Super Social Analysis: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and LGBT in Movies

[Cobalt Stargazer]

She's tall, thin, small waist, long legs, full breasts, blonde, blue eyed, white and her face is blemish free.  Yes, beauty is obviously subjective.  But she is perfect looking by Hollywood standards.  Nobody could ever suggest that JL is the least bit unconventional or quirky looking, I'm sorry.  

 

"She's too young for this role or that role" but she's landing them anyway.  That's the entire point.

 

And I expect that if she's still acting when she's in her fifties, the complaint will become that she's no longer getting roles because she's "old". Unless she becomes a Meryl Streep type, in which case the complaint will be that younger, lesser-known actresses could get the roles she's taking.

 

I don't know, I just think that there's no way to win sometimes, no right way to go about it. Too young and people complain about ageism, too well-known and the gripe is that they don't need the work or the money. It's why people keep asking why really famous actors do commercials.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Alicia Silverstone had one of the best and most charismatic acting performances of all time in Clueless in 1995 but I maintain that her career was ruined after that when all of the big tabloids at the time called her "Fatgirl" and spread nasty rumours that she was too 'fat' to fit into her Batgirl costume for the Batman Forever movie.

 

People like Nicole Kidman, George Clooney, Jim Carrey etc. certainly didn't have their careers hurt by being in those movies.  But Alicia's career kind of tanked after.  Every time I watch Clueless I think about how it's a damn shame.

 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are people who don't think Jennifer Lawrence is thin.  If you've ever met an actor in real life, they always look about 5 sizes smaller than they do on television.  Rosario Dawson, people think she's super curvaceous.  I met her and she looks like a size zero or less.  People think Blake Lively is amazonian (next to Leighton Meester, I guess.)  No.  In person she's a size zero or less.    Call JL "thin" or not, I'd say her body is pretty fucking perfect.  

 

 

Here's the picture from the article that methodwriter links to that claims she's fat or whatever

 

Edited December 20, 2015 by Ms Blue Jay

[Rick Kitchen]

Oh, look, a whole bunch of white actors voicing Asian characters.

 

[raezen]

Okay, I actually looked at the article and all I have to respond to that is that I thought it had been well established that the Mail is nothing but a rag set out to incite vitriol in the public. I don't believe what they write reflects anything else. I don't believe that Jennifer Lawrence 's weight was a serious industry concern. She had just played Mystique, I think this is tabloid fodder. Hurtful as it is.

[shang yiet]

I don't know if the fat rumours derailed Alicia Silverstone's career. She starred in a couple of flops after Clueless. Julie or Julia Ormond was poised to take off after  starring opposite Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford but she didn't.

[JBC344]

And I expect that if she's still acting when she's in her fifties, the complaint will become that she's no longer getting roles because she's "old". Unless she becomes a Meryl Streep type, in which case the complaint will be that younger, lesser-known actresses could get the roles she's taking.

 

I don't know, I just think that there's no way to win sometimes, no right way to go about it. Too young and people complain about ageism, too well-known and the gripe is that they don't need the work or the money. It's why people keep asking why really famous actors do commercials.

I think with Jennifer Lawrence specifically there is the issue of "typecasting yourself out of your own age range".  The more "older" people she plays the less likely the industry will be willing to cast her in roles for her own age.  I think if you asked the general public they would assume that Jennifer is older than her actual age, and plays characters that traditionally would be played by women in their mid-thirties.

 

Now for me I happen to find her a really great actress but if we are honestly examining her career the reality is that she has benefitted from both franchise work with the X-men and Hunger Games.  As well as a really great partnership with David O Russell.  To me the real test of her career is what she will do coming up.  The Hunger Games is done and who knows how many more X-Men movies she is willing to do.  Award nominations notwithstanding Joy is not being received as great as her previous collaborations with DOR. 

 

I guess my point is that it would probably benefit her to not rely to heavy on the status quo.  I'm really looking forward to see what she does with Passengers coming out soon.

[shang yiet]

The first picture of Jennifer Lawrence I saw she was posing in a simple red gown at a red carpet event. That was some years ago and I thought she was 29 or 30.

[UYI]

The first picture of Jennifer Lawrence I saw she was posing in a simple red gown at a red carpet event. That was some years ago and I thought she was 29 or 30.

