How have our values shaped Entertainment?

Picture this: You’re scrolling through Netflix looking to kill some time. At this point, you

have already caught up to all your favorite shows and you are desperate to watch something

“new.” Suddenly you find something you would have never considered watching… Something

released before you were even born. As you are watching, you notice things that would never be

okay in television today. There’s racism and sexism and all the “isms.”

What causes entertainment to change and when did it become more couscous? In the article (A

Changing Tide How the Entertainment Industry is Making Waves in the Modern Era,

Pepperdine University) states the following “Entertainment is a Business

While entertainment is considered by many as a form of art (which it is), it’s also a

business….”Diversity provides some of the best opportunities for unique storytelling, especially

as things change. Most everyone enjoys something different from time to time. Sharing unique

stories creatively through entertainment is a fantastic way to bring diversity to the masses while

reminding us that maybe we’re not all that different.”

Ever since I was a kid I have been interested in Entrainment; this is something that has always

fascinated me but as I got older, I could not help to notice especially when watching old media

how white and straight everyone on my screen was. This is something that with time got better as

entertainment got more diverse and accepting.

But it is something that I do not completely understand what caused this shift?

For this we need to take a trip to the past to the first golden age of television (1948-1959).

This era of entertainment was fundamental as it the greatest peak in interest/viewership ever seen

before on Television, one thing you will notice when watching any of this old Tv shows is how

conservative they are, with very old traditional values and gender roles. The old stereotype of the
nuclear family, a married couple and two kids. Usually white and straight. Although this era was

revolutionary for entertainment it was also extremely sexist and racist. Just look at a few ads

from this era.

(1950’s ADS) (YIKES)

In the 1940 movie “Dumbo” before playing the movie in streaming service Disney+ a message

appears on screen warning viewers about the content presented on the film, The movie realized

in 1940 during segregation times in the United States so racist jokes were somewhat common.

(Oxner, Resse. “Disney Warns Viewers of Racism In Some Classic Movies With Strengthened

Label”,npr, October 16,2020, Article.)

“In Dumbo, one of the crows is named Jim Crow, the same name as the set of laws that enforced

segregation …. He is voiced by a white actor and performs a musical number that pays "homage

to racist minstrel shows," Disney says. In the same movie, faceless Black workers are shown

laboring to offensive lyrics like "When we get our pay, we throw our money all away."

Other films of the time were also given the same warning as Dumbo are The Jungle Book, Lady

and the Tramp and Swiss Family Robinson. For making similar racist comments.
 The 80’s were fundamental year in history with the rise of many social movements and

the rise of black public figures. (Contreras, Rusell. “Blackface, other insensitivities ran rampant

in ’80s culture”, The Denver Post, October 12, 2023)

Meanwhile, Chicago elected its first black mayor, Michael Jackson made music history with his

“Thriller” album, U.S. college students protested against South Africa’s racist system of

apartheid and the stereotype-smashing sitcom “The Cosby Show” debuted on network television.

Although a change was started to be made and you could start to see it, it was far from perfect as

racism was still very common.

“The comedy “Soul Man” hit theaters. In the movie, Mark Watson, played by white actor C.

Thomas Howell, takes tanning pills in a larger dose to appear African-American so he can

obtain a scholarship meant for black students at Harvard Law School. The movie drew a strong

reaction from the NAACP and protesters to movie theaters.

Still, “Soul Man” took in around $28 million domestically, equivalent to around $63.5 million

today” But unlike before where people of color would usually have no other option other than

tolerate these comments, they finally had a voice to speak against many injustices. “In 1987,

black demonstrators marched in all-white Forsyth County, Georgia, to protest the racism that

kept blacks out for 75 years. They were promptly attacked by white nationalists hurling rocks

and waving Confederate flags. The shocking images sparked national outrage and led Oprah

Winfrey to air an episode of her then-5-month-old syndicated talk show from the county.

“What are you afraid that black people are going to do?” Winfrey asked the audience.

