappropriated and commodified time after time.  Frankly, many of [them] feel used as props to glorify White artists.” The artist was also accused  being a racist because she was essentially sexualizing the Japanese female figure. Although Perry's intentions were harmless, many people called her ignorant and offensive. Her performance was also compared to Selena Gomez's which was recently criticized for being offensive to the Indian culture and sexualized the traditional Indian female figure. Maybe this should serve as a warning to other musical artist that it is important to be careful when stepping into the territory of recreating other cultures because there is a thin line between appreciating the culture and being racist. 

Lilly Allen: Witty, yet Powerful

Last week, Lily Allen released her most recent single Hard Out Here, which is a criticism on the music industry and the rampant sexism we have been seeing recently. Allen voices her issues with the industry and its double standard of men and women when it comes to beauty and sexuality. A woman is constantly scrutinized by the public on her weight and what she looks like while men are left alone and are rarely bothered for their looks. She also points out the slut shaming that goes on for women as well as their objectification in music videos. She creatively puts together a music video that parodies Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines video, Miley Cyrus' VMA performance, twerking, and also most hip hop videos in general. She showed how just how ridiculous these videos actually are when you realize how they are putting women down and degrading them. Another thing she points out in her video is the fact that advertisers play a large role in the sexism because they use these pop stars and music videos as plugs to sell their latest items, meanwhile using women as objects to promote their products. I believe that Lily Allen does a great job at satirizing the music industry by using humor and exaggeration to get across a powerful message: the music uses sexism and objectification of women for the sole purpose of making a profit. 

Advertising's Norm

Day by day, large, for-profit corporations constantly bombard women with ads that are trying to sell them something to make them thinner, younger, prettier, taller, more sexy, and every other improvement under the sun. These ads are sexist, ageist, and classist. They promote one type of woman, one who is white, thin, young, and has an unachievable body type. We see hundreds of ads everyday but rarely see anything going against this norm. Advertisements in our modern world lack diversity which is a huge problem, seeing as the most recent census reveals that there is a growing importance of minority consumers. Minorities make up a large sum of consumers but are rarely represented in the advertisements of the products they are purchasing.  In order to fix this issue, the Advertising Agency of New York is supporting an initiative called "I'mpart," which strives to promote, attract, retain and train diverse candidates in advertising. The advertising club is investing $700,000 to help their goal of creating more diversity in the advertising world in order to equally represent all the minorities who are consumers of these products. It is time to have ALL types of women in advertisements rather than continue to uphold this Eurocentric and unrealistic image that is constantly being put out by advertising companies. 

Comedy's Boys Club

Every Saturday night, millions of people tune in to Saturday Night Live, which is more commonly known as SNL. The show entails hilarious skits done by very talented comedians who parody current events in politics and pop culture. A recent article from The New York Times reported on the so called "color controversy" that sparked as a result of cast member Keenan Thompson's statement that black women aren't "ready" to be on SNL. This sparked reactions from bloggers, actors and actresses, and fans all over the media. This also shed light on the fact that SNL does not feature many black women on the show, or any women of color for that matter. In SNL's history, beginning from its premiere in 1975, only 3 black women have been cast members on the show. This lack of women of color leaves a deficiency for SNL when portraying certain characters such as Michelle Obama or Beyonce because they either use a black man to dress up as a woman or leave out the character as a whole. It is true that comedy historically has always been a sort of "boys club" as with other areas such as CEOs and in Academia, but with so many great comedians who happen to be women of color there should be no excuse as to why there aren't more featured on the show. Surely, the show IS "ready" for more black women and Thompson's remark is as absurd as can be. 

Sports Media

Sports media has become increasingly popular over the years among both boys and girls. Sports radio, television, magazines and websites all have a large audience keep track with the latest in sports of all varieties. There has been some progress in the diversity in sports media but overall it is still disappointing. An article on SportsBusinessDaily.com about the lack of diversity in sports media recently reported the statistics and numbers on this statement. Racial hiring practices by sports media received an average grade of C+, while gender hiring practices were given an extremely low grade of an F. Another chart composed of percentages of white people in key positions from 2010 to 2012. This chart revealed, that although there was a decrease in the amount of white people between these years, indicating an increase in the hiring of people of color, this decrease was very low with only a maximum of a 4% decrease, and overall the percentage of white people holding key positions remained at the 80% to 90% range. Another interesting point made in this article was the fact that ESPN was the main source raising these percentages because of their relatively diverse hiring practices. For example, out of the 35 columnists who were women, 23 worked for ESPN. Because sports media does appeal to a wide range of demographics in their audience, it would only be fitting for them to have more diverse hiring practices and more diversity in their columnists and broadcasters. The articles suggests these sports media corporations to employ the Rooney Rule that originated in the NFL. This would require at least one person of color to be interviewed for every job opening. Hopefully these numbers will increase in the near future, promoting a more relatable and diverse group in sports media.

Diversity in Video Games

These days, video games are extremely popular in all ages beginning from children who are 6 years old way into their 20s. These video games definitely have a very strong impact on the youth of this generation and influence their beliefs and ideals. This is why it is extremely important to have racial and gender diversity in video games to banish stereotypes and promote equality. Although commonly thought otherwise, women comprise 45% of the entire game playing population and also take up 46% of the most frequent buyers of video games (according to this article). The question remains then, why are women rarely, if ever, featured as main characters in video games. If women give video game companies almost half of their business then they should have equal representation in these games and should not be stereotyped sex symbols or helpless princesses in need of saving. As for racial diversity, video games lack it just as much. In this article, they state that African Americans between the ages of 8 and 18 play video games 30 minutes more per day than white youth, and Hispanics between these ages play 10 minutes more per day than their white counterparts. However they still only take up a small minority of characters in video games. Professor Dimitri Williams at the University of Southern California conducted a study and found that less than 3% of characters in video games were distinctly hispanic, all of which were unplayable. Meanwhile, Native Americans and biracial characters were not featured at all, and African Americans took up 10.74% of characters, all of whom were portrayed as athletes or gangsters, the common African American stereotype. The diversity in video games is extremely low considering minorities make up more than half of the video game audience. This is unfair because it only continues to perpetuate stereotypes and keep minorities out of media, therefore promoting bigotry and close-mindedness within our youth.