Representation Research

Representation within Dramas and The Filming Industry...

One strength the drama genre has is that it is one of the best genre in terms of representation. Dramas tend to be about hard hitting or "dramatic topics." Due to this, many stories of unrepresented people, groups, or ideas have been able to come to light. Everything from disability, older age, minority groups, and poverty can be shown through dramas. The wide variety of representation that can be shown is what attracted me to this genre in the first place. I wanted a film that could represent a taboo idea/ group in a different light.

Moonlight (2016)
Represents an individual dealing with his sexuality
 within the black community.

Popular Themes Represented in Dramas

• Mental Illness 
• Social Issues
• Teen issues
• Black Lives Matter
• Different Industries
• Different Jobs
• Sexuality
• Poverty

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)
Represents a mentally impaired child.

Popular Groups Represented in Dramas

• Different Ethnicities/ Races
• Communities
• Countries
• Workers
• Families
• Disabled people
• Different Age Groups
• LGBTQ+ community

What is Lacking?

Despite the large variety of themes/ groups that are represented in Dramas, we cannot ignore that the representation in the film industry is weak. It is obvious that most featured actors/ film workers are the white males. 

Click to enlarge. From Statistica.com.

In recent years we have been seeing more women actresses. In this chart from Statistica.com, the amount of lead roles is shown from 2011-2019 by gender. There is a rise in female leads, however, males still continue to dominate. According to Jamie Doward from The Guardian, male stars earn more than $1 Million more per film than women. Even if a women manages to get a lead role there is great likelihood that she is getting paid less than her male costars. 

Additionally, we see that white people are the most features on the big screen. Unlike gender representation, this ethnicity/ race gap is not to lessening. We often see Hispanics as the least represented group in Film, despite making up a large part of the American population.

Click to enlarge. From thoughtco.com.

Even the lack of diversity is evident behind the scenes with the majority of directors and writers being males. Again the number of women in this field is beginning to rise, however, they face yet another challenge with being respected in the industry. Women are constantly being walked over and losing awards to their male counterparts. Whether infant or behind the screen, women are poorly represented.

Lastly, drama is a genre with more diversity/ representation than the average film. However, it is still clear that some groups continue to be underrepresented in film. Along with Hispanics, groups such as the disabled, mentally ill, LGBTQ+, and so on continue to be poorly represented. Not enough films are being made about these groups/ ideas. The drama genre does contribute to overcome this lack of representation, however, this cannot be said for the film industry as a whole.

Sources:

Cole, Nicki Lisa. “Just How Bad Is Hollywood's Diversity Problem?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 28 Sept. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/diversity-in-hollywood-3026690.

The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/15/hollywoods-gender-pay-gap-revealed-male-stars-earn-1m-more-per-film-than-women.

MasterClass. “10 Classic Movie Themes With Examples - 2020.” MasterClass, MasterClass, 22 Oct. 2019, www.masterclass.com/articles/10-classic-movie-themes-with-examples#10-classic-movie-themes-and-why-they-matter.

Watson, Amy. “Gender Distribution of Lead Actors in Movies in the U.S. 2019.” Statista, 17 Feb. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/692465/distribution-lead-actors-gender/.