“I’m afraid of them coming to Forsyth County,” one white man told her. Although still primary

white, you could already start to see a shift in the world with more black public figures and with

more people starting to speak out on injustices causing actual change being made.
(Zaru, Denna/ Brown Lakeia, Hip-hop has been standing up for Black lives for decades: 15

songs and why they matter, abc news, July 12, 2020, Article)

“In the early 1970s when hip-hop was born in the Bronx, New York, poverty and brutality

plagued Black communities, but discussions on race and racism in America were considered

taboo and, in the media, the Black experience was stigmatized and suppressed.”

Detroit rapper and activist Royce da 5'9'' said that amid this void, hip-hop artists in the '80s

"pushed the envelope in terms of exercising their First Amendment right" and became "the voice

of the streets."

The 80’s sexism, while improvement was made in the 80’s with woman having more job

opportunities than ever seen before with magazines showing them working alongside men.
Sexism on film during the 80’s, while progress was definitely being made with the arrival of 2nd

wave feminism. One could still see we had a long way to go especially with how females were

depicted on film.

(Joshi, Anvi. The Changing Times: Sexism in 80s Movies, The Viking Vibe, November 20, 2018,

Article.)

“In Grease, released in 1978, good girl Sandy falls in love with a troublemaker named Danny

during the summer, and they unexpectedly meet again in their high school. From two very

different social cliques, they must navigate their romance while dealing with social pressures

from both sides. However, the conclusion to the movie ends with Sandy giving up her respectable

persona donning leather to, in many opinions, to please Danny.

Not only does this undermine the message that a women does not need a man to be happy or

successful, arguably promoting misogyny, it also changes the view most schools and parents try

to give teens; that you should stay true to yourself” This in my opinion shows how films even

one’s aim towards a female audience like Grease still have this mentality that the woman should

give up everything just to satisfy the needs of a man. Movies back then also depicted sexual

abuse like if it was not a morally wrong thing to do or as if it was something so common or the

woman’s fault for provoking the man. “In the movie Revenge of the Nerds, which celebrated

geeks getting back at those more popular than them, the cruel high school jock and prom queen

stereotypes, by implementing cameras in the girls’ dorms, stealing their underwear, and even

tricking one girl into having sex according to IMDB”.

“The worst part is that the viewer is supposed to root for these boys, as they do not embody the

same behavior as the jock stereotype and are the underdogs of the film. However, the movie and

the boys’ behavior highlight the fact that sexism can come in many different forms, and from
many different types of people.” In Sixteen Candles, Caroline’s rape is presented as her fault —

and as funny. In the moral universe of Sixteen Candles, Jake is allowed to be callous to Caroline

without losing his dream boy status because, Sixteen Candles briskly assures us, Caroline is not

the right kind of girl.”

90’s and 2000’s at this point we would se an increase of feminism in pop culture with many

shows and public figures at the time fully embracing being feminist and being modern and

forward. With shows like “Sex and the City”, “Friends”, “will and grace” being key examples of

this mindset of the time but like at this point you have probably noticed even though yes, there

was an improving there was still issues specifically with how media treated female celebrities at

the time being extremely overcritical and sometimes straight up invasive. Why was the media

like this? (Grady, Constance, The bubblegum misogyny of 2000s pop culture, May 25, 2021,

Article.)

“We were postfeminist: Women had already achieved equality and had become butt-kickers with

girl power, and there was nothing left to complain about. We were in the midst of raunch culture,

and it was important to be tanned and sexy and taut and down for anything. We were entering

the Bush-era purity ring years, when virginity would be held up as a prize to be fetishized and

evaluated. Even though people at the time consider that feminism was at an all-time high they

did not notice the internalized misogyny they had, with old values, expectations, and mindset

that wanted to please the man.

“In the early 2000s and in the ’90s, whenever someone on TV asked Britney if she was a virgin,

or about her breasts when she was a teenager, it was just on TV and we consumed it. Then it
went away,” Stark says. “There was no way to immediately comment on it like there is today.