 

I think you're talking about her red dress at the Oscars in 2011, when she was nominated for Winter's Bone. She was 20 at the time.

 

[Cobalt Stargazer]

I think with Jennifer Lawrence specifically there is the issue of "typecasting yourself out of your own age range".  The more "older" people she plays the less likely the industry will be willing to cast her in roles for her own age.  I think if you asked the general public they would assume that Jennifer is older than her actual age, and plays characters that traditionally would be played by women in their mid-thirties.

 

Way back in 1982, Jessica Lange played Frances Farmer in, well, Frances, and at the time the movie started Farmer was supposed to be sixteen, as per Sam Shepard's character telling her, "You sure don't talk like sixteen." Lange, who was born in 1949, was thirty-three at the time. She looked much younger, granted, but a difference in age of seventeen years is quite a gap. But times were different then, and I can't decide if its that people have become less willing to suspend disbelief or that they've just become less accepting. Either way, we'd still be hearing complaints about Lange playing outside of her age range if that movie was a current release.

[raezen]

I also blame 'reality' TV and celebrities extreme method acting whe taking on roles. Actors take roles where they act like pilots but celebs talk about flying there own planes and then playing a pilot in a movie.

[proserpina65]

Well, the article says the character is based on a real Japanese person, but it also says the character is male, whereas the real life person is female.

That would definitely be a point not in ABFAB's favor.  (I couldn't get the article to come up on the computer I was using, so I didn't see that particular bit of info.  Thank you for elaborating.)

[xaxat]

A black woman from Swaziland has been cast to play Hemione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, an upcoming stage play written by J.K Rowling.
 
I'm sure big chunks of the internet are collectively losing their shit right now. But Rowling is having none of that.
 

Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione

[proserpina65]

 

A black woman from Swaziland has been cast to play Hemione Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, an upcoming stage play written by J.K Rowling.

 

I'm sure big chunks of the internet are collectively losing their shit right now. But Rowling is having none of that.

 

 

Some of the commentary on the internet is certainly racist a-holes being racist, because the internet has its fair share of them.  I imagine, however, that at least part of it is people who are fans of the movies rather than the books and who therefore are having some difficulty separating the character from the actress who played her for 7 films.  Hopefully, given a little time to adjust their perspective somewhat, those people will be able to see this particular actress in this project as separate from Emma Watson's portrayal on screen.  Assuming, of course, that Noma Dumezweni does a good job in the role, and there's no reason to assume otherwise.  Certainly the author's support will go a long way to calming down those fans.  The racist a-holes will probably just go on being racist, unfortunately.

 

I have to admit that my first reaction, upon seeing the announcement, was "Huh?", but given a moment to process it, I don't see any problem with the casting, especially since the author is quite enthusiastic about it.  Not that I claim to be representative of the HP film fandom.

Edited December 21, 2015 by proserpina65

[Bruinsfan]

Theatre has always been a bit more flexible about cast ethnicity anyway. The last stage production of Dracula I saw had an Asian actor as the Count.

[Bruinsfan]

I honestly can't imagine the mindset that would say Lawrence looks fat in pictures like those, or that her weight should be a cause for concern. I could easily buy her playing Brandi Chastain with that physique.

[Dejana]

Honestly, if it had been a black Harry or Ron I would've looked at it as the sort of raceblind casting that happens in theater, thought, "Good for them!" and gone on my way. But that it's Hermione, with supporting reasoning that the character's physical description was racially ambiguous in the books...oh, I'm sure this is all completely incidental to the criticisms that he original Harry Potter series and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts movie have received about all the major characters being white. For me, "Hermione could be black" goes right along with Rowling's after-the-book revelations that the wizarding world was totes cool with the gays, all the belief systems were represented at Hogwarts, and the Slytherins came back, really...just another attempt to retcon away the criticisms/flaws lobbed toward HP through the years, to make the story seem more inclusive/progressive than what she actually wrote.

