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. 

What's Missing in Media Ownership?

We study the media all the time, observing diversity in media outlets such as radio, television, magazines, newspapers and many more. However, taking a closer look at all these media sources makes me wonder who is behind it all running the show. A recent survey released by the FCC in November of 2012 reveals that whites, and white males in particular, take up the majority of media owners in the nation. As of 2011, 69.4% of the nation's commercial broadcast stations are white males, which is greater than the 63.4% from 2009. Meanwhile, some minority ownership decreased including Black ownership going from 1% to .7% and Asian ownership falling from .8% to .5%. On the bright side, Women and Latino ownership did rise although not by more than 1%. Same is with radio ownership, where 80% of AM and FM radio owners are white, and 70% of them are white men. With the reveal of these uneven numbers in media ownership, I can't help but think, how does this effect what we hear and see in our modern media? Maybe the reason we lack diversity in our media correlates with the fact that we lack diversity in the CEO's  and heads of these media companies. 

A Lot of News, but Nothing New

These days, television news broadcasts, whether they be during the morning, day or night, have a large audience who is interested in everything from local current events and national politics. The topics discussed change from day to day but I noticed recently that the people delivering the news and the guests featured on the shows are mostly white men. It seems like over and over we continue to see the same white males delivering our news and there are recent studies that do prove this. According to this article a recent study found that a majority of nightly news guests were overwhelmingly white males. Women, African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color are underrepresented as news guests in most news shows. Cable news was the worst of other channels, where they had the largest amount of white guests relative to other minorities, 83% to be specific. Other news channels such as MSNBC and CNN did have a bit more diversity, but overall still featured a vast majority of white males than women and other minorities. Considering their representation in the US population, men are greatly overrepresented on cable news by double! However, when it comes to  white women, and nonwhite men, and nonwhite women, they are vastly underrepresented in cable news compared to their representation in the US population. These statistics clearly demonstrate that there is something off with the type  of people being featured on news channels. As long as white men are a majority on the news, they will continue to put out patriarchal and racist messages to the United States and hinder our progress as a nation. We need to get more women and minorities on the news in order to promote equal rights and representation for all!

Diversity: Now You See it, Now You Don't

Last Sunday, September 22, 2013 marked the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy awards, one of the biggest award shows on television, honoring the best TV shows and series of the year. When all the glitz and glamour eventually quelled, the main question about the award show arose: Was it diverse enough? According to Ellen Pompeo it was not. Pompeo prides on the fact that she is a part of a very diverse cast of Grey's Anatomy and was therefore "really disappointed" in the show. She felt that she "didn't see any diversity in the Emmys at all" and they show "felt dated." She even added that "the dance number was embarrassing" adding that she didn't "see one person of color." Although I did not take notice of this when I watched, I did realize once she pointed this out. I was very surprised to see that after 65 shows, the Emmys did not include more diversity on the stage by including people other than white caucasians. Upon reading this, I soon stumbled upon this Huffington Post article applauding the Emmys for making history in its nominees of women. For the first time in its history 50% of the best directors for a television series were women, despite the fact that women made up only 15% of all women directors of a television series. This was an accomplishment for women and society as a whole because it signified great progress in closing the gender gap. These two instances, one showing lack of diversity and the other displaying a great step in the right direction really made me think of the irony of this award show. I couldn't help but wonder if leaving people of color out of the number was on purpose or on accident, and what this tells us about our society. I do applaud the Emmys for their nomination of women this year but I am also disappointed in their dance number and hope next year diversity will be the norm. 

