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.
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.
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.
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.
