Including and excluding: Identities in Netflix and cinema
THERE is a study that is appropriate for this month of March, Women’s Month. It is called “Inclusion in Netflix Original US Scripted Films and Series.” The study is a compendium of results of a study done by Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which looks into the diversity of its original content. The think tank, one of the leading institutions in the world, was commissioned to study diversity and inclusion in entertainment through a benchmarking study of Netflix’s original, Englishlanguage series and film titles originating in the US from January 2018 to December 2019.
The purpose of the paper is to present an overview of inclusion on-screen of several variables, like gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ, and disabilities. The study is interested as well with the participation behind the camera of directors, editors, producers correlated with the aforementioned variables.
According to Netflix, it decided to share the results with the public to show “how they have embraced and observed diversity across the shows they produce in the US, while being streamed globally.” With the evaluation done over time, from 2018 to 2019, and against industry metrics, the study is expected to demonstrate how Netflix has made advances in representation year-over-year, and how they can further such advancements in their future films and series. From the company, some highlights were underscored. one says better representation on-screen begins with better representation behind the camera and in entertainment companies. In one of the details of the study, a female director means a significant number of women presence in the film or series. Netflix claims it has made some progress on representation in front and behind the camera but, the company admits, it can do better.
The report shows that Netflix has made significant inroads insofar as enabling female and Black representation. Still, from that point, the company also states that it has a long way to go with the representation of other underrepresented communities, for example, Latinx and people with disabilities.
Another interesting highlight of the study is on how more audiences clamor to see their lives and cultures reflected on screen. From the perspective of other companies that do streaming, this point is important to emphasize. The fact is people do not only watch films to be entertained but also to get a sense of belonging, to find significant spaces in which they can be empathetic and understanding.
To make these claims is good enough but to move for a call to action makes the study heartwarming. Netflix stresses how it sees the need to bring what it calls “inclusion lens” to their work. To effect this, Netflix points to an action of “asking whose voices are missing, embracing difference, understanding our biases, and recognizing that great stories are universal. They can come from anywhere and anyone, irrespective of their gender, sexuality or ethnicity, and be loved everywhere.”
To better appreciate the results of the study, Netflix sent data points, namely:
■ Across 22 inclusion indicators analyzed for film and series, 19 showed an improvement year-overyear, pointing to a Netflix commitment to increase inclusion in content.
■ Overall, 31.9 percent of all leads/coleads were from an underrepresented racial ethnic group across the Netflix content evaluated.
■ There was a notable uptick from 2018 to 2019 of leads/coleads from underrepresented communities in both film and series. The change over time meant that Netflix films and series were close to reaching proportional representation to the US population for leads in 2019.
■ Black leads/coleads and main cast overall were proportional to the population. The percentage of Black leads/coleads in film and Black leads/coleads and main cast in series increased significantly from 2018 to 2019.
■ 52 percent of films and series had girls/women as leads/coleads.
■ 2.3 percent of leads and coleads across film and series were LGBTQ. As for the main cast of films and series, of the 2,419 main casts in Netflix films and series, 5.3 percent were LGBTQ.
■ There were 14 Asian communities represented in Netflix films and series.
■ 4 percent of all stories were led or co-led by Asian protagonists and 7 percent of the main cast were Asian, with no significant differences over time. Furthermore, more Asian main cast roles were held by girls and women (57.5 percent) than boys and men (42.5 percent).
This study is a good start and it behooves local companies to take the initiative to do similar studies. This suggestion is crucial if one considers that many of the so-called BL films are being streamed by varied companies. While in the fantasy world of boys finding romance with other boys, perfection and love are attained by the creation of a world that allows the once-forbidden emotion to run unimpeded as if our barangays have been transformed into wildly scented plantations of frangipanis and fire trees threatening to burn the world at any given time, let the cautionary and critical not be missed. How many caricatures are grossly maintained of gay males if only to push the agenda that only eye candies have the right to love? how are women depicted in these tales of lost boys, to borrow a phrase from Jay Altarejos? What erasures and cancellations of identities are achieved? What lies are further made to the point of desexualizing characters or making them irrevocably, unrealistically innocent for the moralists to approve? ■