Final yr, Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative launched a examine outlining the insufficient illustration the Muslim group has acquired in in style movie in recent times. Now, Smith and the Inclusion Initiative, with the assist of Riz Ahmed’s Left Handed Movies, the Ford Basis, and Pillars Fund, are analyzing tv portrayals of Muslims — sadly, the scenario is, as soon as once more, pretty dire. In accordance with “Erased or Extremists: The Stereotypical View of Muslims in Fashionable Episodic Sequence,” regardless of comprising 1 / 4 of the worldwide inhabitants, Muslims made up simply one % of talking characters (n=98) throughout the 200 top-rated sequence airing within the U.S., U.Ok., Australia, and New Zealand in 2018 and 2019.
Of the 8,885 talking characters studied within the pattern, Muslim characters had been outnumbered by non-Muslims by about 90-1. Eighty-seven % of the 200 sequence analyzed (n=174) featured zero Muslim characters, and solely eight % (n=16) depicted a number of Muslim characters.
“Not solely is that this radical erasure an insult, it has the potential to create real-world damage for audiences, notably Muslims who often is the victims of prejudice, discrimination, and even violence,” lead examine writer Al-Baab Khan mentioned of the stats.
Breaking the information down additional, nearly all of Muslim characters had been, unsurprisingly, males. Over two-thirds of Muslim characters had been male, 30.6 % had been feminine, and nil characters had been coded as non-binary.
The portrayals of Muslim girls TV characters had been particularly stereotyped. Solely 21.6 % of Muslim feminine characters had been depicted as having a job — and almost all of them had been within the medical discipline. “Greater than half of Muslim women and girls within the pattern had been proven carrying a hijab, although Muslim boys and males had been proven carrying a various vary of apparel (e.g., topis, kurtas, denims, t-shirts, and so on.). Muslim girls had been usually depicted as fearful and submissive to their male counterparts,” the examine particulars.
As for different intersections of identification, most (52 %) of the Muslim TV characters studied had been Center Japanese/North African, 28.6 % had been Asian, and 13.3 % had been Black. Practically half (48.5 %) had been younger adults, a couple of quarter had been center aged, and none had been youngsters aged 5 or beneath. Simply two aged Muslim characters had been current within the pattern. Zero characters had been depicted as residing with a incapacity, and just one Muslim talking character was coded as being LGBTQ, “a 21-to-39-year-old Asian lesbian who performed a supporting position within the U.Ok. sequence, ‘Subsequent of Kin.’”
Thirty % of the 98 Muslim talking characters had been “perpetrators of violence” and 40 % had been “targets of violent assaults.”
“The findings on this examine reveal how not often content material creators take into consideration together with Muslims in in style storytelling — notably women and girls,” Smith said. “Because of this, viewers must watch hours and hours of content material earlier than seeing even a single portrayal of a Muslim character — with much more time required to discover a portrayal that isn’t linked to violence or extremism.”
“TV exhibits are the tales we convey into our houses. They play an enormous half in shaping how we perceive the world, one another, and our place inside it. This examine reminds us that relating to Muslim portrayals, we’re nonetheless being fed a TV weight loss program of stereotyping and erasure,” Ahmed confused. “For Muslims, this sends a message that they don’t belong or don’t matter. For different individuals, we threat normalizing worry, bigotry, and stigmatization in opposition to Muslims.” He continued, “Networks and streaming providers must embrace their accountability to make sure Muslims of all backgrounds see themselves mirrored in our favourite TV exhibits. And they’d be smart to embrace this gigantic alternative to achieve and join with an underserved international viewers — not simply as a part of a passing range fad however as a decisive shift in direction of inclusive story-telling.”
Take a look at the complete “Erased or Extremists” examine right here.
Supply: Women And Hollywood
