How Media Representation Affects SelfPerception

when i was a little girl i used to love

watching clips of saturday night live

those videos of bill hader seth meyers

kristen wiig and andy sandberg felt like

home to me

but they had no familiarity i know that

doesn’t make any sense so allow me to

explain despite harboring an undying

love for comedy and comedy performance i

never really considered it a viable

career option as a child

never even crossed my mind because i

didn’t see myself represented on screen

i wasn’t afforded

the luxury of dreaming without limits

that most other children were

comedy is already so daunting and out of

reach for the average person

but for an indian girl like me who

doesn’t fit into most standards of

conventional hollywood beauty

it seemed impossible when i was asked

what i wanted to be when i was a little

girl

i used to give the stereotypical answers

that i thought would make the people

around me most happy

doctor engineer entrepreneur when i

briefly expressed an interest in film

school at age 16

my parents were very frank with me

hollywood has no room for people that

look like us

now i want to be extremely clear i don’t

blame my parents

they were just trying to protect me from

what they thought would be certain

failure

they like me didn’t see anyone that

looked like us on an american screen

so it didn’t make sense to them when i

asked to be one of them

my family wasn’t alone in feeling like

our options were limited

across the board academic literature

largely confirms the phenomenon that i

experienced at home

according to a nielsen report that came

out in 2016 the average american

consumes about five

hours and 15 minutes of television per

day

there’s a quote that i feel really

embodies my stance on representation

in media by kelly greenhill of the los

angeles times

she says intentionally or not for better

or for worse

fiction can play a very real role in the

construction of political reality

today i’ll be talking about how media

representation affects self-perception

to prepare for this talk i read a

chapter of the book arabs and muslims in

the media

race and representation after 9 11 in

which the author evelyn alsultani

discusses at length how muslim

representation in the media

directly affected the perception of them

by the general population

the example she gives is the tv show 24

which came

under fire by the council on american

islamic relations

or care for its insensitive portrayal of

muslims as terrorists

in the book she quotes a former army

interrogator who admitted that a lot of

soldiers in iraq

mimicked what they saw on tv by

waterboarding

mock torturing and mock executing iraqi

people

this is a more extreme example but

academic literature

aligns with the notion that people’s

perceptions of humanity

are impacted by media representation in

a study conducted by chapman university

professors reviewed 345 of the most

popular tv shows

and used a multi-level model to measure

racial and ethnic perceptions of white

audiences

results revealed severe

under-representation of latinos

asian-americans and native americans

and a tendency to depict ethnic

minorities stereotypically

black people are portrayed as criminal

and aggressive

latino depictions often revolve around

themes of sexuality

criminality subservience or intellectual

ineptitude there’s so

little representation of asians and

native americans that no conclusive

statement can be made about how their

representation

affects perception the same study found

that positive representation can have

pro-social effects

but only temporarily for example seeing

figures like oprah winfrey or beyonce

can have a short-term positive effect on

the way that people perceive

african-americans this goes to show just

how deeply ingrained negative

perceptions are in our culture

furthermore studies have shown that a

lack of representation has a negative

impact on the mental health of indian

men

and that a lack of representation of

darker skinned women on tv

directly correlates with the increased

popularity of skin lightening creams

i want to take this opportunity to

discuss my own personal experience

though i wanted to write for tv and do

stand up i never saw any other indian

people doing it

i felt like a black sheep all my indian

friends were dead set

on pursuing careers in i.t and medicine

and business but i never really felt a

calling to those professions in the way

that they did

in comedy i found solace i watched

stand-up comedy to forget that i was

totally alone in the world and to find

laughter in my darkest moments

i felt a sort of connection to these

comedians they may not have known who i

was but to me they were my closest

friends

then when i was around 15 i discovered

the tv show totally biased with w kamau

bao

which had two indian correspondents hari

klindabalu and aparna ninterla

both of whom have netflix specials now

seeing them present witty takes and

making audiences laugh felt validating

to me

around this time i developed an affinity

for omar ramen an australian comic who

is also south asian by blood

his spicy hot political takes an open

discussion of racial disparities

comforted me

he did not cater to white audiences he

spoke truth to power

i also became extremely fond of hassan

minaj whose energy captivated his

audiences and compelled them to hang on

to every word

that’s what made me want to be a

stand-up comedian knowing that i could

have that influence on a stage that i

could make people laugh with just a

combination of words

and that my cultural identity wasn’t a

hindrance or a barrier

but a strength it made me feel empowered

on twitter i asked people to tell me

about a time that they felt validated

and represented

on screen and got over 700 responses

