It was recently announced that the thirteenth iteration of the main character in Doctor Who will be played by Jodie Whittaker. A woman.
In 2017, the casting of a white woman in a major TV role is hardly revolutionary, except that the role is the Doctor, a regenerative alien who can take on the appearance of anyone, but has for 12 iterations tended towards the persona of a quirky British white man.
The backlash to the announcement was as inevitable as it was predictable. The complaints echo the same type of comments made about Mad Max: Fury Road or the most recent Ghostbusters. Complaints of media becoming too ‘politically-correct’ and that minorities are somehow ruining or taking over franchises.
With the push for diversity in media, you make understand how to some that would feel like the case. Statistically, we know that isn’t true. While the diversity is film and TV is increasing, we are far from parity. A UCLA study showed that in Hollywood just one third of speaking characters are women and 75 per cent of crew members in American blockbuster films are male. And according to Screen Australia, only 18 per cent of Australian main characters onscreen and 12 per cent of people working in film are of not of European or Anglo-Celtic decent.
So despite the focus on diversity recently, why is there still such media imbalance? Part of this problem is systemic as its hard to break a homogeny to hire more diverse content creators and film producers. There needs to be more awareness of the bias in hiring and a willingness a chance on diverse creatives. At the beginning of the pipeline, film and television schools need to provide opportunities for diverse students. Australia has a relatively a small screen industry and with the arts are getting less and less funding, this only fuels the justification to make ‘safe’ and conservative choices in film production.
But the old adage about diversity being so niche it’s doomed to failure doesn’t seem to ring true. Films and TV shows with diverse casts have had a track record of commercial and critical success. Wonder Woman has far surpassed every other DC film in profit and Get Out, a horror film focused on race in America, made 4.5 million in the Australian box office. The Australian TV show Cleverman has been a international hit. In an increasingly diverse Australia, it’s evident that we want media to reflect the reality of the world we live in.
To be able to see representations of people like you within the media can seem like a small thing, but on an individual level the impact can be huge. My most recent example: I’ve watched most of the DC and Marvel offerings with varying levels of enthusiasm. When I watched Wonder Woman, however, it was something different. At the first real action scene, where the Amazons are fighting the Germans –– I started to cry. Nothing particularly sad was happening yet, but tears were coming anyway. Watching these women fight onscreen, I felt the strangest sense of relief. Like finally lying down after standing for so long that you had became numb to the pain.
My reaction actually wasn’t all that uncommon. Many women reported how they cried while watching the action scenes in Wonder Woman. Perhaps it’s indicative of just how starved we felt for superhero stories that centre around female experiences. Or even just non-sexualised female heroism in the action genre.
"Media acts as a reflection and confirmation of our own reality –– we are affirmed when we see experiences like our own on the screen."
Media acts as a reflection and confirmation of our own reality –– we are affirmed when we see experiences like our own on the screen, which can be so important for minority people. But engaging with stories is an exercise in empathy and we all benefit when we broaden our perspectives.
As consumers, with the all the different ways television and film are available to us, we can make the choice to watch more diverse media. Read reviews from different sources and non-traditional media outlets that emphasise diversity. Try to switch up your cinema outing with a diverse film. And support the diverse media you already do watch by recommending it to friends or posting about it online.
We shouldn’t have more diversity in media because it’s the right thing to do—though it is—but because when there are so many different ways to be human, only telling a fraction of those stories limits us all. To get down to the crux of it, having diversity in media isn’t political correctness ‘gone mad’, it’s just good storytelling.
Neve Mahoney is a student at RMIT university. She has also contributed to Australian Catholics and The Big Issue.