Media Representation of Women, Minorities Both Lacking and Inauthentic, Says Survey

“Black Panther,” “Coco,” and “Wonder Woman” are breaking barriers, putting women and minority characters front and center. A new YouGov survey, however, finds that most Americans still believe there are not enough film roles for women and people of color.

The survey of 1,220 adults found that 37% of respondents believed women had enough roles available, just two percentage points more than people who believed blacks had enough parts available. The rate dropped to 23%, 21%, and 18% for those who believed there were enough roles available for Latinos, Asians, and LGBTQ people, respectively.

On-screen representations of minorities, the survey found, are sometimes inauthentic depending on whom you asked. Nearly half of black respondents (46%) said on-screen representation of black characters were inauthentic, about twice the rate of the respondents overall.

Over a third of Latino respondents believed Latino characters are portrayed inauthentically, compared with 26% of respondents overall.

According to the survey, minority filmgoers said characters that resemble them have too little dialogue. Roughly half of black and Latinos surveyed said characters that looked like them didn’t speak enough in movies. That rate grew to 61% for other minorities, including Asian, Middle Eastern, Native American and multi-racial people.

About half of blacks and Latinos also said they didn’t see themselves in positions of authority and instead are relegated to the role of sidekick.

The survey was conducted Feb. 10-12. The full poll results can be found here.