Majority Rules

Halle Berry in the widely-panned Catwoman

WHY MINORITY LEADS MAKE NEITHER DOLLARS NOR SENSE IN MAINSTREAM MOVIES

Hollywood is more diverse now than at any other point in history. Even with increasing diversity in mainstream movies, minority characters still appear relatively infrequently, especially in leading roles. Therefore, it is easier to identify minority characters and analyze their roles according to the limited spectrum of minority archetypes (An archetype is a broader character pattern by which individual conduct is classified. Archetypes comprise the following six consistent minority character patterns: Angel, Background Figure, Comic Relief, Menace to Society, Physical Wonder and Utopic Reversal). Yet, identifying White character patterns within mainstream Hollywood, proves a more difficult task since the immense amount of racial capital enjoyed by Whites translates into a much more extensive and complex character range. Nevertheless, this is a necessary task, since the minority archetypes are only part of a larger dynamic that better explains the marginalized status and portrayal of minorities within the Hollywood universe.

A full analysis of minority characters in Hollywood must move beyond the nebulous relationship between minorities and Hollywood and look more closely at the inter-connectedness between Hollywood and the White American experience, which includes their creative and financial control when creating movie images, as well as their role as the ideal and idolized consumers of mainstream Hollywood culture.  Simply studying the dynamic between Hollywood and minorities would be the metaphorical equivalent to learning the phases of the moon by studying only the sun and the moon, as opposed to studying the shared relationship between the sun, moon and planet Earth.  If within our Hollywood “universe,” the heat and intensity of the mainstream spotlight represent the sun, planet Earth represents the large body of “universal” White characters and the moon represents the smaller body of minority characters that revolve around these White characters.   Omitting the Earth from our study of the moon’s phases results in only a partial explanation for the moon’s “appearance and behavior.”  Similarly, studying minorities in Hollywood without studying their relationship to the larger body of White characters would test the bounds of lunacy.

Hollywood’s success can be attributed to the broad and universal themes throughout mainstream movies, and the financial and political marketing muscle that allows these movies to be disseminated around the globe.  Although Hollywood has taken great steps to open its theater doors to audiences of all races, Hollywood has shown a reluctance to channel the movie experience through characters that are not White or do not approach a White ideal (e.g., behaviorally, culturally, aesthetically, etc.).   White characters help glamorize White culture through their ability to master other non-White cultures, while implicitly and explicitly illustrating the (cultural) limitations of those non-Whites who fail to model White culture.  As a direct result, his leaves very little room for minority leads in mainstream movies. Although many wish to dismiss these patterns as atypical of any existing reality, the facts reflect that real minority actors in Hollywood suffer real economic and social consequences from Hollywood’s unwillingness to employ them. Conversely, Hollywood’s exclusive focus on leading White characters reinforces their permanency and importance as central to the American cultural spectrum.