THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN THE U.S MEDIA 2015

WOMEN’S MEDIA CENTER
Black males were the most likely to be shown in a committed relationship, at 68.4
percent of all committed male characters.
As another comparison, white males, at 58.1 percent; Hispanic males, at 57.1 percent;
and males of some other race, at 37.5 percent, were the most likely to be depicted
as boyfriends or spouses.
Asian males were the least likely to be depicted in a romantic relationship, and represented
28.6 percent of all males not romantically involved.
50%
Female hypersexuality indicators by race/ethnicity, 2013
Sexualized attire
40
Exposed skin on screen
37.5
36.1
30
32.2 31.9
20
24.6
23.5 23.6
18.2
10
0
White characters Hispanic characters Black characters Asian characters
Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative
Graphic produced by the Women’s Media Center
Regarding who was behind the camera, the report found that:
Of the 107 directors for 2013’s 100 top grossing films, seven of them, or 6.5 percent,
were black. Two of the seven directors worked on more than one film, which meant
there actually were just five different black directors in total.
None of 2013’s top 100 films had a black female director.
Films without a black director awarded 10.8 percent of those movies’ speaking parts
to black characters.
Films with black directors awarded 46 percent of all speaking roles to blacks. That
35.2 percent gap mirrored what happened in prior years.
Character race/ethnicity in top-grossing films 2007-2013
Year White Hispanic Black Asian Other
2007 77.6% 3.3% 13% 3.4% 2.5%
2008 71.2 4.9 13.2 7.1 3.5
2009 76.2 2.8 14.7 4.7 1.5
2010 77.6 3.9 10.3 5 3.3
2012 76.3 4.2 10.8 5 3.6
2013 74.1 4.97 14.1 4.4 2.5
Source: USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative
The Status of Women in the U.S. Media 2015 TOC womensmediacenter.com 37