 

That Hermione was never described as black in the books is a fairly strong sign that she wasn't. With the white characters, the HP books followed the very non-progressive phenomenon where whiteness didn't have to be stated, because it was the default. There were several black characters in the HP books (Dean, Angelina, Kingsley Shacklebot, Blaise Zabini, son of the black black widow) with race directly mentioned, or strongly alluded to, like a mention of Lee Jordan having dreadlocks. With the Asian characters, the indicators were mostly their names and that these characters with those names had dark/black hair and wore deep colors. Only the most naive and myopic of fans had deluded themselves into thinking Cho Chang was some sort of Nordic goddess (but HP had a very big, very young fanbase, so...).

 

In one of the books, Harry saw Hermione after she'd come back from summer holiday to France and mentally noted how brown her complexion was. I feel that if she'd actually been conceived of as a girl/woman of color by Rowling at the time, this is not something she would have had him think about the character. Not that non-white people don't tan, but having a white person note, "Wow, this brown/black person is looking really brown at the moment!"...too potentially un-PC for a benign kids' book. Also, Rowling released an early sketch she did of the characters from the first book, including Hermione. So, it's not that I have a problem with Stage Hermione being black or Asian or Latina or any other race, but not if it's part of Rowling trying to pat herself on the back for progressiveness, on account of the frizzy-haired white girl she introduced in the 1990s. People always ragged on Emma Watson for being too pretty and posh to play Hermione, but I thought it illustrated how the wizarding world's prejudices were different from ours. Here you had someone who could've been spat out of an English Rose Generator after Kate Winslet or Keira Knightley, yet this is the "impure" one with the questionable heritage in this world. 

 

My main problem with the casting is less about race or even hair color than age. I guess this is set in the future but it's really jarring.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Dejana

[AimingforYoko]

As I've stated in other movie threads, I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino. That said, I can see where people have problems with him.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

In one of the books, Harry saw Hermione after she'd come back from summer holiday to France and mentally noted how brown her complexion was. I feel that if she'd actually been conceived of as a girl/woman of color by Rowling at the time, this is not something she would have had him think about the character. Not that non-white people don't tan, but having a white person note, "Wow, this brown/black person is looking really brown at the moment!"...too potentially un-PC for a benign kids' book..

 

Mean Girls: "Oh, my God, Karen, you can't just ask someone why they're white!"

 

As for the Quentin Tarantino thing, I find it interesting that Spike Lee is/was one of his critics. I've seen Jungle Fever, and I know at least one person who is very annoyed about Chi-Raq due to being a Chicago native and not caring for the possibility that Lee is exploiting a tragedy (the shooting of a local teenager by police), not to mention that he's ripping off Lysistrata.

[raezen]

I saw that the plot was essentially Lysistrata but I thought of it as Lee paying homage. But I don't know anything about Chicago politics and wouldn't be sure about any exploitation on Lee's part there.

Edited December 22, 2015 by raezen

[Epeolatrix]

It's not ripping anyone off to re-imagine a classic story for modern viewers, and tragedy often inspires artists to make art calling for an end to the enabling forces of that tragedy.

[Schweedie]

For me, "Hermione could be black" goes right along with Rowling's after-the-book revelations that the wizarding world was totes cool with the gays, all the belief systems were represented at Hogwarts, and the Slytherins came back, really...just another attempt to retcon away the criticisms/flaws lobbed toward HP through the years, to make the story seem more inclusive/progressive than what she actually wrote.

[...]

My main problem with the casting is less about race or even hair color than age. I guess this is set in the future but it's really jarring.

 

I took Rowling's quote above as her just trying shut down all the people shouting "But Hermione's white!!!" because there really *isn't* anything that says she is. Rowling may well have conceived her as such and criticisms about inclusiveness are totally valid, but there's still nothing in the books that flat out states that she's white. I hope the people throwing a fit about this heard her. 

(And yeah, it does take place something like 20 years in the future - from what I understand, Harry's youngest kid is a main character.)

[Demented Daisy]

Honestly, if it had been a black Harry or Ron I would've looked at it as the sort of raceblind casting that happens in theater, thought, "Good for them!" and gone on my way. But that it's Hermione, with supporting reasoning that the character's physical description was racially ambiguous in the books...oh, I'm sure this is all completely incidental to the criticisms that he original Harry Potter series and the upcoming Fantastic Beasts movie have received about all the major characters being white. For me, "Hermione could be black" goes right along with Rowling's after-the-book revelations that the wizarding world was totes cool with the gays, all the belief systems were represented at Hogwarts, and the Slytherins came back, really...just another attempt to retcon away the criticisms/flaws lobbed toward HP through the years, to make the story seem more inclusive/progressive than what she actually wrote.

