The statistic is a grim indication of Hollywood’s failings in portraying transgender people.
Of the 100 highest-grossing films of 2022, only one represented 80 percent of all transgender characters, a bleak sign of Hollywood’s failure to portray transgender people.
The gay romantic comedy from Universal Pictures siblings There were only four characters who identified as trans. But according to a new report from USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, those four characters made up 80 percent of transgender portrayals in last year’s top 100 movies. Especially the trans characters in siblings, they all played supporting roles.
After diversityThe annual study was developed in 2007, but researchers only began looking at LGBTQ+ representation in 2014. This year’s report examined the portrayal of gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ identities, and disability in 1,600 narrative films released between 2007 and 2022, with a focus on the highest-grossing films of the past year.
According to the report, only five of the 4,169 speaking or naming characters in last year’s top 100 films were transgender. Despite these disappointing stats, the report suggests that 2022 was still a peak for trans representation. It found that of the 900 films surveyed between 2014 and 2022, last year’s films featured more trans characters than any other year. Furthermore, only one of those five characters had “no relevance” to the film’s plot, “an improvement over previous years when all transgender characters were secondary,” the report said.
The report also found that only 2.1% of speaking or named characters in major films in the last year were LGBTQ+, while more than 40% of those characters were “irrelevant” to the films’ stories. Only one character who was “gender-coded and non-binary” appeared in a top-grossing film in 2022. Diversity reported that this character appeared in tar.
The report concluded that LGBTQ+ representation “is lagging behind”.
“For the LGBTQ+ community, 2022 was a year in which little changed on screen. Although there was a numerical increase in LGBTQ+ leads and co-leads, the percentage of LGBTQ-speaking characters remained unchanged. Almost three-quarters of the best films of 2022 didn’t feature any LGBTQ+ characters at all, and that number rose to 84 films by examining how many films didn’t feature LGBTQ+ women. Cinema continues to downplay and marginalize the stories of the LGBTQ+ community, and a change is needed.”
“While some indicators suggest LGBTQ representation is increasing, others suggest little has changed,” he continued. “Over half of the LGBTQ characters were identified as male, and almost two-thirds were white. Few teenage or older characters came out as LGBTQ, and most LGBTQ characters were neither parents nor caregivers. Thus, the image of the LGBTQ community in popular cinema is one that, if it has not lapsed into invisibility, continues to present a portrait of white, male, adult characters. The spectrum of voices from the LGBTQ community continues to be left out in the best films.”
