Credit: Marvel StudiosAmid the popularity of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, Muslims only make up 1% of television characters, a new report from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative finds. The study’s lead author, Stacy Smith, spoke to Rowaida Abdelaziz from The Huffington Post.
Muslims make up 25% of the global population, but Smith said content creators and casting directors “have no imagination.” Smith’s study analyzed 200 top-rated television shows from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand from 2018 to 2019.
“The global entertainment industry has either sidelined Muslim voices entirely or cast Muslim actors in roles rooted in stereotypes,” Abdelaziz wrote.
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“This is people being lazy with a group of people that routinely are being dehumanized as either perpetrators or victims of violence, or with disparaging comments,” Smith said. She is concerned that these storylines can lead to real-life fear and violence.
87% of shows studied featured no Muslim characters. Out of 8,885 speaking roles, only 98 were Muslim characters. Those Muslim characters were regularly portrayed as foreign or violent, with other characters often using words like “terrorist,” “predator,” and “monster.” 30% of Muslim characters perpetrated violence, and 40% were victims of violence.
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Muslim women most frequently faced violence and distress on screen – though 70% of Muslim characters were men. One of the authors of the study, Al-Baab Khan, explained:
“We didn’t see them really leading their own storylines or showing them in empowering roles — which, again, creates this light that Muslim women cannot be leaders and they cannot be empowered.”
Many Muslim characters were portrayed as Middle Eastern or North African despite being the most ethnically and racially diverse religious group globally. Only 13% of Muslim characters were from majority non-Muslim countries.
Considering the booming popularity of Ms. Marvel and praise for its representation of a Pakistani-American family, it seems audiences are eager for more Muslim representation on screen.
More on Ms. Marvel
Ms. Marvel stars Iman Vellani, Yasmeen Fletcher, Matt Lintz, Fawad Khan, Rish Shah, and Mehwish Hayat. Created by Bisha K. Ali and based on Marvel Comics, the first episode premiered on Disney+ on June 8, 2022. From Disney Plus:
Kamala Khan, a teenager growing up in Jersey City and mega fan of the Avengers, feels a little out of place at school and sometimes even at home. She is determined to attend AvengerCon, even if her parents won’t allow it. But what starts off as a Captain Marvel cosplay competition takes an unexpected turn – is she becoming one of the super heroes she’s always looked up to?
Did you enjoy Ms. Marvel?