 

I tend to agree with you because Rowling did, in fact, once say that Hermione was white.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry is trying to coax Buckbeak into the woods, Harry describes "Hermione's white face peeking out from behind a tree" (chapter 21, if anyone wants to check for themselves).

 

I'm in no position to see the play, so I don't care one way or another.  It was more jarring to me to see Harry with red hair and Ron with brown.  

[blixie]

 

With the white characters, the HP books followed the very non-progressive phenomenon where whiteness didn't have to be stated, because it was the default.

 

I have never read the books, and only seen two or three of the movies, but this is an excellent point. I appreciate that Rowling is encouraging, the elasticity of canon narratives, but as I've said before race/gender blind just make this "generic" (aka default white male straight character, black female gay) type of thing deprives the character and story of specificity, nuance, and dimension.

[PepSinger]

I tend to agree with you because Rowling did, in fact, once say that Hermione was white.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry is trying to coax Buckbeak into the woods, Harry describes "Hermione's white face peeking out from behind a tree" (chapter 21, if anyone wants to check for themselves).

 

I'm in no position to see the play, so I don't care one way or another.  It was more jarring to me to see Harry with red hair and Ron with brown.  

 

I have seen this sentence quoted from the books 1,000 over the Internet. 99.99% of the time, unless the author has a fetish for mentioning the characters' race in the book repeatedly, a "white face" means "scared", "frightened." That would be a basic reading comprehension question on any standardized test: "What does 'white face' mean in this sentence?"

[Demented Daisy]

I have seen this sentence quoted from the books 1,000 over the Internet. 99.99% of the time, unless the author has a fetish for mentioning the characters' race in the book repeatedly, a "white face" means "scared", "frightened." That would be a basic reading comprehension question on any standardized test: "What does 'white face' mean in this sentence?"

 

 

Well, obviously.  But that's not my point.  I was only refuting that Hermione's skin color had never been mentioned in the books.

[Trini]

Cross posting:
 DGA Publishes Inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report....

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) today released its inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report analyzing the gender and ethnicity of feature film directors. Of the 376 directors of features released in 2013 and 2014, just 6.4% were women and just 12.5% were minority directors. A further breakdown by gender and ethnicity follows:

Caucasian males: 82.4%;
Minority males: 11.2%;
Caucasian females: 5.1%; and
Minority females: 1.3%

“What this report does not reflect is what people who love film – even our culture as a whole – are missing when such a disproportionate percentage of films are directed by one gender or one ethnicity. Unfortunately, we don’t have a metric for that.” said DGA President Paris Barclay. “What you will see is what happens when industry employers – studios and production companies – do little to address this issue head on. The DGA, by detailing the state of director hiring with the precision of our data, hopes to draw further attention to this serious matter so that industry employers can develop concrete director diversity plans.”

[Trini]

I thought this was already posted, but I guess not: DGA Publishes Inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report....

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) today released its inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report analyzing the gender and ethnicity of feature film directors. Of the 376 directors of features released in 2013 and 2014, just 6.4% were women and just 12.5% were minority directors. A further breakdown by gender and ethnicity follows:

Caucasian males: 82.4%;

Minority males: 11.2%;

Caucasian females: 5.1%; and

Minority females: 1.3%

“What this report does not reflect is what people who love film – even our culture as a whole – are missing when such a disproportionate percentage of films are directed by one gender or one ethnicity. Unfortunately, we don’t have a metric for that.” said DGA President Paris Barclay. “What you will see is what happens when industry employers – studios and production companies – do little to address this issue head on. The DGA, by detailing the state of director hiring with the precision of our data, hopes to draw further attention to this serious matter so that industry employers can develop concrete director diversity plans.”

I came across this from an animation website, which noted that there have been no (zero!) female directors of major animated films in the past two years. (The last was Frozen, and that was co-directed with a male director.)

[Kel Varnsen]

I thought this was already posted, but I guess not: DGA Publishes Inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report....

 

I came across this from an animation website, which noted that there have been no (zero!) female directors of major animated films in the past two years. (The last was Frozen, and that was co-directed with a male director.)

