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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