top of page
kcrane612

Limitations

Updated: Nov 29, 2020


Despite the breakthroughs movies such as Hidden Figures have made, these efforts always come with limitations. A problem with “positive images” comes as a burden of representation of ethnic minorities in the media. Many times films and tv shows will isolate these minorities of race and gender inside predominantly white institutions, causing them to have to stand for their entire ethnic group. This problem occurs when films place one African American lead or one woman in a power position, causing them to have to take on the sole responsibility of representing their group. The lack of diversity places all the pressure on these individual actors to portray appropriate messages to the audience and if they are unable to perform, these messages will be lost. Another problem can show up as pressure on the writers, directors, artists, and actors to ensure that the proper and socially acceptable image is conveyed to the audience. This problem can create limitations of character-types or storylines these characters face to produce the proper images. When characters and stories are limited important topics can be missed or not addressed, resulting in the audience gaining no knowledge on these particular topics.

However, as the film and tv industries have begun to adapt, these problems and limitations have started to decrease. Films such as Hidden Figures, Black Panther, 12 Years A Slave, Moonlight, Remember The Titans, and many more present strong African American leads that have paved the way for movies to come. By presenting themes of racism, sexism, slavery, segregation, equality, and sexuality, along with the presence of a diverse cast, they have changed the previously predominantly white industry and influenced others to do the same. Evidence that these films are ineffective or potentially problematic while reversing negative stereotypes have not been found. They bring necessary change and breakthrough limitations everyday.


Comments


bottom of page