 

When I hear stats like this I wonder how deep it goes. I work in engineering which is a very male dominated field. It would be easy to say that engineering companies should hire more women, but most people applying for and studying engineering in universities are men. So is it the same thing in movies?  Are people applying and getting into film schools mostly men or is it 50/50 but women graduates aren't getting director jobs?

[Julia]

When I hear stats like this I wonder how deep it goes. I work in engineering which is a very male dominated field. It would be easy to say that engineering companies should hire more women, but most people applying for and studying engineering in universities are men. So is it the same thing in movies?  Are people applying and getting into film schools mostly men or is it 50/50 but women graduates aren't getting director jobs?

 

The people teaching engineering-prep subjects in grades 1-12, the people choosing the students accepted to engineering programs, the people teaching in those programs, and the people who hire graduates have been educated and achieved their own success in an environment where most of their peers were men. Occam's razor suggests that women who feel that engineering is not a realistic option for them - no matter what their aptitude for it might be - are not wrong.  

 

And yes, I think much the same applies to film.

[methodwriter85]

 

I think with Jennifer Lawrence specifically there is the issue of "typecasting yourself out of your own age range".  The more "older" people she plays the less likely the industry will be willing to cast her in roles for her own age.  I think if you asked the general public they would assume that Jennifer is older than her actual age, and plays characters that traditionally would be played by women in their mid-thirties.

 

I think Anne Bancroft said that was what basically happened to her- once she played Mrs. Robinson (and at 36 she was just 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman), she couldn't play younger roles after that. That probably explains why so many actresses try to stick to ingenue roles as long as they can. See: Sarah Jessica Parker making me cringe as she tried to pull off being a peer to Zoey Deschanel in Failure To Launch.

Edited December 29, 2015 by methodwriter85

[raezen]

I think Anne Bancroft said that was what basically happened to her- once she played Mrs. Robinson (and at 36 she was just 6 years older than Dustin Hoffman), she couldn't play younger roles after that. That probably explains why so many actresses try to stick to ingenue roles as long as they can. See: Sarah Jessica Parker making me cringe as she tried to pull off being a peer to Zoey Deschanel in Failure To Launch.

I see this happening to Margot Robbie before Jennifer Lawrence because at least JL interspersed her work playing 16/17 year old Katniss Everdeen and I always found her youthful seeming. Meanwhile when I first saw MR on Pan Am I kept wondering why they cast someone so old to play the younger sister, not realizing she was pretty much the age of the character. JL always looks like a kid to me.

[methodwriter85]

I see this happening to Margot Robbie before Jennifer Lawrence because at least JL interspersed her work playing 16/17 year old Katniss Everdeen and I always found her youthful seeming. Meanwhile when I first saw MR on Pan Am I kept wondering why they cast someone so old to play the younger sister, not realizing she was pretty much the age of the character. JL always looks like a kid to me.

 

There's dispute over Margot Robbie's age. She's likely 30 but pretending to be 25.

 

Lawrence could be lucky and play 30-35 for a looonnnggg time like Sandra Bullock and Julianne Moore did. I always thought the fact that they always seemed about 35 did a lot to help them sustain their longevity.

Edited December 30, 2015 by methodwriter85

[raezen]

There's dispute over Margot Robbie's age. She's likely 30 but pretending to be 25.

 

Lawrence could be lucky and play 30-35 for a looonnnggg time like Sandra Bullock and Julianne Moore did. I always thought the fact that they always seemed about 35 did a lot to help them sustain their longevity.

This tends to be a bigger issue for guys in Hollywood. We have long lists of actresses in there 20's getting the leading lady treatment but not really the guys of the same age. I really wonder what is going to happen to Hutcherson after THG'S because while he's a pretty good actor he's so youthful looking, unless you're still playing teens Hollywood doesn't know what to do with guys like him anymore.

[methodwriter85]

He'll have to wait until he's in his 30's like Joseph Gordon Levitt did.

 

I do think interesting though- men in their 20's are treated like little boys, unless they're ruggedly handsome like Liam Hemsworth. If they're lucky, they can fall into the right role in their 20's that turns them into Leading Men (Tom Cruise with Top Gun, Travolta with Saturday Night Fever), but for the most part, they're like Robbie Amell trying to play 17 in The Duff.

