Gender Letter: Hollywood Is as White, Straight and Male as Ever

Gender Letter is a weekly take on news and culture. Tell me what you think at dearmaya@nytimes.com.

Psst, Hollywood. I really think you want me on your side. I’m an entertainment junkie, and always have been. My free moments are spent shamelessly bingeing movies and oh-so-many shows. As a child in the 1980s and ’90s, I would watch and rewatch everything available to me until I swear I reached the entertainment event horizon.

As a journalist, I reported on entertainment news for years. I know my stuff, and I assure you, Hollywood, I’m growing pickier by the day.

Since the veil fell on the epidemic of sexual misconduct in the industry — starting with the unraveling of Harvey Weinstein last fall and most recently with accusations of misconduct leveled at Les Moonves, the C.E.O. of CBS — I’ve been thinking ever more critically about the entertainment I choose to consume, mindfully putting my money, my time and my enthusiasm where my mouth is. And my mouth is attached to a gay woman of color.

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But according to a new report from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who is like me or looks like me in most Hollywood films, in front of or behind the camera.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/arts/hollywood-movies-diversity.html?partner=rss&emc=rss