Millions of Brits feel misrepresented in film culture - due to overused stereotypes

dailystar.co.uk:

Nearly half of British adults feel misrepresented in film culture and struggle to relate to the characters they see on screen – due to overused stereotypes and a lack of diversity, research has found.Nearly a third of film fans (30%) have been left offended by a movie cliché – with 29% even refusing to watch a film due to an offensive or outdated stereotype.The poll of 2,000 adults, under the age of 35, found that over half (57%) felt these tropes are overused in films – such as overly flamboyant LGBTQ+ characters, like Damien in the 2004 hit teen comedy, Mean Girls.The research was commissioned by confectionary brand M&Ms as part of its global “FUNd” initiative, designed to champion diversity and inclusion and create a sense of belonging.Femi Kolade, Head of Studies at London Film School, which is part of the initiative, said: “The mainstream film industry has been dominated for too long by a narrative that excludes so many people’s lived experiences, and reduces all of our specific and vibrant diversity to a few standardised, often negative, and always limited representations of who we are today, who we were yesterday, and who we’ll become in the future.“This must change, and this timely research and this important campaign shows yet again how desperate mainstream audiences are to see that change.”Oversexualised women is the most common stereotype young adults feel they see to much in movies – for example Alice Eve in the first Star Trek reboot film, and 1999 rom-com “She’s All That”, which conveys the message that you have to be attractive to be popular.This was followed by females being depicted as weak or too sensitive, and foreign characters’ broken English used for comedy – such as Sacha Baron Cohen in the Borat.