A Rare TV Sighting

As an avid Television watcher, I have watched a plethora of TV shows of all varieties. From reality to drama, and comedy to educational, I have seen it all. Nevertheless, most of these shows do play up the stereotypes and lack diversity (with the exception of ethnic or racial channels such as BET or Univision). The one TV show on cable that has stood out to me the most out of all of these has been Grey's Anatomy. This is definitely one of the most ethnically diverse and realistic show on TV. Creator Shonda Rimes is known for creating controversial and diverse series' that are both interesting and conversation starters. This show puts together a group of doctors of all colors, shapes, and sizes without stereotyping whatsoever. For example, the cast includes Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Caucasians, and even people of mixed backgrounds. Rimes has said that when creating the pilot she was colorblind and did not have the characters with specific ethnicities in mind. Consequently, this ended up creating one of the most diverse casts on television, which is definitely something we could use more of these days with shows like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Gossip Girl, which have all white casts and definitely perpetuate racial stereotypes.  Grey's Anatomy presents more diversity in its relationships as well by portraying, heterosexual, homosexual, interracial couples, which we rarely see these days in mainstream TV shows. This TV show is a step in the right direction in terms of diversity in the media and I hope to be seeing more shows like it in the near future in order to put an end to the stereotypes and lack of diversity in the media. 

The Evolution of Covergirls (Or Lack Thereof)

As I was flipping through my most recent Glamour magazine this weekend, I had a "click!" moment where I realized that the last 10 issues that I had received had white women on the cover. I was disappointed by this lack of diversity in this mainstream magazine and decided to look into the trends among the other mainstream magazines as well. According to this Huffington Post Article about the lack of diversity on mainstream magazine covers, from September 2012 to September 2013, about 82% of cover girls on popular magazines were white women, while only a meager 18% were colored women. The article also includes a chart of mainstream magazines and each of their specific statistics when it comes to diversity. Of all the magazines, Teen Vogue is the most diverse, including a 50% divide of white and colored women on their covers, while Maxim is the least diverse, which shockingly includes 100% of white women on their covers. It's great that at least one of these magazines includes a fair amount of diversity, however, the rest are slow to follow in its footsteps. These unfortunate statistics prove that we do have a lack of diversity when it comes to the covers of these extremely popular magazines. What this does is give our society, and more specifically the young women in our society, unrealistic images of beauty by giving out the message that only skinny white women are beautiful. This causes young women to have lowered self esteems which could eventually cause eating disorders and/or depression. What's more, men also read some of these magazines and have false expectations of what a woman should look like. These magazines have millions of young readers who aspire to be and look like the cover girls and it is important to have diversity on the covers to preach that women of all sizes and colors are beautiful. Magazines have extreme influence on society and it is their job to use their power for good by promoting healthy images of women that are authentic and diverse in order to create health and happiness in all women and girls. 

The Commercial Seen 'Round the World

A few months ago, towards the end of May, Cheerios advertised their ever popular cereal to the world with a new commercial, which was adorable, cute and charming  to say the least. The ad features a little girl asking her mother if Cheerios is good for the heart and her mother confirms, causing the daughter to pour the cereal all over her father's chest. Although this video is harmless on the surface, it seems that many Americans these days still see in color and could not let go of the fact that the commercial featured an interracial couple with a mixed child. These people did not keep their disproval to themselves, but instead felt it was necessary to publicize their racism and bigotry via the internet! According to this Huffington Post article some hateful comments, among many others, on the Youtube video included people saying that they "want to vomit" and that they felt it was "disgusting." I am beyond shocked to see that so many people still have mindsets stuck in a time where racism was acceptable, especially considering that interracial marriages make up about 4.8 million marriages in the United States today. It seems as though we have taken so many steps forward through civil rights protests and anti racism laws only for a 30 second commercial to prove that we haven't made as much progress as we thought. Nevertheless, this commercial has had some positive effects as well, as it has definitely uncovered the fact that we as a nation have to alter our mindset and promote acceptance and equality among everyone in order to do away with this bigotry for good. I truly applaud Cheerios for going against the norm of portraying a typical, all white Leave it to Beaver type family and instead displaying something that can hit closer to home to many Americans who come from a mixed family. This commercial has sparked conversation that, although infuriated me because of the rampant hatred among some closed minded individuals has also drew national attention and made people take a closer look.