Today if that happened, within five minutes it would be up on social media.”

90’s and 00’s we got the popularization of rap and Hip Hop which brought black rappers to the

mainstream from Jay Z to Kanye West, we also got an Increase of Black Directors and Actors,

overall, one can say at this point people of color were already well established and loved by the

public. But that is without saying that there was still a lot of racism going on at the time.

(Ugwu, Reggie, ‘They Set Us Up to Fail’: Black Directors of the ’90s Speak Out, The New York

Times, July 3, 2019.)

“I was told that I was in director’s jail,” said Matty Rich, whose emotionally incendiary 1991

debut film, “Straight Out of Brooklyn,” won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival

that year. Major film studios hailed him as a prodigy. But he’s made only one other film since —

in 1994.” This shows how even though this black director was acclaimed and got the recognition

he deserves for a groundbreaking film he was not given any more opportunities to make more

films unlike his white contemporaries. Darnell Martin, who’s vibrant 1994 romantic comedy “I

Like It Like That” was the first studio-produced film to be directed by an African American

woman (it won the New York Film Critics Circle award for best first feature), said she was later

blacklisted in the industry for speaking out against racism and misogyny.

“You think, ‘It’s O.K. — you’re like every other filmmaker,’ but then you realize, ‘No,’” she

said. “It’s like they set us up to fail — all they wanted was to be able to pat themselves on the

back like they did something.” Director expresses how she was blacklisted after speaking her

thoughts, this causes her to notice the industry and how they do not really care about creating

solutions to a problem rather they only want to pretend they care about the issues.
2010’s-Present day

(Grady, Constance, The bubblegum misogyny of 2000s pop culture, May 25, 2021, Article.)

“Criticizing the ugly politics of yesterday is a lot easier than identifying the ugly politics of

today” The introduction of social media really changed the way we interact with

One would think because it’s the present day everything is perfect, and we have found the

solution to every single social problem but if you have a phone and constantly active online you

know that is not the case.

(Wilson, Josh, How Is Hollywood’s Performance in Diversity and Inclusion In 2022

Forbes, April 22, 2022)

“It’s no secret that Hollywood has had a noticeable problem with diversity and inclusion for

many years. Things seemed to be progressively improving until 2015 and 2016 when people

realised there were no non-white individuals nominated for the 20 acting categories at the

Academy Awards and the hashtag #Oscarssowhite began to trend.”

In 2016 all main acting categories nominated were white is something completely ridiculous and

just shows how even in the modern era yes there is still racism.

Another very recent event when Harvey Weinstein was arrested in May of 2018 for several

accusations of sexual assault and rape. This caused the Me-Too movement. To me is very

unbelievable how he got away with so much before his arrest, and what I found even harder to

believe recent his arrest date is. “The #MeToo movement, which started in Hollywood but has

now shifted to affect numerous industries and fields unrelated to moviemaking.”

“It should be a reminder to HR departments that sexual harassment and discrimination should

be taken seriously from the very start. Training employees to recognize, report, and

appropriately respond to sexual harassment accusations can prevent lawsuits, scandals, and
public relations crises. More importantly, doing these things makes the workplace safer for

everyone.”

Part 2.

Although yes, change has been made we very clearly still have a long way to go. While

writing the first half of my paper I could not help wondering what the state of entertainment is

currently? and What do people my age think about diversity in entertainment? So, I decided to

do a survey around the UTRGV campus (18rs old- 25yrs old).

My survey consisted of 9 questions. Answered by 30 people (13 male/17 Female)

people agreed that diversity has improved. But there a couple of people that feel like there is no

improvement.

For this question I should add that most of the people I interviewed were people of color, as in

UTRGV is in a very Latino filled population, which was perfect. Most of them said yes, which
surprised me, but you can already start to see an argument building up as a big portion of people

said no.