 

Although, technically, Travolta was playing teenagers with both his big movies of 1978. And Tom Cruise did the boyish thing for so long.

 

But it really does feel like in general, men do not get the leading man treatment until they're in their 30's, even at the end of it- see Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt.

Edited December 30, 2015 by methodwriter85

[Cobalt Stargazer]

This tends to be a bigger issue for guys in Hollywood. We have long lists of actresses in there 20's getting the leading lady treatment but not really the guys of the same age.

 

See the eighteen-year-old Chloe Grace Moretz, who hasn't even really gotten started yet, much less headlined her own movie. I definitely think she's talented, and she's probably headed for great things given how level-headed she seems, but age-wise she's still a kid.

[methodwriter85]

She has headlined her own movies. They just haven't done well.

[Cobalt Stargazer]

She has headlined her own movies. They just haven't done well.

 

I dunno about that. She's got more IMDB credits to her name than I'd thought, but of the things I've actually seen her in, only If I Stay was where I'd consider her the lead character. But like I said, she's talented and she's still really young.

[vibeology]

Minority females: 1.3% = Ava DuVerney, right?

 

Obviously I know its more than just her, but based on those numbers, only 4 more. (Please tell me my math is right on that. I've never been amazing at math)

 

How depressing is that?

[VCRTracking]

Hermione played by a black actress in the movies would have definitely made her being called "Mudblood" and discriminated by Purebloods for being "Muggleborn" more interesting on a meta-level.

[Captain Carrot]

The people teaching engineering-prep subjects in grades 1-12, the people choosing the students accepted to engineering programs, the people teaching in those programs, and the people who hire graduates have been educated and achieved their own success in an environment where most of their peers were men. Occam's razor suggests that women who feel that engineering is not a realistic option for them - no matter what their aptitude for it might be - are not wrong.

 

I was (briefly) interested in becoming an architect back in HS. My class had two girls and roughly twenty boys. One day the teacher asked the girls about this, and was told that the guidance counselors had attempted to talk them out of taking the class. (Looking back, I hope he had a discussion about this with the counselors).

 

I have to wonder if something similar happens at the HS or college level when women are interested in film school.

[Ms Blue Jay]

http://www.wmagazine.com/people/celebrities/2016/01/best-performances-hollywood-actors-award-season/

 

What a joke, the W movie magazine issue of the year.  Hahahahah.

 

Out of the 27 people they picked, 3 were not white.

 

Here was a list I compiled in angry rebuttal, of people of colour who had a great year at the movies:

 

John Boyega from Star Wars
Oscar Isaac from Star Wars
Samuel L Jackson, Hateful Eight
Lupita Nyongo from Star Wars -- also a fashion darling.
Michael B. Jordan in Creed - oh just rave reviews for his performance, that's all, plus he's young and fit.
Mindy Kaling was in Inside Out- #7 movie of the year.
Will Smith, Concussion, Focus. He really worked hard on his body for Focus and looked amazing.
Anyone from Straight outta Compton
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Twitch and Donald Glover and Adam Rodriguez from Magic Mike XXL -- why the hell not? It was my favourite movie this year.
Benicio Del Toro - Sicario - rave reviews and a gorgeous hunk of a man

The Rock in San Andreas -- this one I'm iffy on.  Not sure if this movie made a lot of money.  So I checked:

 

Budget - 110 Million.  Box office - 473.8 million.

 

Melissa McCarthy - Spy - I didn't love the movie but apparently others did, for body diversity , also released a fashion line

Edited January 6, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[Trini]

'40 Movies Directed By Women To Look Forward to In 2016'

[SeanC]

I'm interested to see what Ana Lily Amirpour does next.

[Trini]

Variety article on the Oscars White-out.

Black actors, writers, directors and producers were shut out in the top categories once again. Even the Best Original Screenplay nod for the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton” went to a self-described “white Jewish gay guy from Connecticut” and his white writing partner, Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff.

 

Some may conclude that the nominations reflect institutional bias against minorities and women within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, but the problem is with Hollywood’s major studios and agencies. ... Of course, the actual tallies were a fraction of those numbers. Surprising omissions from the actor race this year included Idris Elba for “Beasts of No Nation” and Will Smith for “Concussion.” ...

