Representation of women and minorities in Hollywood is inauthentic, claims US-based survey

Los Angeles: Films like Black Panther, Coco and Wonder Woman are putting women and minority characters in the spotlight. But people in the US feel there aren’t enough film roles for women and people of colour, according to a survey. [caption id=“attachment_4380319” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman (left); Chadwick Boseman (right). Facebook[/caption] The YouGov survey of 1,220 adults found that 37 per cent of the respondents believed women had enough roles available, just two percentage points more than people who believed blacks had enough parts available, reports variety.com. The rate dropped to 23 per cent, 21 per cent and 18 per cent for those who believed there were enough roles available for Latinos, Asians and LGBTQ people, respectively. On-screen representations of minorities, the survey found, are sometimes inauthentic depending on whom you asked. Nearly half of black respondents (46 per cent) said on-screen representation of black characters was inauthentic, about twice the rate of the respondents overall. Over a third of Latino respondents believed Latino characters are portrayed inauthentically, compared with 26 per cent of respondents overall. According to the survey, minority film-goers said characters that resemble them have too little dialogue. Roughly half of the black people and Latinos surveyed said characters that looked like them didn’t speak enough in movies. That rate grew to 61 per cent for other minorities, including Asian, Middle Eastern, Native American and multi-racial people. About half of blacks and Latinos also said they didn’t see themselves in positions of authority and instead are relegated to the role of sidekick. The survey was conducted from 10-12 February.