For this question I wanted to confirm something I already knew because I myself have caught

myself watching so something I think is very problematic in a modern show. And most people I

surveyed agreed.
My intentions when asking this question came from a place of serious confusion, while

researching I found that a lot of people seriously think that diversity in entertainment is not an

issue anymore, and that people are just complaining about nothing. But when asked this to most

people of color most of them said yes.

This question was the one I was the most excited to see the results of, because it was something

that I really was curious to find out. Do people care about problems even if they do not directly

affect them? Most of them said yes but when I asked the last three direct questions a lot of them

put the I don’t care option. Which is very weird, but I think this at least people are conscious

about diversity problems, it’s just some do not care if it does not directly affect them.
Finally, the last three questions that I was the surest would be very divisive depending on

everyone’s opinion.

For this one I was surprised because most of the people that did my survey were woman. And

some of them still chose the I don’t care option. As you can see 10% of the people, I interviewed

chose mad which makes me wonder what makes them feel this was is it overexposure?
Most people chose happy, which again does not surprise me because most people I interviewed

were people of color, a bunch of them chose I don’t care which is surprising as it something I

think it would directly affect them. And a tiny portion chose mad which at this point I do not

understand why as it really does not affect them in anything.

Finally, we have LGBTQ+ which was the one that had the most who chose the mad option, I

think this is the most modern issue as people these days tackle new things such as sexual identity

and gender identity. Most people with religious and conservative backgrounds usually go face to

face with people with these ideologies. But for the most part this generation chose happy which

means most of them support or are in favor of this ideologies.

entertainment. With the first part of my essay, we saw how slowly things started to change all

around, with the movements and people fighting to get their voices heard. With this second part I

found out that yes, a change is being made with each generation as our views about problems

change and we start to question previous generations ideas.

Although better there is still a long way to go. What happen in 2016 Oscars with the all-

white nominees and how long it took to get justice to all the victims of Harvey Weinstein is

unbelievable how recent all of that it. Not only that some of the responses of my fellow

classmates with them simply not caring or straight up getting mad when presented with some of

these ideas. Yes, they might be overused and forced in some media, and I agree they could be

done with more grace to get a point across. But remember all these injustices are still happening

and that is why it is important to get diversity in entertainment. So, let’s not forget the past as we

shape the future.

A changing tide how the entertainment industry is making waves in the modern era (no date) A

Changing Tide – How the Entertainment Industry is Making Waves in the Modern Era |

Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Available at:

https://bschool.pepperdine.edu/blog/posts/entertainment-industry-trends-2022.htm (Accessed: 03

November 2023).

Oxner, R. (2020) Disney warns viewers of racism in some classic movies with strengthened label,

NPR. Available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/

2020/10/16/924540535/disney-warns-viewers-of-racism-in-some-classic-movies-with-

strengthened-label (Accessed: 03 November 2023).

Contreras, R. and Press, T.A. (2019) Blackface, other insensitivities ran rampant in ’80s culture,

The Denver Post. Available at: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/02/10/blackface-virginia-

politicians-racism/ (Accessed: 03 November 2023).

they matter. Available at: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hip-hop-standing-black-lives-

decades-15-songs/story?id=71195591 (Accessed: 03 November 2023).

Joshi, A. (2018) The changing times: Sexism in 80s movies, The Changing Times: Sexism in 80s

Movies. Available at: https://www.vikingvibe.com/post/the-changing-times-sexism-in-80s-

movies (Accessed: 03 November 2023).

Grady, C. (2021). Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Whitney Houston: The bubblegum misogyny

of the 2000s. Vox. https://www.vox.com/culture/22350286/2000s-pop-culture-misogyny-britney-

spears-janet-jackson-whitney-houston-monica-lewinsky

Ugwu, R. (2019). “they set us up to fail”: Black directors of the ’90s speak out. The New York

Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/movies/black-directors-1990s.html

Wilson, J. (2022). How is Hollywood’s performance in Diversity and inclusion in 2022? Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshwilson/2022/04/22/how-is-hollywoods-performance-in-

diversity-and-inclusion-in-2022/?sh=63e08a4b5b51