... Films directed by blacks, Asian-Americans and Hispanics included “Straight Outta Compton,” “Creed,” “Beasts of No Nation,” “The Revenant” and “Chi-raq.” They got some Oscar attention, but the diversity factor overall is still low.

 

The Academy in June invited a record 322 new members, with many reflecting the Academy’s push for greater diversity among its membership. But the current membership — overwhelmingly Caucasian and over-50 — won’t see a fast overhaul soon, due to membership rules. The Academy is an honor society, in which industry experience is the primary consideration to join. Hollywood history has been filled with those demographics, and AMPAS is not about to kick out its current members. ...

Edited January 14, 2016 by Trini

[Ms Blue Jay]

(Curse words)

 

Pissed off to wake up and read about the nominees today.  Buh.  Lack of imagination and colour

Edited January 14, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[SeanC]

The interesting thing is that, looking at the recent history of the Oscars, two years of back-to-back all-white nominees is quite anomalous; and yet, at the same time, the number of nominations in any given year illustrates how slim the difference can be. 2014-2015 is the first time that it has happened since 1997-1998:

2015 - 0

2014 - 0

2013 - 3 (1 win)

2012 - 2

2011 - 3 (1 win)

2010 - 0

2009 - 3 (1 win)

2008 - 2

2007 - 1

2006 - 7 (2 wins)

2005 - 0

2004 - 6 (2 wins)

2003 - 6

2002 - 2

2001 - 4 (2 wins)

2000 - 1 (1 win)

1999 - 1

2003-2006 was a really good period for nomination diversity and wins (though all the wins were for black actors, so a bit less diverse than the nominees).

[Ms Blue Jay]

As soon as I saw the commercials for "Joy" and "The Big Short" I knew that these movies were going to be immensely critically acclaimed.  You don't need to know the subject matter, or even the director, anything like that.  All you need to see is all of the actors' faces.  My joke at the time was that white critics writing their top 10 best lists must be so relieved when these types of movies come out in December.

 

Elle Magazine did something wonderful this month.  5 different cover subjects:  Priyanka Chopra, Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Louis Dreyfus, and Olivia Wilde.  I am swooning.

 

http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/q-and-a/g27531/elle-women-in-tv-2016/

[Ms Blue Jay]

Obviously Black/feminist/minorities Twitter is going off as we were last year too:

 

Filmmaker and Oscar Nominee @LexiAlexander has tweeted about trying to get into the Academy for years and being told that she cannot.

 

She also wants Chris Rock to withdraw from hosting in protest.  Others have tweeted why not all minority presenters too?  Why not?  Also imagine if minorities/females abstain from watching and it's the Lowest Rated Oscars Ever...  of course people will blame Chris Rock for that :)  It's Lose-Lose.  

 

Someone has written up non-white nominees for every acting category.  It's a solid list.  So far my only disagreement is Jada Pinkett from Magic Mike XXL :)  Loved the movie, did not care for her in it.  But hey, there's always WTF nominees that slip in there.

 

http://decider.com/2016/01/14/dear-academy-heres-what-a-completely-nonwhite-set-of-acting-nominees-could-look-like/

 

Article from Harper's Bazaar about Idris Elba versus the white nominees:

 

http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a13697/academy-awards-african-american-actors/

 

Another good summary from Vulture:

 

http://www.vulture.com/2016/01/actors-of-color-were-shut-out-of-oscar-noms.html?mid=facebook_vulture#

 

From Slate, about Creed:

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/01/14/why_creed_s_best_picture_snub_matters.html

Edited January 14, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay

[blixie]

I freaking LOVED Jada I'd have nominated her for sure, I think the lack of Creed/Straight Outta Compton are most egregious given how well received they were both critically/commercially, if you are gonna ignore Carol, the best reviewed film of the year you can ignore The Big Short and Bridge of Spies to make room for some diverse films that were at least as well received as BoS.

Edited January 15, 2016 by blixie

[Ms Blue Jay]

It's almost like the Oscar voters go OUT OF THEIR WAY to nominate white people.  The white writers for Straight Outta Compton (and no one else) were nominated.  Sylvester Stallone was nominated for Creed (and nobody else).  Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for a FOURTH (FOURTH!!!!!!) time by the age of 25.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Ms Blue Jay