a significant part of the representation

discussion is centered around fat people

one respondent on twitter told me that

she was traumatized by the character

fat monica on friends a trauma that she

didn’t fully process and heal from

until she watched aidy bryant’s shrill

which is about a fat woman

in new york city learning to assert

herself amidst the city’s media

environment and ruthless diet culture

i’ve struggled with eating disorders

but this last year i’ve never been more

in love with my body

that’s the power of representation

although more recently

the portrayal of cops in the media has

rightfully come under scrutiny

i still feel like it’s worth mentioning

that another good example of positive

portrayal in television

which is also a personal favorite of

mine is brooklyn nine-nine

brooklyn nine-nine is a comedy show

about a group of ragtag cops

based in brooklyn new york a lot of

people who responded

expressed an affinity for the show

mainly for the careful and empathetic

manner with which it treats

issues like sexuality gun violence and

police brutality one character in

particular

rosa diaz comes out as bisexual this was

met with widespread positive reception

as mainstream television still falters

in terms of bisexual representation

sex education was another one that came

up a lot in the survey

sex education follows otis the

introverted son

of a radically progressive sex therapist

as he sets up an underground

sex therapy clinic for his high school

classmates who have questions they don’t

feel comfortable asking adults

sex education is critically acclaimed

and has been praised for its portrayal

of

sexuality race adoption and so forth

one example that stood out to me

personally was its portrayal of an

indian girl having

pleasurable sex so often in the media

indian girls are portrayed as prude

or nerdy challenging these stereotypes

is paramount to dismantling them

and portraying people as complex

individuals

sex education is unique in that it

doesn’t make teen awkwardness or angst

the punchline

rather portrays it as a natural step in

human development

unlike most other coming-of-age shows

sex education

depicts a wide array of stories across

races sexualities and genders

i could sit here and rattle off good

examples of representation for the rest

of the speech but i won’t do that

rather i would like to talk to you about

what all these examples that i’ve given

to you

and other examples that i have not given

to you have in common

though these examples span a variety of

genres there is one thing that they all

share

and that is compassion compassion for

the self and the issues that they face

not othering because of an obstacle but

empowering through an unchangeable part

of one’s identity

it is the media that molds our value

system so compassion goes a really

really long way

acceptance that everyone would like to

see themselves positively represented on

tv

another thing that all of these have in

common is that the characters in

question undeniably have flaws

character flaws make characters more

accessible and humanize them

these characters should be free to be

flawed without it being reflective of

their whole identity

or the entire community that they belong

to so what is the take away from all

this

the examples that i’ve shared with you

today show the power of letting people

tell their own story or at least

treating the characters that they do

right with empathy and mindfulness

the industry can only change from within

and as we watch the diversification of

television and film

it is important to remember that only

those with power can give a chance

to those who would not get opportunities

otherwise so how can normal people like

you and i prompt change

the answer is actually far simpler than

you think just show up and show out for

the works of art that tell diverse

stories

follow people online who have expressed

a vested interest in pursuing a career

in the entertainment industry

specifically to give

a spotlight to stories that wouldn’t be

told otherwise

watch tv shows and movies with

unconventional lead and ensemble

characters

show the people in power that investing

in diversity will

always pay off on my block a teen

dramedy and netflix original tv show

about a group of kids growing up in

inner city los angeles was the most

binge-watched netflix show in 2018

despite the fact that the streaming

service did not initially give the show

much

advertising support when it premiered

one day at a time

a tv show about a cuban immigrant family

received a score of 100

on rotten tomatoes despite criticism

that it was too politically correct and

divisive

hustlers a movie about strippers who

scammed investment bankers of millions

of dollars had the biggest opening

weekend

for a movie starring women of color the

power of the internet is not to be

underestimated either

the rise of the digital era brings with

it a new platform that is rife with

opportunities

i myself was scouted by a comedy

management team for tv writing because

of my large online following

my good friend aida osman was hired as a

writer for both big mouth

and betty on hbo because the executive

producers of both shows felt

that her online presence fit the voice

of the tv show extremely well

with the power of our voices we can

elevate people and stories that we want

to see the most

and push hollywood in the right

direction so that one day

our children can look on the screen and

see themselves for who they really are

complex and worthy of love regardless of

race gender disability or sexuality

so that one day a little girl like me

doesn’t have to feel weird or out of

place because of her desire to chase her

dreams

thank you

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