representation in your media
#myariel
Anyone who has spent time on the internet in recent years has most definitely come across the hashtag #NotMyAriel. This hashtag sparked heated debates and revolves around Halle Bailey, an African American actress, playing Ariel in the live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid," originally portrayed as a Caucasian mermaid in the animated classic. This casting decision provoked extensive criticism, splitting public opinion and generating heated arguments among netizens. Opposers of the casting choice argued many different stances, from some saying that it strayed from the original portrayal, thus compromising its authenticity, to others resorting to veiled or outright racist comments effectively rage-baiting more netizens to share their opinions.
Amidst these debates among Disney aficionados and various online commentators, one video surfaced, like a diamond amongst coal, bringing to our attention to the opinion that matters the most. This video, featured a young African American girl, who, upon seeing Halle Bailey as Ariel, looked at her mother with awe and asked if the Little Mermaid was "like her." The pure joy and excitement on her face would deeply move any viewer and make their vision blurry.
This heartwarming reaction prompted me to delve deeper into understanding media representation and its importance in our everyday lives. In this blog, I will be discussing two critical scholarly works that help us understand this further. Firstly, "Gender, Race, and Media Representation" by Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert examining how media portrayals reflect and shape societal attitudes toward gender and race. Secondly, "The Beauty Ideal" by Susan L. Bryant, which explores the impact of European beauty standards on Black women in extention, coloured women. Finally I will conclude with some insights from "The Risk of Racial Bias While Tracking Influenza-Related Content on Social Media Using Machine Learning" by Brandon Lwowski and Anthony Rios and my own thoughts.
In "Gender, Race, and Media Representation," Brooks and Hébert analyze the historical context and theoretical frameworks that influence media representations of different genders and races. They theorize that media has traditionally neglected and stereotyped women and people of color, perpetuating existing power structures and providing a restricted, skewed perspective of society. Their research examines how media portrayals can reinforce or challenge socioeconomic inequality. Thiser theoretical approach helps us understand how Halle Bailey's casting disrupts standard stereotypes and provides a more inclusive representation. This not only reflects changing society beliefs, but it also has a significant impact on people's self-image and beauty standards, particularly among young people of colour. Seeing a character like Ariel, who is "like her," would play an important role in boosting a child's self-esteem and feeling of identity.
"The Beauty Ideal" by Susan L. Bryant further illuminates the significance of this casting choice. Bryant explores how European beauty standards have been firmly embedded in our communities, historically excluding and marginalizing Black women. With the further globalization of the world, these standards of beauty have spread across the world, affecting all people and mainly women of colour. Bryant contends that these european norms reinforce a restricted concept of beauty that frequently excludes women of color, leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. By hiring an African American actress as Ariel, Disney not only challenges narrow beauty standards, but also promotes a more inclusive and diversified view of beauty. By changing the definition of who a princess is or who a princess can be, movies like this give young girls around the world a more inclusive and diverse understanding of the world that they live in.
These scholarly insights underscore the transformative power of representation in media. By offering more inclusive portrayals, media can positively influence societal attitudes and individual self-perception, fostering a more equitable and affirming cultural landscape. But representation in mainstream media is largely out of ourthe control of the general public. Most of us (define who this us is) have little influence in who is cast as the next Little Mermaid or in resolving the never-ending controversy over whether actors can be different ethnicities than the characters they play. However, we do have power over our own media, particularly social media.
Our social media apps are created, coded, and structured by human beings and human beings have biases whether known or unknown to them. This leads to social media apps often having biased algorithms and internal codes that influence the content we see during our doom-scrolling sessions. According to "The Risk of Racial Bias While Tracking Influenza-Related Content on Social Media Using Machine Learning" by Brandon Lwowski and Anthony Rios, these algorithms used by several social media apps are designed to track and promote content. Hence, they can favor certain topics or viewpoints while marginalizing others, depending on the data they are trained on. This can result in unequal visibility and engagement for content related to different racial and ethnic groups. This disparity can skew public perception and discussion, reinforcing stereotypes, promoting unhealthy ideals of beauty and perpetuating inequalities in representation and engagement on social media platforms.
The first step to overcome this would be to understand how these platforms work and become more aware. Further, we must make a concerted effort to follow artists and creators that resemble ourselves. Or better yet, in the words of Gandhi “...Be the change you wish to see in the world...” by becoming the creators we want to see by focusing our content on authenticity and self-expression. By curating our social media feeds to include diverse and relevant producers, we can create a more inclusive and happy online atmosphere. Seeing people similar to ourselves helps promote self-confidence by providing relatable role models who reflect our own identities and experiences. This not only validates our individual uniqueness but also challenges harmful beauty standards and stereotypes. As a result, such portrayal might make us feel more comfortable in our own skin, increase our self-esteem, and encourage body positivity. When we all do this on an individual level, we ensure that the algorithm promotes more artists from minority backgrounds, finally giving them an equal platform helping them break stereotypes and encourage a broader knowledge and appreciation for the diverse world we live in. This joint effort can help to create a more fair and inclusive media landscape in which all voices are heard and valued.
Representation in media matters. The hiring of Halle Bailey as Ariel represents a step toward diversity, demonstrating to young girls of color that they can be anything they choose to be. While we cannot control all information, we can influence our social media feeds by promoting different creators. This simple step can help to create a more inclusive and empowered digital world, helping break down stereotypes and boosting self-confidence on a personal level. Let us strive to welcome and appreciate variety in all forms of media and storytelling.
Citations:
Brooks, D., & Hébert, L. (2006). Gender, race, and media representation. In SAGE Publications, Inc. eBooks (pp. 297–318). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412976053.n16
Bryant, S. L. (2019). The Beauty Ideal: The Effects of European Standards of Beauty on Black Women. Columbia Social Work Review, 11(1), 80–91. https://doi.org/10.7916/cswr.v11i1.1933
Lwowski, B., & Rios, A. (2021). The risk of racial bias while tracking influenza-related content on social media using machine learning. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 28(4), 839–849. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocaa326
Alexis Varner. (2022, September 12). Representation matters, Beautiful Black girls reaction to the Little Mermaid trailer [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp4yfmOOv6Q
